CNN Story on Teacher Pay and Test Scores Misleads Readers
Yesterday CNN’s blog, Schools of Thought, posted a story on teacher evaluations entitled, “Ohio links teacher pay to test scores.“ While not categorically untrue, this blog seriously misleads by simplification.
The writer suggests that teacher evaluation legislation is sudden and the result of Governor Kasich’s efforts, when in fact, the development of a framework and model have been in process for several years under the guidance of the Educator Standards Board (comprised of educators, the majority of whom are public school teachers) and the support of the Ohio Department of Education.
The writer further suggests that teacher compensation will be driven solely by test scores. The truth is that schools are experimenting with systems to compensate teachers differently based on different roles and evaluation results. Such evaluations include observations of teacher performance relative to state teaching standards and evidence of student growth, not simply a raw score.
He also suggests that decisions about promotion, salaries, etc. will be based on test scores. They will instead be determined by policies and agreements designed and collectively bargained to address the local school community’s aspirations and needs.
Finally, while there is a Race to the Top (RttT) influence on policies and agreements in those school districts that chose participation in the federal initiative, RttT itself is not the driving force for change. It is simply a contributing factor. A more significant factor in shaping change is how districts actually decided to participate in RttT. That decision was made jointly by local school boards of education and teacher unions as a mutual commitment to labor-management collaboration to improve teaching and learning. It is also important to note that these commitments were made under the leadership of a different governor, state board of education, and legislature, not the current ones.
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Blueprint Doesn't Go Far Enough
As American schools face the loss of $100 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, including the $4.35 billion from “Race to the Top,” I hope Congress will find the political will and motivation to finally reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 2011, now known as the infamous “No Child Left Behind Act.” Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, solicited input from stakeholders, which can be read in the Department of Education’s, A Blueprint for Reform. Many recommendations were made for improvement, although it remains unclear how they could be adopted without the funding to do so.
In a nutshell, the Blueprint advocates for definitions of highly effective teachers and principals, “college and career ready” standards, and will create three new tiers of schools. In addition, it will measure student status and year-to-year growth. Interestingly, it supports the “expansion of high performing public charter schools,” although I’m not sure what that means considering so many charter schools have no evidence of educating their students any better than public schools. If the federal government wants to replicate those few isolated charters that seem to have made a difference, tell me why more money can’t be invested in low performing, underfunded public schools to achieve the same results? Where will the funding come from to fill the budget cuts that currently face states like Ohio, where newly elected governors have increased salaries for their staff, but are hell bent on shortchanging children with huge budget cuts to public education?
Some like Howard Adelman and Linda Taylor, of the School Mental Health Project at UCLA, don’t think the blueprint goes far enough, arguing that it doesn’t effectively address barriers to learning, especially for those students living in dire poverty, attending the lowest performing schools across the nation. They believe that this component needs to be expanded. I couldn’t agree more. This aspect should become the major component of NCLB. Obviously, successful schools are not going to benefit from NCLB no matter what the components are, but districts plagued with poverty, with high numbers of English language learners, where parents don’t or can’t help there children succeed, will benefit the most. The Blueprint does little to change the status quo or help those districts plagued by financial problems like districts in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. When states fail to provide adequate means to educate their poor students, districts, still, will have nowhere to turn for help. The worst schools in America should be the priority of this administration.
Much time has been wasted in Washington last year given the full legislative agenda and mid-term elections. As we wait for the ridiculous attempt of the house Republicans to repeal the new health care law, time continues to tick, states face huge deficits, and school funding is in crisis especially for those schools in Ohio who can’t pass school levies. Sadly, passage of the ESEA Reauthorization will probably be no less rancorous than the health care debate, as this legislation will establish new domestic policy, and some of the old issues such as school prayer, home schooling, or the teaching of evolution will probably creep into the debate. Meanwhile, teachers will be laid off at the end of the school year, and many high school seniors will not graduate in 2011, as legislators continue to play games in Washington.
By Susan Ridgeway, Streetsboro Education Association
Race to the Top Criticized by Husted
Ohio is ideally placed to compete for $440 million in Race to the Top federal grant money, despite complaints by Sen. Jon Husted, the Republican candidate for Secretary of State.
This is part of an organized campaign by charter school advocates to undermine state applications for Race to the Top grants that focus on school improvement, especially in high-needs schools.
This, despite Ohio’s recognition as a trailblazer by the Education Commission of the States for the school transformation measures of House Bill 1 and the state’s growing success and reputation for school improvement, including a No. 5 ranking by Education Week.
Husted believes the state shouldn’t spend anything to communicate best practices and success stories so that school districts, parents, teachers and administrators can learn from others.
I’m not surprised. After Husted’s many votes for failing charter schools and against funding mainstream public schools, his criticism of Ohio’s work on Race to the Top sounds wide of the mark, perhaps even disingenuous and self-serving.
When you look at the record, no Ohio Republican Congressman supported President Obama’s stimulus aid to public schools, which has brought $2.8 billion into Ohio and saved nearly 12,000 jobs in K-12 and public colleges and universities.
If Sen. Husted and his allies truly want to help public schools excel in Ohio, they would vote for a state budget that supported local school districts.
Instead, he voted against education funding twice last year on budget roll calls that would have cost Ohio’s local schools $815 million to $2.3 billion. I don’t know how that would have helped Ohio students.
The Dispatch spotlighted Husted’s narrow criticism, and then its editorial criticized the Ohio Department of Education for not having any public meetings to discuss the Race to the Top grants.
In reality, the Race to the Top grant application is to accelerate the education reform measures passed as House Bill 1 last summer. Before those reforms went into effect, Governor Strickland had many public meetings on the substance of what Ohioans wanted in terms of reform and education for the 21st century.
What does Sen. Husted really want for Ohio education? You only have to look at Senate Bill 180, his proposed legislation:
- Lift the internet charter school moratorium
- Make value-added tests key for teacher licensure and evaluations
- But meanwhile, accelerate minimally trained Teach For America teachers into professional teaching licensure.
ODE reported 64% of charter schools were rated as failing in 2008, so the e-charter moratorium makes sense. Meanwhile, Ohio has toughened its standards for educator quality. Why Husted can say his vision matches Race to the Top is beyond me.