NEW YORK, Dec. 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- Following is commentary by Gordon MacInnes. MacInnes is a fellow at The Century Foundation and author of "In Plain Sight: Simple, Difficult Lessons from New Jersey's Expensive Effort to Close the Achievement Gap" (Century Foundation Press, 2009). He served from 2002 to April 2007 as assistant commissioner for Abbott Implementation for the New Jersey Department of Education, where he oversaw a division that was created to better coordinate the implementation of Abbott v. Burke, the nation's most prescriptive and sweeping state supreme court ruling on school finance, and improving academic achievement in the state's poorest cities.
- - - -
Better a mayor or governor willing to fight for improved teaching and learning than one trapped by the status quo. However, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's newly proposed policies seem destined to out-run the capacity of educators to implement the fair and workable system of teacher evaluation he promises.
In a recent appearance with education secretary Arne Duncan, Bloomberg hailed the Obama administration's Race to the Top Fund, emphasizing its drive to use standardized test results to evaluate teachers and principals. Bloomberg announced that he had directed schools chancellor Joel Klein to "ensure that principals actually use student achievement data to help evaluate teachers who are up for tenure this year." This sounds so sensible that that it receives little argument from anyone other than education industry insiders.
Interestingly, in the same paragraph, the mayor reveals that "we'll also begin creating our own comprehensive evaluation system that includes classroom reviews and student achievement data." Hmm, there is no system, yet. How does one fairly evaluate third-year teachers hoping to become tenured this year?
If we assume that upcoming tenure candidates reflect the composition of all NYC teachers, then we are confronted with the fact that there are no uniform and universal achievement data for more than half of all teachers. There are no state assessments for chemistry, social studies, second grade, French, violin, sculpture, or speech, to name a few subjects. And even for those subjects and grades that are tested by New York State, the tests are designed to measure student mastery of state curricular standards, not teacher competence. Blood pressure readings provide helpful information, but they cannot be relied on to diagnose cancer or H1N1. The same with standardized tests-their use is restricted by design to what is being measured, nothing more.
Some may think that the city's elaborate school ranking system would allow one to judge the relative quality of teaching. But again, the school evaluation grades "A" to "F" measure school progress, not its teachers.
What is worse than the shortage of data or the misuse of available data is the absence of a system-despite years of effort-to measure fairly a single teacher's contribution to student achievement. If one third-year, second grade teacher has spent his time in a stable, gentrified school, how is his contribution compared with his colleague who spent her three years in a high-turnover, heavily immigrant school with two different principals? The same for the teacher of advanced placement physics at Bronx Science when compared to the achievement of students of a colleague at a comprehensive high school in a poor Brooklyn neighborhood. There is no reliable methodology that is available to parse the effects of cumulative knowledge and preparation.
Mayor Bloomberg would be better off to emphasize that NYC will "begin creating" its own system of "comprehensive evaluation" that includes classroom observations and reliable student achievement data. Once tested and ready for wide application, the mayor then could announce that teacher retention and dismissal decisions will be based on a system that includes the academic performance of each teacher's students. Until then, keep walking.
ABOUT THE CENTURY FOUNDATION
The Century Foundation conducts public policy research and analyses of economic, social, and foreign policy issues, including inequality, retirement security, election reform, media studies, homeland security, and international affairs. The foundation produces books, reports, and other publications, convenes task forces and working groups, and operates seven informational Web sites. With offices in New York City and Washington, D.C., The Century Foundation is nonprofit and nonpartisan and was founded in 1919 by Edward A. Filene.
- - - -
NOTE TO EDITORS: The above commentary is available for free and immediate use. If used, please contact Christy Hicks, 212-452-7723, hicks@tcf.org, at The Century Foundation, as a courtesy to the contributor.
Media Contact: See above.
|
|
|
AScribe Newswire distributes news from nonprofit and public sector organizations. We provide direct, immediate access to mainstream national media for 600 colleges, universities, medical centers, public-policy groups and other leading nonprofit organizations.
AScribe transmits news releases directly to newsroom computer systems and desktops of major media organizations via a supremely trusted channel - The Associated Press. We also feed news to major news retrieval database services, online publications and to developers of web sites and Intranets.
And AScribe does it at a cost all organizations, large and small, can afford, a fraction of what corporate newswires charge. Click here to see how we do it