It was probably a good decision to move all 24 teachers at West Valley Elementary to other schools

This story is updated HERE.

Maura Larkins: In my experience some schools have serious problems behind the scenes that are caused by teachers who appear to be sweet and caring.  Often these teachers have won "teacher of the year" awards. I taught at two such schools in the 90s/early 00s: Harborside and Castle Park in Chula Vista Elementary School District.

All the teachers at Harborside Elementary were transferred out a few years later.

The same thing should have been done at Castle Park Elementary, but instead Superintendent Libia Gil, and Assistant Superintendents Richard Werlin, Dennis Doyle, Lowell Billings and Maria Guasp allowed themselves to be led by the nose by the teachers who controlled the school.  The school had 11 principals in 11 years.  Finally a few teachers, dubbed the "Castle Park Five", were transferred out in 2004.

All 24 teachers at West Valley Elementary will be moved to other schools, district says By Kristi Myllenbeck and Matt Wilson Mercury News 06/19/2015  In a stunning move, the Cupertino Union School District announced late Wednesday night that all 24 teachers at West Valley Elementary School will be reassigned to other district campuses. As a result, the high-performing Sunnyvale school will open in the fall with an entirely new roster of teachers as well as a new principal. The district and the Cupertino Education Association agreed Wednesday evening to start with a fresh slate at West Valley, which by the district superintendent's own admission was rife with tension for a long time. West Valley teachers were alerted via email Wednesday night of the decision; included in the message was an attachment of a memorandum of understanding jointly crafted by the district and union. The latest development came as a surprise to teachers and parents, who had been told at a community meeting Monday that West Valley teachers would have to reapply for their jobs; they weren't told that the teachers would necessarily be sent to other schools. Union president Dave Villafana said the decision to reassign everyone at West Valley stemmed from a desire to protect teachers from feeling singled out if moved elsewhere. "We were looking at a fair process of how you would elect the teachers that would stay (at West Valley) and the teachers that would leave," he said. "The fair process would be to move everybody and we agreed with that." The Cupertino Education Association would not have been involved in the rehiring process but wanted to avoid any fairness or perception issues." "[Teachers would be asking], 'why did I get moved and somebody else didn't? And what criteria did you use?' " Villafana said. "We're trying to protect all the teachers when it comes to that." The memorandum asks West Valley teachers to indicate the schools and grade levels they prefer for the upcoming school year, which begins in August. It also states that special education resource specialists, speech language pathologists, psychologists, nurses, fourth- and fifth-grade physical education teachers and music teachers are exempt from relocation. It remains unclear what specific event or series of events at the school resulted in the apparent turmoil. The district, citing legal reasons, said it won't release details about individual personnel or specific incidents. But on Thursday, Superintendent Wendy Gudalewicz sent out a letter to school parents elaborating on some of the issues that sparked the dramatic changes. "There has been a great deal of tension at West Valley among and between teachers, support staff, parents, and administration," Gudalewicz states in the letter. "If you and your family did not experience or were unaware of this tension--that's a good thing." Gudalewicz adds that the group dynamic at West Valley created "a culture that was not serving educational needs" and that the district's decision to break up the faculty was "not taken lightly." The letter confirms that a number of measures were taken to try to deal with issues that appear to have been simmering even before this school year. "Multiple interventions took place throughout the year," Gudalewicz states in the letter. "A new principal was put in place at the beginning of the year. District level union leadership talked with staff. An all-day session with a facilitator took place at the end of the year to access the school climate. At this meeting it became clear that progress was minimal and internal change seemed unlikely." Teachers were first alerted to the campus shakeup the last day of school June 11 when teachers were informed by district administrators during a staff meeting that they would have to reapply for their current jobs.  Read more, including promotions for principals, here: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_28341929/all-24-teachers-at-west-valley-elementary-will Wesley Stace's Cabinet of Wonders: The podcast http://www.salon.com/2015/05/21/cabinet_of_wonders_the_podcast_april_1_2/

Voice of San Diego discussion on teacher evaluations

I agree with much of what Heather Poland says in the comments section of yesterday's Voice of San Diego article, but I have to agree with Sherry S. regarding teacher evaluations.  Too many students are failing; something needs to be done. I am appalled by teacher union complacency with the status quo.

Heather says, "We already DO evaluate teachers. It is not a perfect measure, I don't think anything could be..."

Not perfect?  It's a complete joke!   Of course nothing can be perfect.  That's no excuse for maintaining the current failed system. 

Teacher evaluations could easily be much more effective. 

We could start with the obvious: observations by unbiased observers instead of, or in addition to, principals.

Most principals don’t even bother to observe teachers, and why should they?  Few principals have the skills or inclination to work closely with teachers who aren’t part of the clique that controls their school.  

Heather Poland describes the situation accurately: “We have seen how some principals just want teachers who are quiet and do what they say, regardless of their teaching ability. We have also seen great teachers who are also outspoken, be targets.”

And I think student scores should be part of teacher evaluations.  I think teachers should be given more credit for improving the scores of poor kids than for improving the scores of rich kids.

I agree with Heather that teachers should be paid more. At least, the best teachers should be paid more—lots more, maybe twice as much as a regular teacher.  And I don't even think that the less competent teachers should be fired.  The best teachers should be teaching most of the lessons in ALL of the classrooms—but they don’t have to stay all day in one classroom. Less competent teachers could be doing reinforcement of lessons and other activities that they are perfectly well-equipped to handle.

P.S. Regarding school uniforms: 

At my elementary school, children were required to wear black leather-soled shoes. It was a disaster during physical education class and recess. Those poor kids slipped and slid on the asphalt. It was much better when they just wore sneakers to school. But only the ruling clique of teachers had any input on how our school was run, so the problem never got fixed. 

The Learning Curve: Dressing for Success

Mario Koran 

Voice of San Diego

April 16, 2015

...Comments...

Heather Poland

I agree that an unbiased third party should be involved in evaluating teachers. The system now is not a joke, it can work well, but it is up to the principal to make it work. I would like specifics on just how it is a joke? I'm not sure the general public actually understands what goes into the evaluation?

I disagree that most principals do not observe teachers. They do. Yes, some more than others, but they do. Also not every site has a clique that "controls the school". Some schools do have dysfunctional climates, and that definitely needs to be addressed.

How do you know students are failing? There is a big misconception about this...

If you are going to compare country rankings, well, most countries don't educate every single person, like we do. Most western countries also don't have the poverty we do. When you control for poverty, we are actually at the top.



Maura Larkins

Heather, you say that the current teacher evaluation system "can work well", but that it is up to the principal to make it work.

Well, then, Heather, if it only works when there's a good principal to make it work, it doesn't really matter what the system is, does it?  It only matters who the principal is.

You say, "I'm not sure the general public actually understands what goes into the evaluation." 

You yourself already pointed out that principals can be very arbitrary in their evaluations.  So, again, it all depends on the principal, doesn't it?

Also, you say that principals DO observe teachers.
I assure you, Heather, that you are just plain wrong about this.  Many principals don't do observations.  I have gone years without having a principal do an observation, and so have many other teachers.
Of course not all schools are run by teacher cliques.  But when they are, obviously, the principals work with those cliques.  I stand by my statement that few principals have the skills or inclination to work with ALL the teachers in their school.  Of course, even the principals who aren't interested in what is going on in each classroom are plenty interested in the teachers who are part of any clique that might be running their school.

You write, "How do you know students are failing? There is a big misconception about this." You're joking, right, Heather? You think it's acceptable that our colleges have to teach remedial math and reading and writing to the graduates we produce? You think our drop-out rate is acceptable? You make clear that you think we shouldn't be expected to educate poor kids because some other countries don't.  But we're the richest country in the world!  It's not okay that we're creating an  underclass in an economy where employers require more and more education.

Here's a related story from the San Diego Reader:

There won't be a test and there will be a party By Susan Luzzaro March 6, 2015

...Kristin Phatak and Heather Poland, educators and parents who believe that students lose too much class time on test preparation and test taking, hosted the party to encourage parents to opt their kids out of standardized tests.

Heather Poland has two children who attend a local elementary school. She teaches in San Diego Unified School District, is an administrator for a national teachers’ association called BATS, and a California contact for the national United Opt Out group.

Poland said she administered a field test for the new standardized test last year. 

“My students struggled with this test,” said Poland. “One reason was because it’s online and they didn’t have pencil and paper to write things down. Many of them had trouble with the keyboard. The instructions were fairly complicated and even more so for English language learners…. The test will be graded on a curve, which condemns many students to fail.” ...

[Maura Larkins comment: Grading on a curve only condemns students to fail if they perform significantly worse than average. By definition, grading on a curve PREVENTS the majority of students from failing.

You imply that most of your students had trouble with this test so it would seem that almost ALL of them might fail if the test weren't graded on a curve.  

Are you saying that you think that the very lowest students should pass?  Why? Why would you say that?  You want a test that kids can pass whether or not they have mastered the skills being tested?]

Susan Luzzaro March 8, 2015 @ 10:29 a.m.

...[Heather Poland] said, "I've always incorporated critical thinking into my classroom."



Here's another thread from the Voice of San Diego comments:


George Sheridan

 

San Diego Unified has much more money this year than anytime in the last several years. And it will have more money again next year and the year after. It's true that state funding of schools in California is significantly lower than in most other states. It's also true that we have significant challenges with high rates of poverty and high numbers of students learning English as a second language - factors that have a major impact on student achievement. But more money than last year means the district does not have to cut existing programs to fund raises which are long overdue.

Merit pay for teachers is not an original idea. It has been tried repeatedly over the last fifty years, and it has never worked. Of course it is subject to cronyism. Of course test scores are a terrible measure of teacher quality. But the biggest reason is that good teachers are not motivated primarily by money. Teachers want to be paid fairly. But there are very few teachers who would - or could - work harder or give students more one-on-one attention in exchange for higher pay. The average teacher now is working more than fifty hours per week.

