This researcher asked kids what's wrong with U.S. schools. Here are their ideas.

Who knows the most about school? Students.
Alisha Huber
Upworthy
May 22, 2015

This is not news: America does pretty badly when it goes up against other countries academically. This is true even if we take it one state at a time—no single state, no matter how wealthy or small, matches the top scoring countries...

Cuomo throws in the towel on teacher quality

I am hard pressed to decide who is  more opposed to effective teacher evaluations: the teachers union or administrators. We don't need test scores to evaluate teachers. Unfortunately, most administrators are not good evaluators. In many, if not most, cases administrators were not gifted teachers themselves.  (That's  often exactly why they became administrators.)

We should evaluate teachers, but we shouldn't fire ineffective teachers. We should just give teachers jobs commensurate with their abilities. Plenty of classroom activities can be done by less-than-brilliant teachers and we can use the best teachers to train the less gifted teachers. Heaven  knows administrators aren't good at training teachers. Here is my plan to share responsibility for student learning between a regular teacher and a part-time master teacher.

Would a guarantee to not fire ineffective teachers get the teachers union on board? I think it might. The main goal of the teachers union seems to be to protect the teachers who have political connections. Sadly, these union leaders and their cronies are not generally the most effective teachers. Why don't we protect their jobs, and protect the kids at the same time?
--Maura Larkins

 Cuomo throws in the towel on teacher quality

By Post Editorial Board

December 19, 2015
Gov. Cuomo once called himself the “students’ lobbyist.” Now he’s got a new message: Sorry, kids — maybe someday.

On Tuesday, the Board of Regents officially said amen to that. In a near-unanimous vote, the board took the recommendations of a Cuomo panel and banned any serious consequences for rotten teachers — no matter how embarrassing their students’ scores on state tests.

Teachers who can’t teach, in other words, will get to keep standing in front of whiteboards, confidant that no one will ever lay a glove on them. And too bad on the kids.

True, the new no-consequences rule is supposed to last “only” four years. “At least” is a lot more like it...
 
Rewind to 2010: State lawmakers, drooling over hundreds of millions in bribe money from Washington, required schools to use test scores in deciding a teacher’s future employment.

But the lawmakers’ plan, as Cuomo would later say, was “unworkable by design.”...

Just last week, the state reported its latest teacher-rating stats: Nine out of 10 teachers scored as “effective” or better — even though two out of three kids continue to flunk the tests...

In Cuomo’s case, because the teachers unions (with help from the likes of West­chester County Exec Rob Astorino) have managed to panic massive numbers of parents into “opting out” of having their kids take the tests. Those parents are voters...

United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew boasted of his “gum up the works” battle to prevent evaluations in the city...

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. 

America is criminalizing Black teachers: Atlanta’s cheating scandal and the racist underbelly of education reform

Apparently Atlanta is a lot like San Diego. When illegal activity happens in a school, local officials handle the issue in two very different ways. When the wrongdoer is an adult with political connections, taxpayer money is poured into that person's defense, and the schools go into cover-up mode. On the other hand, if the wrongdoer has no political connections, the school goes after him or her with a vengeance. The justice system stands ready to support schools and other public entities. You're fighting an uphill battle when you want justice from a pubic entity. See Depraved in Poway and series of posts about shenanigans in Poway.  Adults in San Diego County schools usually misbehave with impunity, but kids who do the same thing are called "depraved." There was an amazing case at Guajome Park Academy where teachers improperly changed grades, but instead of censuring the teacherd, the school sued a whistle-blower kid who hacked the school computer to prove the wrongdoing.
 
See also my comparison of the Atlanta cheating scandal and the bizarre color-coordinated indictments of school officials in San Diego.


America is criminalizing Black teachers: Atlanta’s cheating scandal and the racist underbelly of education reform
Our educational system stacks the deck against Black children -- now we're throwing their teachers in jail Brittney Cooper
Wednesday, Apr 8, 2015
Salon 

Former Atlanta Public Schools school research team director Tamara Cotman, center, is led to a holding cell after a jury found her guilty in the Atlanta Public Schools test-cheating trial, Wednesday, April 1, 2015, in Atlanta. (Credit: AP/Kent D. Johnson)

Last week, an Atlanta jury convicted 11 teachers and school administrators of racketeering in a system-wide cheating scandal. Yes, you read that correctly. Teachers and administrators inflating student scores on standardized tests is now considered “organized crime” in this country, and is punishable by more 20 years in prison, in these cases.

