Teacher Evaluations vs. doing what's right for kids

[noamnety]

I have a confession to make. This month a girl cursed me out and stormed out of my room, and she hasn't been back to my class since - I counseled her out of my room and advised her to just take an F in my class. And that's what my teacher evaluations will show - that I have yet another statistic getting an F in my class.

Here's what the teacher evaluation won't show: that I had a long talk with the student after her outburst, where she went from excuse to excuse as to why she wasn't working in my room, I addressed each obstacle with a solution, until it finally came down to the core issue. She was just below passing in almost all her academic subjects, and extremely stressed out about that. My class is an elective and not a required course. She can't afford the time or mental effort to do the homework in my class. Looking at her grades, I ended up agreeing with her that my class doesn't need to be a priority for her right now, but getting the extra 5 percentage points in her academics to earn her credit is important.

So during my class period, I send her to the school tutoring program now to get extra help in math and chemistry. Since the outburst and long talk, she comes in daily to check with me for attendance, and heads off to get the tutoring she needs. When I see her in the hall, we're all smiles, and sometimes she lets me know if she did particularly well on a test.

I have it relatively easy in that there are no standardized tests for my content area. But I'm seeing a big problem all the same in tying the teacher evaluations to how a student performs in our one class, as if the only impact we have on a student is what they turn in for our assignments directly, as if forcing a student to do well in my particular class is always in the student's best interest.

It's memorial weekend. I have three days off - in theory. Yesterday (Saturday) I had a student at my house 7 hours working on math (not my subject). I've had a student at my house today (Sunday) for 9 hours total so far, working on 5 subjects - only one of which is the one I teach. Tomorrow will be more of the same.

The more we tie performance and pay to test scores, the more we demotivate teachers to do this sort of thing, to help students out in other subjects just because it's the right thing to do. Even worse, we are starting to go to competitive step increases and layoffs in my state. One person's good performance rating in their subject reduces everyone else's chances to survive a layoff or get a pay raise. So if I help a student in someone else's subject area, it helps the student but indirectly penalizes me.

That won't change how I do things; I'm fairly stubborn. I'm just frustrated. It's after 9pm, which means even if we left now it would be at least 10 by the time I get back from driving her home. Last night it was 11:30pm when I got back from returning students to their houses. I actually don't mind that, except for some logistics of not being able to get shopping, laundry or dishes done. I'm mostly confused about how standardized testing as a main means of evaluation addresses anything that actually happens - or should happen - in the real world. I hate that it turns student learning into a commodity. I hate that I could have pushed the student that's here now into working with me to get an A in my class, and that would better on my personal record than what I'm actually doing, which is shooting for a C or D in my class, and doing whatever I can to make sure she gets a high school diploma.

[elleng]

1. Thank you, noamnety.

[charmay]

2. Unfortunately high stakes testing will continue and kids will suffer.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. Teachers are treated like dirt

The administration is obsessed with evaluating teachers and teachers are so stressed about the fact they are being scrutinized every minute they can't function properly. In the last year we got a new principal and teachers who have had a good track record, highly qualified, teaching for 15 to 20 years with advanced certificates were given unsatisfactory evaluations. Many were excessed.

The fact that teachers' salaries are so low and the long hours that they work - probably 6.45 am to 10 pm every evening and also at weekends reduces the salary to well below the mininum wage.

Students couldn't care less if they fail. I have called parents and pleaded with them to encourage their children to come to coach class, do makeup work etc. The parents said let their children fail and they wil retake it next year. Many of them cut class and can be found at the local MacDonalds. The principal does nothing to get them to stay in school. This is all very frustrating.

The system needs to change towards teaching students just like in the good old days. The nasty state tests should be got rid of. Teachers should be valued and if thery meed help they should be given a nice mentor to help them.

[Peregrine]

4. Florida has "one voice"

Every teacher is supposed to teach the same thing at the same time following the same processes as dictated by Marzano's books. Evaluations are based on th Marzano model. Our. Bonuses on the evaluation and results of the FCAT.

[noamnety]

5. I don't know how I would survive that.

I have three sections of my intro class - I can't even keep them all on the same topic at the same time. Some classes have a higher percentage of special needs students, and just don't cruise along at the same speed. One section might be done with a project and nagging me for new work, while the next section with the same syllabus is only 25% done. Moving them on would be pointless - they'd end the semester with 20 half finished projects.

[msongs]

6. isn't risky to have a student at your house? nt

[noamnety]

7. I'm not worried about it.

My daughter was a student at the school the first year I taught there, and she had her friends over for sleepovers and stuff, so it's been open to other students from the start.

I did talk to the mom in their driveway when I picked her up yesterday, and today I emailed the principal and just let him know how she's doing in her coursework, and mentioned that she was here, so I've covered my bases there. I'm sure it's fine, but it's still better to make sure everything's out in the open. (And mostly I wanted to make sure the principal knows she's putting in a ton of effort, because sometimes all they see is a student being late to class every day, they don't know the work going on behind the scenes.)

But also it's part of the culture of the school, we're a little more relaxed in some ways because we're a small school. I know the principal has driven kids home before when they needed rides, I drive kids daily, other teachers have as well. In a different school, it probably would put my job at risk or at least get me some reprimands.

[LWolf]

8. Yes.

My summative evaluation, to be delivered this coming week after several observations, will reflect whether or not I had standards posted in my room; whether or not the students knew which standard they were working on; whether or not they were "engaged;" whether or not I adjusted on the fly, responding to their responses; whether or not I analyzed data and designed lesson to target areas of weakness; whether or not they met "achievement goals" assigned by the state.

It will not reflect the time and resources I spent feeding hungry students, conferencing with families about how to help provide a stable home environment, listening to students unburden themselves about situations causing them stress, sometimes just to be a safe set of ears, sometimes to help them with the situation; working with struggling students to help them catch up, coming up with individual plans to help them cope successfully with whatever challenges they were facing, providing a place of safe, secure support for whatever they needed, doing what I could to make sure that they knew someone cared for them and had their back.

It will not reflect the success I felt when a student whose mother told me to "give up" because he would never "like" ANYTHING that had to do with school, got excited about reading a series of books and wanted to talk to me about them at lunch time.

It will not reflect my lost lunch times, the only time I'm supposed to have a break with students, when those who didn't want to be outside at their lunch recesses for whatever reason showed up and worked or asked to "help" me, and I gave them sanctuary.

My evaluation will be all about exhibiting what currently passes for expected instructional methodology and standardized "achievement." It won't have anything to do with making school a safe, positive place to be, or making learning something to look forward to, to enjoy, to feel confident about.

[noamnety]

10. That second paragraph really speaks to me.

The education culture right now is all about metrics, and there just isn't a good way to put a number on how much you helped a person succeed.

[LWolf]

11. That's so true. nt

[Smarmie Doofus]

9. Education is complicated. Obamacation is simple.

Simple solutions for the simple minded.

[HiPointDem]

13. whatever comes, there's a certain satisfaction & dignity in having done the right thing, even

when the system has thrown everything it can at you to make you not care, & do the wrong thing.

[sulphurdunn]

14. Corporate culture

exists to quantify. That is how it assesses value. Nothing else matters. Everything is reduced to the level of an exploitable commodity, even children. The education reform culture is corporate to the bone. Corporations are not human. It is debatable whether the people who run them are either. They're just corporate hit men. They shouldn't be allowed within a thousand feet of a school anymore than people with guns.