There is no secret sauce for improving education. But everyone knows what good schools look like. We need to make sure all our students have access to the resources typical in the best schools, including fully staffed libraries, art and music and drama and career education and classes small enough for one-on-one attention. Really good schools work, not only because they have the resources to provide opportunity for all, but also because the educators work as a team. Merit pay is destructive of that necessary collaboration.


Maura Larkins

There are two obvious ways to combat cronyism  in teacher evaluations: use unbiased outsiders to do observations, and use student standardized test scores.
Test scores aren't a perfect measurement, but they are surely not affected by cronyism.  Over a period of years, student scores are a reliable measure of teacher effectiveness.  And the top 15% of teachers can be revealed even more quickly by student test scores: their students are consistent year after year.

Studies have shown that graduates of the best colleges have been shying away from the education field more and more over the past few decades.  As other fields open up, more women are choosing to become doctors and lawyers and executives, etc.  We need to bring some of these women back to teaching, and high pay--equivalent to the pay of those careers I just mentioned--would likely lure some excellent candidates to the teaching profession.

There are huge differences between teachers.  Some are much, much better teachers than others.  They should NOT be paid the same.  We should institute effective teacher evaluations for many reasons, such as identifying which teachers should be given extra help.  The best teachers should be utilized differently from mediocre teachers: they should be teaching more of the lessons and doing fewer of the activities that can be handled by their  less-skilled colleagues.


George Sheridan

 Almost everyone would like a better teacher evaluation system. The California Teachers Association has proposed what Professor Linda Darling-Hammond says would be the best system in the country. It would focus on formative assessment (the kind that says "Here's how you can improve") and would include peer observation and feedback. Obviously this won't work if people's pay is tied to those evaluations.

Your statement about test scores over a period of years is not supported by data. The best predictor of student test scores is the zip code where the students live.

Even in a given school, teachers do not usually have comparable classes. The best and most dedicated teachers often are assigned or volunteer to teach the most difficult students. As a result, their test scores may be lower than those of other teachers. In the same way, the very best hospitals often have the highest mortality rates, because they treat the sickest patients.

The psychometricians who design these tests caution that they are not valid and reliable for purposes of assessing teacher quality. Nonetheless, evaluation by test scores has been tried in a number of states in recent years, with entirely predictable results. The Teacher of the Year, found "highly effective" one year, is rated "unsatisfactory" the next on the basis of test scores.

Teacher pay needs to be raised across the board. Teachers are underpaid compared to other professionals with comparable levels of education. They are underpaid compared to other workers with comparable levels of responsibility. Teachers in SDUSD are underpaid compared with colleagues in neighboring districts. Many are taking home less money now than seven years ago. Raising teacher salaries won't fix every issue in the schools. But continued failure to raise those salaries will make things worse and worse.

Maura Larkins

 I am appalled that you would make this statement: "Your statement about test scores over a period of years is not supported by data."

You must know that the student test data used to evaluate teachers is the "value added" by the teacher to the students' test scores.

You are absolutely wrong when you deny that the top 15% of teachers (as well as the bottom 15% of teachers, by the way) can be spotted by the consistency of the value they add each year to their students' test scores, while the middle 70% of teachers tend to have dramatically fluctuating value-added scores.  It takes a number of years to figure out how well most teachers are actually performing.

Why would you deny this? You yourself admit, "The Teacher of the Year, found "highly effective" one year, is rated "unsatisfactory" the next on the basis of test scores."

You also say, "The best predictor of student test scores is the zip code where the students live."  Of course it is, but no one is suggesting that teachers should get credit for how high the scores are to start with.  Test scores are used to figure out how much the teacher IMPROVED the students' test scores.

I would have agreed with you if you had said that it is harder to raise the scores of kids who are below grade level.  But that problem can easily be fixed by tweaking the formulas for calculating a teacher's "value-added" score.

First you say, "But there are very few teachers who would - or could - work harder or give students more one-on-one attention in exchange for higher pay."

Then you say, "Obviously this [evaluation plan] won't work if people's pay is tied to those evaluations."

Aren't you contradicting yourself?

At first you seem to say that teachers always give everything they've got, no matter what they're paid.

Then you seem to be saying that there is some connection between pay and performance.
Or perhaps you meant something else.  Are you suggesting that merit pay would cause evaluators to falsify their evaluations of their peers?

In fact, even if pay isn't tied to peer evaluations, there are other motives for falsifying peer evaluations.  School politics exerts amazing influence over the ethics of teachers.  Teacher culture is not unlike high school clique culture.  And the situation is further complicated by genuine friendships between teachers.

So I'm not at all convinced that CTA has the best evaluation system.
Why not have observations by teachers from outside the school district, or at least outside the school?
I do think that there's no reason to fire teachers based on evaluations.  I think teachers who can't manage to achieve a high level of effectiveness should have different responsibilities and different pay than the most highly-effective teachers.

