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.
I have never felt more strongly about this debacle than I do after a mind-numbing day of scoring the grade 4 NYS Math test this past Monday! After scoring this test almost every year since its inception in 1999, and serving as either a scoring leader or a table facilitator every year since 2002,I know these tests all too well.
ReplyDeleteI am totally opposed to high- stakes testing and the value we are placing on one day in a child's life, and now to the consequences these tests can have for excellent teachers who are being evaluated based upon factors that extend far out of the realm of that teacher's impact. The current poorly written, error- filled tests written by Pearson have NO place in any teacher's evaluation.
Since we were required to sign non- disclosure agreements prior to scoring (great way for Pearson to keep the public from knowing the specifics of the incredibly poor tests by which their children's teachers are being evaluated), I can't address the specifics of the questions. I will address the total inappropriateness of the formats and how some conflicted directly with the NYS scoring rubrics. In previous years, 2 point questions had no more than two responses required. Three point questions required 3 separate responses. To paraphrase, the NYS "holistic" rubric states that a "0" response is "incorrect", while a score of "1" indicates limited understanding of the concept. This year we scored a 3 part question worth 2 points, in which ONE correct response out of the three required a score of 0. ZERO! Did Pearson's people read the NYS rubric? The child demonstrates some understanding (in the case of the specific question, the student had to completely understand the specific concept for the one part of the question) but receives NO credit? This is so wrong!
Moving on to a 3 point question which required 2 responses, if the student got 50% of the question correct, we were told he or she could only receive a score of 1 point. The reason? We can't give 1.5 points. