New York is currently implementing a new teacher evaluation system called the Annual Professional Performance Review or APPR.  The system is based on a 100 point score.  At least 31 points,  but not more than 60 points may be based on teacher observation.  40 points are based on results of student tests.  This is the part that does not sit well with me. If you have ever given a class a test you know that there are uncontrollable factors at play during the test taking.  Some student may have forgotten her glasses or didn't have breakfast or feels ill or had an argument with his best friend or any number of things.  Yet the architects of this system argue that there is reliability in this  new system.  Really?


     Why have New York's teachers become fair game for the public?  I believe that if you ask any New York adult to close their eyes and picture their greatest teacher, not one would hesitate.  People become effusive when they talk about their favorite teacher.  Somehow, those wistful memories of classroom nostalgia have been morphed into some Big Brother business model that will not serve public education.  Remember the Blueberry Story?


     Let me refresh your memory.  There was an owner of a famous ice cream company that was addressing a group of teachers.  He was describing how efficient his factory was in manufacturing his product, especially his blueberry ice cream.  When he was finished, a teacher asked him what he did with his bruised, spoiled, or unacceptable blueberries.  He replied that he threw them out of course.  She countered with the fact that public school teachers can't throw out their blueberries.  They have to make them acceptable.  The businessman became thoughtful.  He had neverr really considered this.  Year later,  we still cannot throw out our blueberries.


     I am completely in favor of accountability.  All of us have to measure up to a standard.  But this APPR is unfair.  It throws a teacher's fate too readily into the hands of an unreliable roulette wheel. Surely we can create a better system than this.  Please let saner heads prevail.

The Very First Time

     When I decided to return to school as a doctoral student, I did not imagine some of the struggles I would have. The juggle of family, job, and school was an enormous challenge.  The financial tag placed a strain on my budget.  My friends thought I had disappeared. But I recalled the ebb and flow of the semester and relearned how to schedule myself so that I could devote myself to my studies during certain weeks and come up for air on others.  Last semester I was given a difficult assignment by my professor.  I chuckle as I write this since I know that every assignment has been difficult.  I was asked to explore issues of identity, literacy, and power in a given setting.  My classmates chose their research among a broad range of topics:  one examined and wrote about identity and graffitti, another wrote about identity and Facebook, and another wrote about identity in an autitstic child with artitstic talent.  I struggled with my topic. Most of my classmates were teachers and many were able to work with current students or former students or students' friends.  As an administrator I wanted to explore how principals and administrators express their identity. Someone suggested I study blogs.
     I got lucky on my first venture into the blogosphere and wound up on Scott McLeod's site.  His appeal to administrators to begin blogging hit home so here I am.    As I read the blogs of  other administrators, I am reminded of James Gee's work on affinity spaces.   In affinity spaces people interact and relate to each other around a common passion,  proclivity, or endeavor.  By their very nature blogs are a magnet that attract like-minded people.
     I will continue to read and study blogs.  I am considering if blogs actually foster leadership?  What do you think? I would really like to hear from you.