[Maura Larkins' note: There are a lot of people named George Sheridan.  I won't assume that the George Sheridan who made the above comments is an NEA Executive Committemember:

George Sheridan at the 2015 HRC Foundation’s Time To THRIVE Conference February 19, 2015

NEA Executive Committemember George Sheridan addresses the Time To THRIVE Conference in Portland, OR...

GEORGE SHERIDAN for NEA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Published on Apr 3, 2014

George Sheridan appreciates your support in NEA Denver 2014]

 George Sheridan

A formative assessment system can only work if all parties are free to be completely honest about any weaknesses. It would take a very brave (some would say naive) teacher to tell an evaluator about his or her own weaknesses, knowing that the evaluation would determine the teacher's pay. But without such honesty, an evaluation system will do little to help the teacher improve.

The possibility of rating teachers based on the value they have added to student test scores was an interesting hypothesis ten or fifteen years ago. It has been thoroughly discredited by all major groups involved in education research and evaluation. See for example this article in Educational Leadership, and the citations at the end of the article. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/nov12/vol70/num03/Value-Added@_The_Emperor_with_No_Clothes.aspx

 Maura Larkins note:

 Here's the board of directors of ASC.  It seems to be an organization of school administrators--including a "chief strategy officer"--with a couple of associate professors and business people  thrown in.  When you get school administrators together, I've noticed, you generally have a bunch of people who want to influence policy rather than conduct open inquiry.  

2014–15 Board of Directors and Executive Director

Nancy Gibson, President

Associate Professor
Concordia University
19W 233 Old Tavern Road
Oak Brook, IL 60523
E-mail

Becky J. Berg, Immediate Past President

Superintendent
Marysville School District
4220 80th Street, NE
Marysville, WA 98270
E-mail

Marie Adair 

Executive Director
New Jersey ASCD
3001 East Chestnut Avenue, #F49
Vineland, NJ 08361
E-mail

Ronal Butler

President
Networking & Engineering Technologies, Inc.
2750 Killarney Drive, Suite 205
Woodbridge, VA 22192
E-mail

Susie Carr

Retired Assistant Superintendent, Whitehall City Schools
Galloway, OH 43119
E-mail

Jon Chapman

Chief Strategy Officer
EverFi, Inc.
3299 K Street, NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20007
E-mail

Joshua Garcia

Deputy Superintendent
Tacoma School District
601 S. 8th Street, 8th Floor
Tacoma, WA 98405
E-mail

David Mathis

Superintendent
Saluda County Schools
404 N. Wise Road
Saluda, SC 29138
E-mail

Matt McClure

Chief Learning and Financial Officer, Cross County School District
LEAD 21 Program Coordinator/Facilitator, Arkansas Tech University
346 Highway 321
Beebe, AR 72012
E-mail

William Potts-Datema

Acting Senior Advisor
Division of Adolescent and School Health
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1412 Sever Creek Drive
Lawrenceville, GA 30043
E-mail

Lorraine Ringrose

Retired Principal, Patricia Heights Elementary School
114 Dormie Park Crescent
Vernon, British Columbia V1H 1Y7
Canada
E-mail

Pam Vogel

Superintendent
East Union Community School District
1916 High School Drive
Afton, IA 50830
E-mail

Judith Zimmerman

Associate Professor Emeritus
Bowling Green State University
17669 Ravine Drive
Elmore, OH 43416
E-mail

Judy Seltz

Executive Director
ASCD
Alexandria, Virginia

Maura Larkins' response to George Sheridan

  
Well, my goodness, you didn't mention that your evaluation system relied on teachers reporting their own weaknesses!

People often can't see their own weaknesses, so you have a problem here.

But I certainly agree with you that a self-evaluation system should ABSOLUTELY NOT BE CONNECTED TO PAY!

The truth is that most people would be loath to reveal their weaknesses to any but their closest friends.  This sounds like a pretty bogus evaluation plan.  It sounds more like a mentor plan. It needs to be accompanied by an effective empirical evaluation.

I suppose we'll all shrivel and die before CTA comes up with a meaningful evaluation plan.
And I wouldn't put much stock in an article by ASCD. Judging from its board of directors, it looks like an association of school administrators.

Maura Larkins

By the way, regarding that "Teacher of the Year" you mentioned who was found effective one year and then unsatisfactory on the basis of test scores: what measure was used to find the teacher effective in the beginning?  It wasn't by any chance a principal who happened to be a political ally, was it?  The finding wasn't based on popularity or charisma, was it?  In fact, in Los Angeles Unified it was discovered that MANY of the charming teachers who had been deemed superior by their cronies turned out to add little or nothing to their students' test scores. It's lovely for a teacher to be popular, but parents have a right to know when popular teachers aren't actually delivering results.

Gina Amodeo 

Maura, are you saying that principals don't need to be accountable for executing the evaluation properly?  If administrators used the resources available to them to evaluate and mentor teachers (and dismiss them if necessary), then we wouldn't be having this discussion. 
Additionally, I don't think Heather is saying that we shouldn't be expected to education "poor" kids.  I think she is saying that comparisons to other countries should be adjusted by the poverty factor, based on the fact that we do educate all children.

