First I want to say that it was brave and generous of UCSD student Felipe Morfin Martinez to come forward and say that his K-12 education did not adequately prepare him in science. I'm glad he brought that issue to the attention of the public.
I noticed that Felipe blames only the director of his high school--not his teachers--for his lack of academic preparation in science. I think Felipe is allowing his good personal relationships with his teachers to interfere with his assessment of the situation.
I believe that Felipe was short-changed, but I believe the problem started in elementary school, and I believe that teachers share the blame as much as principals.
Also, I suspect that Gompers doesn't provide adequate remediation for kids who didn't learn basic concepts in elementary school.
Also, it's possible that Felipe wasn't really much interested in science. He says,
"I wanted to do science and I guess it clicked on me when I was probably
in 10th grade or ninth grade where it was like, ‘my dreams aren’t going
to happen because I can see it. I’m not ready for that, I’m not prepared
for that.’"
Why would he give up on science in "10th grade or ninth grade"?
I know from personal experience that an
effective teacher can teach kids to thoroughly understand math and
science concepts. Felipe's problem isn't that his classes weren't advanced enough. Felipe must have taken courses up to and including pre-calculus to get
into UCSD. He could also have taken two more years of calculus.
The problem is that only a minority of kids deeply understand basic concepts. And often those kids learned more at home than at school.
During my years teaching in elementary school I far too frequently heard teachers claiming that the math was too hard for any teacher to understand. I once contradicted such a teacher, and then I learned to keep my mouth shut.
The problem is a lack of basic education in elementary school and a lack of remedial education in the higher grades. And you need super good teachers to make remedial education fun and fascinating. You can't just have hacks that pass out easy math worksheets...
inewsource published an investigation
last week into the quality of education at Gompers Preparatory Academy —
a nationally recognized charter school that promises “students can
succeed at the university of their choice.” After the story ran, Felipe
Morfin Martinez came forward to share his experience.
Morfin Martinez graduated from Gompers in 2016 and was awarded a
full-ride scholarship to the University of California San Diego where he
is studying communications.
He told inewsource that he realized early in his Gompers
education that he wasn’t being challenged in his classes. Despite
earning straight A’s, he said, he knew he wasn’t prepared to achieve his
dream of pursuing a career in science. When he shared his concerns at
home, he said, his parents responded: “You don’t believe in yourself,
look at your grades.”
Morfin Martinez says he’s proud of his straight A’s at UCSD, “but
they’re not the classes I wish I could take. They’re not organic
chemistry, they’re not the chemistry series, the math series, they’re
not the classes that people value.”...
No one really knows what’s going on in individual public school
classrooms. Observations by principals tend to be fleeting and few. We
don’t need to fire anybody, but we do need to use highly-skilled
teachers and ordinary teachers where they can do the optimal good.
The truth is that the critical moments in learning don’t happen
continuously five hours a day. They add up to at most a couple of hours
each day, and probably much less.
The rest of the time an ordinary
teacher can handle lesson reinforcement, computer activities, art
projects, silent reading, etc.
The best teachers should be able to rise far above average teachers
on the salary scale — and they should have far more responsibility. In
my plan, each classroom would have a full-time regular teacher.
Several
classrooms would share a master teacher, who would be responsible for
student progress, teaching lessons part-time and guiding the regular
teacher.
Gifted regular teachers would be eligible to become master
teachers. Instead of bringing in vendors selling the latest gimmick for
tens of thousands of dollars, master teachers would do all necessary
training.
Here’s the comparison for four classrooms and one extra salary (in thousands):
Currently: $60 + $60 + $60 + $60 + $60 = $300
New plan: $100+$50+$50+$50+$50 = $300 (minus exorbitant cost of education vendors)
If we add more money, we could have more master teachers. Meaningful
evaluations of teachers would have to be instituted. Current evaluation
systems are worse than useless.
My plan would call for frequent
observations by both master and regular teachers, who would observe
classrooms in other districts to keep school politics at bay. The
observations would have a beneficial side effect: they would allow
teachers to pick up new ideas.
"Teachers should be given the option of either continuing to be evaluated under the current, safe, orthodox process or choosing to be evaluated as teacher-leaders."
I support his idea of a two-track system for teachers.
It appears that Mr. Rodriquez envisions these "teacher-leaders" continuing to function as they have in the past.
I would like to see a more rigorous system for choosing teacher leaders, and I'd like to give them more responsibility and more money.
But I am thrilled that VOSD has published this opinion piece. Good for you, editor Sarah Libby! Also, kudos to Scott and Buzz and Irwin and Rod!