I am an educator. I am a Black woman who may someday mother a Black child. I have taught other Black mothers’ children. Much of my educational success in elementary school is directly attributable to high performance on standardized tests that caused my white teachers to notice me and intervene on my behalf to get me “tracked” into higher-achieving classrooms. I believe all children deserve access to a good, high-quality, public education.

Therefore, I don’t have to condone cheating in any form (and I don’t) to assert that what has happened in Atlanta to these teachers is a travesty. The pictures that emerged last week of handcuffed Black schoolteachers being led out of Southern courtrooms in one of the country’s largest urban Black school systems were absolutely heartbreaking.

Scapegoating Black teachers for failing in a system that is designed for Black children, in particular, not to succeed is the real corruption here. Since the early 1990s, we have watched the deprofessionalization of teaching, achieved through the proliferation of “teacher fellow” programs and the massive conservative-led effort to defund public education in major urban areas throughout the country. There is no longer a consensus that a good public education — a hallmark of American democracy — should be considered a public good.

Black children have for generations been the primary victims of this continuing social mendacity about the national value of education. More than 51 percent of children who attend public schools live in poverty. In Georgia, the percentage of Black children living in poverty hovers right around 39 percent. For Latino children, the number is consistently over 40 percent. Nationally, the number for Black children is 39 percent, according to most recent data, and 33 percent for Latino youth...

Read more at http://www.salon.com/2015/04/08/america_is_criminalizing_black_teachers_atlantas_cheating_scandal_and_the_racist_underbelly_of_education_reform/?source=newsletter

The Atlanta Public Schools cheating verdicts: How to deal with illegal behavior by teachers and school administrators? Indict some black or brown people.

See also Brittney Cooper's Salon article.

The Atlanta Public Schools test cheating case proves a couple of things:

1) Teachers and administrators lie under oath.  I knew that before the Atlanta case.  I've claimed this for several years, based on personal experience at my school district, but a lot of people simply didn't want to believe me.

2) If you're a corrupt teacher or school administrator, your chances of being charged with a crime are miniscule--unless you're black or brown.

In my case in Chula Vista Elementary School District, the teachers and school officials who committed illegal acts were overwhelmingly white.  The school board consisted of four white members and one Mexican.

I reported the wrongdoing to District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, and was ignored.

Imagine my surprise a few years later when 15 officials in neighboring school districts were indicted and eventually pleaded guilty to corruption charges.  These 15 individuals were overwhelmingly Mexican.

Ironically, one of these indicted officials was Bertha Lopez, the only Mexican among the five board members who violated the law in my case, including violations of Labor Code 1102.5 and 432.7 (a section with criminal penalties).  Bertha made the mistake of leaving CVESD and running for office in Sweetwater Union High School District.  She ended up pleading guilty to a ridiculous charge: accepting a gift over the state limit.

In Chula Vista, Lopez and her four white colleagues committed illegal acts that harmed children at Castle Park Elementary in order to protect law-breaking adults who were in political favor at the time.    I think that this sort of direct undermining of the education of children is a far more serious form of corruption than accepting a gift.

Students were harmed by the rogue group of teachers at my school. This self-styled "Castle Park Family"was protected by the district when its illegal actions were exposed, while at the same time, many good teachers were forced out.  The power-hungry teachers chewed up and spit out 11 principals in 11 years, enabled a $20,000 embezzlement by a PTA-president crony, and cost the district $100,000s in legal fees and increased liability insurance premiums. Finally the district decided that the teachers in charge of Castle Park Elementary were out of control, it tried to transfer some of them out of the school.

Here are a couple of recent cases that illustrates contempt for the law among white school boards:
Elaine Allyn case in Fallbrook--violations of Labor Code 1102.5
Sharon McClain case in Del Mar

Interestingly, Patrick Judd, one of the board members in my case, was found liable in civil court for sexual harassment of an employee.

Are some Chula Vista teachers sacrificing the well-being of students to their own political goals--and careers?

KPBS has published a story (first story below) about a highly political issue--standardized testing--without mentioning the fact that the featured teacher, Carla Kriss, has been on the Chula Vista Educators' bargaining team since 2008.   I'm guessing that Ms. Kriss failed to mention this fact to the reporter. 