Also, regarding your language that teachers "produce" graduates.  This sounds like you are applying the corporate model of production to education, which is inappropriate.  Teachers teach to the needs of each individual child.  And each individual child comes into school with different resources, background, and baggage.  The best predictor of success in school is parent income and education level, not because that's where the best schools are, but because those students come "pre-loaded" with experiences and skills that children born in poverty do not have.  Children born in higher income households usually have early access to books, parents that read to them and talk to them, exposure to engaging educational experiences, and healthy nutrition.  Children raised in lower income communities have lower nutrition and other kinds of life experiences that might include having a parent in jail, neighborhood violence and crime, siblings in gangs, or an unstable home (e.g. homelessness).

Do you expect these students to learn at a faster rate in order to catch up with those students who enter school already knowing how to read?  Instead of blaming teachers, we should be thanking teachers who are teaching a class of 30 kids with 30 different sets of needs and experiences
 

 

Maura Larkins

Gina:
You've come up with some amazing ideas that you seem to want to attribute to me.  How carefully did you read what I wrote?

I would love to have principals be held accountable for their performance, but how do you propose to hold them accountable for evaluating teachers effectively when you have no way of measuring whether or not their evaluations were accurate?  You need some objective measurement of teacher performance.

You can't evaluate principals properly when you can't evaluate teachers effectively.

An obvious means of evaluating principals is the same "value-added" system being used to evaluate teachers.  In other words, we'd measure how much improvement a principal brought about in teacher performance as measured by student test scores.

Schools produce graduates, Gina.  It has nothing to do with a corporate model of production.  You produce good results all day long, I'm sure, in your own life.  That doesn't mean you're applying a corporate model.  I really think it's better if we focus on ideas rather than trying to find political agendas in perfectly good words like "produce". 

I expect teachers to make improvements in their students' educational levels. You've belabored the obvious about differences in children.  As I said before, it is harder to raise scores of low-income kids than to raise scores of high-income kids, but that's no excuse for teachers to insist that no one should hold them accountable for bringing about measurable academic gains in their students.


Dennis

Maura, are you one of these plants?:

http://www.alternet.org/education/anti-union-group-studentsfirst-launched-astroturf-campaign-undermine-teachers

 

 

Maura Larkins

To Dennis M. Doyle:
Dennis, you should know exactly who I am.  I worked in Chula Vista Elementary School District when you were Assistant Superintendent, before you went to National School District.  You inspired me to try to do something about serious problems in schools.  Do you seriously not remember me?????

I'm actually not a big fan of Michelle Rhee.  I was disgusted that she tried to raise scores in DC schools by focusing on the middle class kids, whose scores are easier to improve, while abandoning the poor kids.  What thoughts do you have about Michelle Rhee?

My ideas are completely my own.  What are your ideas, Dennis? Do you have some criticism of something I've said? If so, why you don't share your ideas with us? 

P.S.  It occurs to me that you are in a position to confirm that when you were at CVESD many principals failed to perform even minimally-adequate observations of teachers.  For a short time in the early 90s CVESD principals were required to do full-lesson observations complete with detailed notes and a follow-up interview, then the requirement was mysteriously dropped.  Please tell us why that requirement was dropped.


 Dennis

Maura, I am sorry to say but you have me mixed up with someone else. I am not "smart" enough to be an administrator.

I am just someone who feels strongly about public education and its importance to our society.



Maura

So, what is your last name, Dennis, if it's not actually Doyle?  We're not supposed to be anonymous here.  All the links to commenters' profiles seem to have gotten broken when VOSD set up its new website.  But since you yourself brought up the issue of "plants", I am surprised that you have chosen to continue to give only your first name.  In fact, I'm surprised that someone concerned about the integrity of the comments section would have chosen a first-name-only username.  If you look at the other usernames, you'll see that many, if not most, of us have given at least give the initials of our last names, if not our full last names.

It's interesting that you seem to think that school administrators are notably "smart".  I doubt that a teacher would have written that statement.  In fact, I can't think of anyone who would have made that statement--except a school administrator.

For years many people have marveled at the spectacularly-low GRE scores of school administrators. I have long suspected that the average teacher is smarter than the average school administrator.

Here's something I've never heard anyone mention: if we recruited more teachers from the highest-performing tier of college graduates, we'd get an added bonus: smarter school administrators--since almost all school administrators started out as teachers.

If you feel strongly about public education and its importance to our society, why don't you express some of your thoughts about teacher evaluations or some other issue I've addressed here?  Why do you limit yourself to merely suggesting that I might be a "plant" and that school administrators are smart?

George Sheridan  

 

Each of your assertions about Value-added measurement of teacher effectiveness is contradicted by the research reported in this article. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/04/14/the-odd-thing-arne-duncan-told-congress/

Maura
(to George Sheridan)

You have linked to an opinion piece, not a research article.  At least the author of the article is honest about having cherry-picked a couple of "worst-case scenarios" and relied on "five articles" published by AERA.  And what is AERA?  "Within the AERA community of education researchers, members belong to one or more of...over 155 special interest groups (SIGs)."