My only concern about the evaluation process that Steve envisions is that it seems too subjective. Steve suggests:
"...an annual daylong symposium in which teachers presented their
portfolio findings to other school principals, community leaders,
parents and fellow teachers."
We know that the same old power groups are going to be influencing the outcomes of that day-long symposium. Why not have people from outside the district do the evaluations?
Also, why not have some objective measures along with the totally subjective measures suggested here?
A video of a single lesson doesn't really tell us how a teacher teaches. Why not have outside evaluators come in to the teacher's classroom and
record facts--such as what people are actually doing in the
classroom at a given moment? I would also suggest that critiques of a teacher's instruction NOT be done by principals, teachers or parents who have a personal or professional relationship (either in the school district or in the teachers union) with the teacher.
The San Diego County Grand Jury put it bluntly: The teacher evaluation process used throughout California public schools is “broken.”
This
comes as no surprise to anyone working on a school campus. Teachers and
administrators alike see little value in the current process, which
rates nearly everyone “Satisfactory.” But so far, there’s not much
consensus on a viable alternative.
Discussions about designing a new process rarely get beyond the
one-dimensional idea of using student test scores to measure teacher
performance.
This raises the ire of the California Teachers Association. The union
wants no part of a process that might allow principals to use student
performance data to unfairly target certain teachers for termination. The recent teacher tenure ruling in Vergara v. California added more fuel to this fire. READ MORE: The Most Blistering Findings from the Big Teacher Tenure Ruling
We need a new system, one capable of measuring teacher efforts,
strengthening the profession and contributing to the mission of every
school: greater student achievement.
A new evaluation process must take into consideration all major
components of a teacher’s job. These include classroom instruction,
planning lessons, grading exams and essays and an invaluable practice of
self-reflection. These last three components aren’t easily noticeable
during the annual one-hour classroom observation most principals use
during the current teacher evaluations. And you definitely won’t find
them while looking at student test scores.
The new process should consider highlighting teachers who already
play leadership roles on campus, whether they volunteer as a department
head or Professional Learning Community team leader, a peer coach or
student performance data analyst. These are the teachers who think
beyond their own classrooms to help other educators improve.
What these volunteers do as teacher-leaders is rarely used as part of
their current evaluations. They get rated the same as everyone else –
“Satisfactory” – based on that one-hour classroom observation. But we
can use these teacher-leaders as eager test subjects while we try to fix
the process. The transition should be handled carefully. Teachers should be given
the option of either continuing to be evaluated under the current, safe,
orthodox process or choosing to be evaluated as teacher-leaders.
Under the latter option, teacher-leaders would be evaluated not only
for what they did in their respective classrooms, but also for what they
did to help other teachers. This would put a much-needed premium on
innovation, sharing best practices and collegial teamwork, as well as
the development of leadership skills.
Teachers could compile a professional portfolio to submit for review,
including things like a video of them instructing class followed by a
critique by fellow teachers, or a written self-reflection on the
experience of having led a volunteer effort during the school year.
The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards already uses
similar portfolio requirements to evaluate its board-certified teacher
candidates.
Additionally, instead of a traditional two-way dialogue between
teacher and principal, districts could expand the evaluation process to
include an annual daylong symposium in which teachers presented their
portfolio findings to other school principals, community leaders,
parents and fellow teachers.
Though teacher-leader evaluations might still yield plenty of
“Satisfactory” marks, the additional rigor in this process would make
such a rating much more meaningful.
Before we waste any more time or effort touting student test scores
as a means to hold teachers accountable, let’s put to use the innovative
spirit we should value in teachers, and set a new standard for
evaluating our educators. Steve Rodriguez is an English teacher at Olympian High School in
the Sweetwater Union High School District, and is a National
Board-certified teacher.
Maura LarkinsI looked at the article posted by ksdvm86. Here's a quote, "Busywork is the name of the game with the Common
Core. Kids need to write and rewrite spelling words and sentences until
their hands practically fall off..."
The parent who wrote that should be complaining about the teacher, not Common Core. This teacher isn't doing a good job. Common Core does NOT require busywork. We've known for a long time that writing a word more than three times does not improve the child's ability to spell it.
Any
teacher who creates a stressful atmosphere and then blames it on Common
Core should be ashamed. The teacher should teach good lessons and
maintain a healthy learning environment. Kids enjoy taking tests when
they aren't stressed.
Anyone who thinks all the kids
are going to know all the answers is just being idiotic. Some kids
will do better than others. That's to be expected.
However,
in an ideal world, all kids would have a teacher who does well at
teaching. Teacher quality is the problem, not Common Core.