It sounds to me like Ms. Kriss and some of her fellow teachers are intentionally causing students like Abby Eten to become stressed during standardized tests. Why wouldn't the teacher simply smile and tell the child that there's no need for the child to worry, but just to do the best he (or she) can do?

One reason might be to get parents upset so they'll generate a stories favorable to the teachers' goals.

The teachers union is currently threatening to strike in Chula Vista Elementary School District.  One of the big issues for CVE is its opposition to Common Core and standardized testing.

Union politics is a family affair for Carla Kriss.  Her  husband Tim is a former vice-president of the Chula Vista Educators.

Shame on those who make children suffer needlessly to advance the cause of teachers who want to avoid responsibility for student test scores.  Abby Eten reports that she feels like a rubber band that is about to snap.  If the teacher won't ease up on Abby, then Abby's mother should tell her not to worry.

My students always enjoyed standardized tests; kids love a challenge when fear is not involved.  It's abusive to make children suffer so CVE can gain  political power.

Interestingly, the San Diego Union-Tribune has written a story that seems to say that teachers should have no right at all to demand changes from their employers (see second story below).  It's pretty hard to find unbiased reporting in San Diego!


FIRST STORY:

Chula Vista School District Failed To Accommodate Students With Learning Disabilities
by Matthew Bowler
KPBS
September 2, 2014

...Last spring, Chula Vista Elementary School District gave two big tests to its students, and they might have violated state mandates to make testing modifications for students with disabilities.

Testing dominates the school year now. Students like fourth grader Abby Eten feel the stress. Abby said she feels like a rubber band.

“If I keep on stretching it and stretching it, it's going to break,” she said.

Abby has more challenges than other fourth graders: She’s dyslexic. Abby’s mother, Justina Eten, said she’s always surprised by how smart her daughter is...

COMMENTS

skoolteacher

So Ms. Larkins and folks like her are so intent on looking down on and demonizing school teachers (why??) that she is willing to automatically blame one, some, any (??) for the byproducts of the testing cartels (fraud, illegal maneuvering, secrecy, FAILURE) and their lackeys in Congress. What a jerk!


mauralarkins

Dear "skoolteacher":

What a knee-jerk reacation! Certain teachers are fighting standardized tests because they don't want to be evaluated based on their students' progress.

So why don't they come up with an alternative evaluation system for teachers?

Because it would interfere with school politics and the current evaluation system, which is a joke. Most principals don't even both to do classroom observations.

Weak teachers need to be identified and helped. Change is needed, but some teachers are terrified of change.

I am blaming those teachers who intentionally make testing stressful for children in order to achieve political goals.

I don't doubt that there is fraud, illegal maneuvering and secrecy among testing companies, since those things exist in just about every human institution, including school districts and teacher unions.

Of course, I also blame teacher unions for refusing to accept any and all attempts to evaluate teachers effectively.

I don't think weak teachers should be fired, but they do need to be helped. It would be a lot cheaper and more effective if highly-competent teachers were given responsibility for that. The current custom is to pay obscenely-expensive outside vendors to come in and rule the roost for a few years with their supposedly magnificent education programs until everyone realizes they aren't making real improvements.  Here's a recent example of that phenomenon: http://www.latimes.com/local/e...

Politics plays too big a role in selecting teacher leaders. It would be nice if we had a good evaluation system so that teachers who really know what they're doing in the classroom  could be given leadership roles more often. SECOND STORY:



Here's the San Diego Union-Tribune story:

Teachers using students as pawns in Chula Vista

By U-T San Diego Editorial Board

Sept. 3, 2014

Some teachers in the Chula Vista Elementary School District evidently believe that the best way to get a better contract offer from district management is to punish their young students. The tactic should be unacceptable to parents of all 29,000 students at the 45 schools in the district.

Teachers at an unknown number of Chula Vista schools last month began sending letters to parents saying the teachers would not offer any extracurricular or after-school activities until they receive “a new and fair contract.” Rather, the teachers say they will only do what they are specifically contracted to do — seven hours per day — and nothing more...


COMMENTS

Maura Larkins · Top Commenter · UCLA

How else are teachers going to pressure the district? The slowdown is actually a way to avoid a strike, to avoid hurting kids.