And you yourself have made an amazing blanket statement, Mr. Sheridan.  You claim that each of my assertions is contradicted by the article!

I take it that you are claiming that Value Added scores do not fluctuate wildly for most teachers, as I stated?

Sorry, Mr. Sheridan, the article clearly backs me up on this.  Valerie Strauss writes, "[T]he five articles detail problems with the instability of VAM results “year to year...'"

You are claiming that the top 15% and the bottom 15% of teachers do NOT have more consistent Value Added scores?

Again, the article does not back you up.

The author correctly states that there are problems with VAM, but what else is new?

The author has not attempted to be even-handed in her piece.  She makes misleading claims about what VAM supporters say. Obviously, no formula can adjust an individual child's score for the fact that he has a stomach ache.  The author is dishonest to imply that VAM claims to be able to adjust a child's score for stomach aches.

All statistical analysis requires a large-enough sample so that a stomach ache won't affect the outcome.  (Of course, if an entire classroom had food poisoning, the analysis would be thrown off.)
Both Valerie Strauss and you, Mr. Sheridan, must surely know that when you take the scores of an entire classroom you can get a composite score that is reasonably reliable despite the fact that some kids have stomach aches.

Shame on both of you for ignoring this basic principle underlying all statistical conclusions.

And I don't see anything in the article that contradicts my claim that teachers need to be evaluated by unbiased observers in order for evaluations to be accurate.

You are opposed to any type of effective evaluation of teachers, aren't you, Mr. Sheridan? It's not just about test scores, is it?


Dennis

Maura, no subterfuge with my name although I am a little apprehensive posting because of news like this: http://vamboozled.com/tag/arizona/
My knowledge is with SDUSD. Don't know hardly a thing about South Bay schools.
I apologize if the "plant" comment upset you. It was meant to be tongue in cheek. My humor doesn't get through the keyboard sometimes. Just wanted to show you the depth in which the oligarchs so called "reform movement" is reaching to upend public education.


Maura Larkins

VOSD instituted a policy a few years ago of not allowing any commenter to be anonymous, but obviously you are able to conceal your last name.  In fact, I noticed in February that your profile had been disconnected, Dennis.  I reported the problem to VOSD, and next thing I knew, ALL the profiles of all commenters were disconnected.  I was told that the relaunch of the VOSD website caused the problems.

I'm waiting for VOSD to either reconnect the links to commenter's profiles, or to announce a new policy allowing anonymity. 

Dennis M. Doyle turns up as CEO of the secretive charity CoTA (Collaboration of Teachers and Artists) in San Diego

UPDATE: CoTA finally responded to me after I contacted the San Diego Foundation and a reporter. The 2011-2012 Form 990 is now on the Internet.

ORIGINAL POST:

School watchers may be wondering what happened to Dennis Michael Doyle after he suddenly resigned as Superintendent of the National School District in the middle of the school year in 2009. Mr. Doyle spent most of his career at CVESD (Chula Vista Elementary School District), then went to National School District for a very short time.

We don't know why he resigned, and his new job is no less secretive.

I have sent two emails and left one phone message asking why the organization's Form 990s for the years 2011 and 2012 are not on the agency's website, but Julie Kendrig, Doyle's assistant, is ignoring me.

Here's the email I sent:

May 25, 2013
to: jkendig@cotaprogram.org
subject: When will CoTA be putting its Form 990s for 2011 and 2012 on its website?

Hi Julie,
I could only find 2010 and earlier on your website. Is CoTA planning to put the more recent 990s on the site?
Thanks,
Maura Larkins

Julie Kendig

Here's more about CoTA and its board president Lucille Neeley's interesting relationship with San Diego Unified School District and real estate developer RNLN.

Photo: Dennis Doyle with former Assembly insurance committee member Paul Vargas*

*Paul Vargas left his insurance oversight post in 2006 to become an insurance company executive. Then he stepped up to the US House of Representatives. As my father used to say, California has the best government money can buy.

Were CVESD and Chula Vista Educators negligent in Kinloch child molestation case?

See also "California Teachers Association protects child molesting teacher."
See all posts regarding CVESD teacher John Kinloch.

Updated Jan. 12, 2013

It seems that CVESD and California Teachers Association were more interested in protecting powerful teachers than in conducting serious investigations of extremely urgent allegations. When a teacher was accused of being likely to "come to school and shoot everybody," the district never did an investigation, and the teachers union never insisted on an investigation.

I recall listening to former Chula Vista Educators grievance chair Frank Luzzaro a few years ago complaining that the district had placed a male teacher on administrative leave due to unproven allegations of child abuse.

John Raymond Kinloch might been that teacher--unless perhaps there were TWO suspected child molesters at CVESD at the same time!

(I've been trying to remember exactly what year it was that Frank Luzzaro called me in response to a letter I sent him. I am certain that it was after my 2003 OAH hearing. At first I though that it was around 2003 or 2004, but then I remembered that I had my website going at the time of the call. That would make it more likely that the call was in 2005.)

The District Attorney's office says a child at Feaster was molested in 2004 or 2005. It seems the District Attorney and I are zeroing in on the same time period. Obviously, the school district knows exactly when the teacher was placed on administrative leave, and it knows if the teacher was John Raymond Kinloch.

CVESD HAS LONG HAD A CULTURE OF SECRECY AND CRONYISM

Superintendent Lowell Billings, Asst. Supt. for Human Resources Richard Werlin, and Asst. Supt. Dennis Doyle were in charge when the critical events occurred in the Kinloch case and in other cases in CVESD covered-up wrongful actions and falsified and concealed various documents.

Asst. Supt. Maria Guasp and Superintendent Libia Gil seemed to rubber-stamp whatever the three men decided on. Libia Gil chose covering-up events rather than investigating serious allegations.

Rick Werlin claimed to have "lost" all his notes about a teacher who was accused of being likely to come to school and "shoot everybody." CVESD's lawyer, Dan Shinoff, says he lost about half of the documents he collected at Castle Park Elementary. He lost a few pages here and a few pages there from a single set of about 87 documents. Here are some of the documents that were produced. Those missing pages about a possible mass shooting at Castle Park Elementary would be very interesting to see!

Chula Vista Educators, particularly Jim Groth, who is now on the Board of Directors of CTA, also seemed to support district decisions, especially when the goal was to conceal crimes by teachers who were favored by the administration. (Of course, it was different when one of Jim's pals got in trouble. CVE paid $17,000 in legal fees to contest a district decision to dock Frank Luzzaro one day's pay.)

A 1998 San Diego Reader story revealed Kinloch's connection to an English child pornographer, and Kinloch's admitted attraction to young boys.

An important part of this picture is the fact that California Teachers Association is quite reliable in protecting child molesters such as Albert Truitt.

Obviously, Mr. Kinloch was not fired. CVESD and CVE have a bad habit of protecting the guilty. Perhaps CVESD and CVE don't like effective investigations because facts might interfere with their political goals.

See "California Teachers Association protects child molesting teacher."

DEPOSITIONS PROVED THE TRUTH

At the same time that it flubbed the Kinloch investigation, CVESD administrators, with the approval of CVE's Jim Groth and other CVE officials, flat-out refused to investigate anonymous allegations against another teacher. Depositions later proved that the allegations against the "dangerous" teacher were false, but that teacher had already been fired. Depositions also proved that teachers who made the anonymous accusations were covering up their own crimes!

THE CASTLE PARK FIVE

The district then realized too late that the accusers, who called themselves "The Castle Park Family," had become out of control. The "Castle Park Five" were prominent members of the Family. The Family felt that it, not the administration, should be in charge. They can't be blamed for thinking this since they had successfully demanded that CTA and the district help them by violating longstanding policies as well as the law, to defend Family members in court. The district spent $100,000s of taxpayer dollars on lawyers to conceal the truth.

Coincidentally, both Frank Luzzaro and his wife work for the Reader, which had profiled John Raymond Kinloch in 1998 as a child pornographer. I have noticed that the Reader avoids delving into problems at CVESD. I have provided information directly to Frank Luzzaro and the Reader, but neither has expressed any interest.

Longtime CVESD board member Pamela Smith

Longtime CVESD board member Larry Cunningham

The school board in 2004 consisted of Pamela Smith, Larry Cunningham, Cheryl Cox, Patrick Judd (who was successfully sued for sexual harassment by a female principal) and Bertha Lopez. All five of these individuals supported the hiring and firing tactics of the administrators named above.









Arraignment for suspect in child porn and molestation case
CBS8.com
Dec 06, 2012

CHULA VISTA (CNS) - A South Bay elementary school teacher accused of molesting a student and possessing child pornography to get boys to expose themselves online is scheduled to be arraigned Friday.

John Raymond Kinloch, a first-grade teacher at Wolf Canyon Elementary in Chula Vista, was initially arrested last Friday after agents with the San Diego Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force served a search warrant at his home. He was released on bail that evening.

Authorities began looking into the online activities of Kinloch based on tips received by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said San Diego police sex-crimes Lt. Anastasia Smith.

The investigation allegedly showed that the 41-year-old Kinloch, while posing as a girl on a website called "MeetMe," had persuaded boys to disrobe during live one-on-one webcam interactions, according to Smith.

Kinloch, a San Ysidro resident, was re-arrested Wednesday on suspicion of 11 counts of committing lewd and lascivious acts on a child under age 14 after the alleged victim came forward, according to San Diego police.

The accusations involve sexual contact that allegedly occurred several years ago, when Kinloch was teaching at Feaster Charter School in Chula Vista, Smith said.

The defendant was being held in lieu of $1.15 million bail pending arraignment.



Teacher facing porn charges arrested in molestation
Pauline Repard
UTSD
Dec. 6, 2012

CHULA VISTA — A Chula Vista elementary school teacher arrested last week on suspicion of child pornography is facing new charges alleging he molested a student several years ago, authorities said Thursday.