Learning about economics and politics firsthand might benefit kids more than a field trip. Most of these kids will be struggling for their own economic survival someday.

That said, I do have a problem with teachers who intentionally inflict pain and stress on their students just because the teachers don't like the new standardized tests.

Some teachers make kids miserable so the parents will oppose standardized tests.

The motivation? These teachers don't want to be evaluated based on student test scores.

In fact, these teachers don't want to be effectively evaluated at all. Why? It would undermine school politics, the lifeblood of the teachers union.

The current system of principal evaluations is a joke. Most principals don't even bother to do classroom observations. The evaluations are usually political. I don't think weak teachers should be fired, but they should be helped.

The current fight in CVESD is just as much about teacher evaluations as it is about money.

Why don’t Manuel Yvellez and his cronies come up with an effective teacher evaluation system, and then use that as a bargaining chip?

Manuel Yvellez

It is rather the District and their spokesperson the UT that is hiding behind children in this dispute. I don't see the Superintendent or his UT supporters volunteering their time to coach a team after school or run a dance class or one the many other after school programs. It is teachers that give of themselves selflessly in this way because of their love of children. Now, feeling unappreciated, they temporarily take away their free volunteer efforts, and they are set upon by the UT as if such voluntary efforts are expected as a mandatory requirement from teachers. And where is the UT Board with their professed great love of children? Why aren't they saying that they will step in with this voluntary effort for a few weeks, to do what teachers do for free year after year?

The suggestion that any teacher in our district is ... See More

Maura Larkins · Top Commenter · UCLA

Hey, CVESD, give the teachers more money--BUT DON'T BACK DOWN ON COMMON CORE.

Pay the teachers for effective performance, and then make sure they're delivering.

Neither the district nor the union seems to want reliable evaluations of teachers.

Neither side is asking for more classroom observations.

Both sides are way too fond of school politics.

Maura Larkins

The Union-Tribune has at times been quite rabid in its support of teachers.

The paper practically hemorrhaged ink for weeks in support of the "Castle Park Five". The school district took quite a beating from the UT in those stories.

Bizarrely, one of the Castle Park Five, teacher Peg Myers, went on to become CVE President before she clambered across the bargaining table in the middle of her term to became a district administrator. It's amazing how enemies can become such good friends. How did Human Resources director Sandra Villegas-Zuniga orchestrate such a reversal? Did Peg, who now calls herself Margaret, suddenly wake up one morning and decide to switch sides for no reason? Obviously, there's more to that story, but I doubt that any news outlet in San Diego will tell it.

I got some information from Anthony Millican about the current bargaining situation. Mr. Millican states:

One of the more misleading slides by CVE at its ongoing parent presentations at schools in our community states that teachers have not had a raise in seven years while the Superintendent’s salary has gone up 11%. Dr. Escobedo’s salary as Superintendent has gone up once, by 4%, since he began serving in the position.

The union is counting restored furlough days as a salary “increase” in alleging that the Superintendent’s salary has gone up 11%. He began in the position with 7 furlough days.

The overwhelming majority of Chula Vista teachers make more in 2014 than in 2007.

That’s because the District paid automatic “step and column” raises (including anniversary increments) annually that ranged from 0% to 4.79% annually; the District-wide average was 2% annually, even during the Great Recession.

Out of 1,225 FTE teachers, approximately 11 give or take can truly claim to have not received a raise in seven years because their years of service put them at the top of the pay schedule for the seven year period. (That’s about 1% who can make a claim of not having had a raise in seven years.)

The union wants an upset populace to influence bargaining about primary pay increases that teachers historically received through “Salary Schedule.” That raise is contractually negotiated, and has not been provided to teachers in nearly seven years. Parents and community members react with surprise when they learn teachers earn two kinds of pay increases. Some would probably be ok with that if the union simply told them the truth.

As it stands, the District has included a 6% salary schedule increase in its latest proposal, part of a wide-ranging package the union’s leadership rejected. The proposed 6% raise is on top of the 2% average automatic raises that went into effect this past July 1. CVE, however, says teachers are entitled to a 10% salary schedule increase, and that the 2% “step and column” automatic raises “don’t count.”

It turns out that the teacher salary of CVE President Manuel Yvellez has increased 17% since 2007, thanks to "step, column, anniversary increments."