John Raymond Kinloch, 41, was jailed Wednesday on 11 counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child under the age of 14, and one count of an attempted lewd and lascivious act on a child age 14 or 15.

His bail is set at $1.1 million, jail records show.

“This is a case many years delayed in reporting,” said San Diego police Lt. Anastasia Smith. “It appears this victim was previously a student of his.”

She said the student attended Feaster Charter School. Kinloch taught there from 2000 to 2009, then transferred to Wolf Canyon Elementary School, where he was teaching first grade, school district officials said.

Kinloch has been placed on administrative leave, district spokesman Anthony Millican said.

“This new case raises the question of whether there are other students involved,” Millican said Thursday.

Kinloch was investigated by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force for allegedly posing online as a girl and soliciting young boys to send him pictures of themselves naked, Smith said. The task force is a joint effort by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

Federal authorities arrested Kinloch on Friday on suspicion of possessing child pornography, using a minor in an obscene manner and luring a minor for a sexual offense. He was booked into jail, then released on bail. Authorities said earlier in the week that no Chula Vista students were involved in the pornography.

On Wednesday, a former student reported being molested, and Kinloch was arrested about 9 p.m. as he was leaving his South Bay home.

“Our hearts go out to the child,” Chula Vista Superintendent Francisco Escobedo said Thursday in a statement. “The allegations raised in the charges against Kinloch are appalling. For a teacher to betray a child in this manner is very upsetting. We are very dismayed by this.”

School district officials were upset that a federal background check on Kinloch when he was hired failed to turn up his connection to a 1998 child pornography case in England.

Millican said the San Diego Reader published a story in June 1998 that said Kinloch, then a San Diego State University student, went to England to testify in the criminal trial of a college student accused in trafficking in child pornography. That student’s files contained information that led investigators to Kinloch, and he was offered immunity by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego to testify, the Reader reported. He testified during the trial that he was attracted to young boys, the Reader said.

The district is investigating how the past case was not flagged during Kinloch’s background check and plans to work with the state’s Teachers Credentialing Commission on how to improve the process.

Photo: December 13, 2006 , Chula Vista,- Second grade teacher John Kinloch at the Feaster Edison Charter School in Chula Vista. — John Gibbinsng Commission on how to improve the process.



Teacher accused of child porn, molesting a student in court: John Kinloch pleads not guilty 10 News 12/07/2012

CHULA VISTA, Calif. - A South Bay elementary school teacher accused of repeatedly molesting a former student and possessing child pornography to get boys to expose themselves online pleaded not guilty Friday to 20 charges, including 18 counts of child molest.

John Raymond Kinloch, 41, was ordered held on $1.9 million bail.

Kinloch, a first-grade teacher at Wolf Canyon Elementary in Chula Vista, initially was arrested last Friday after agents with the San Diego Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force served a search warrant at his home. He was released on bail that evening.

Authorities began looking into the online activities of Kinloch based on tips received by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, San Diego police sex crimes Lt. Anastasia Smith said...

The accusations involve sexual contact that allegedly occurred when Kinloch was teaching at Feaster Charter School in Chula Vista, Smith said.

Deputy District Attorney Enrique Camarena told reporters that the first alleged molestation happened around 2004 or 2005, when the student was about 8 or 9 years old.

Camarena said the alleged victim, a boy, had a close relationship with Kinloch, both inside and outside the school.

Some of the molestations occurred on school grounds, the prosecutor alleged.

Besides the child molest charges, Kinloch is charged with one count of attempted child molest of a person 14 or 15 years old and one count of possession of child pornography. The named victim is not the subject of the child pornography charge, Camarena said.

Kinloch faces 43 years and six months in prison if convicted.

"When a teacher commits a crime, especially of this nature on school grounds that is about the most extreme violation we can have," Camarena said.

Defense attorney Dan Greene told South Bay Judge Katherine Bacal that Kinloch had no prior record and had a master's degree, without being specific...

The attorney said community members have come forward to praise Kinloch as a great person and educator...

[Maura Larkins comment: I've noticed that people often say that teachers and parents know who the good teachers are. In fact, they don't. Effective evaluations are needed, but many principals don't bother doing observations, and simply rely on school politics to decide who's good and who's bad.] 10News reporter Michael Chen asked, "If he's attracted to young boys, why did he petition to be a teacher?"

Greene answered, "I can't [answer] that for you right now ... It's unfair to rush to judgment before going through due process."

School district officials said they were upset that a federal background check on Kinloch failed to turn up his connection to a child pornography case in England in 1998.

District spokesman Anthony Millican said the San Diego Reader published a story in June 1998 that said Kinloch, then a San Diego State student, testified in the trial of a fellow college student accused in child pornography trafficking.

Kinloch was granted immunity and testified that he was attracted to young boys, the Reader reported...



God, Gays, and Casey Gwinn

'On Monday of this week in the San Diego Schools, at Pershing Middle School, where my daughter attends, I had to go and file a sexual harassment complaint against children who were harassing my daughter, ... Ky PlaskonSeptember 2, 1999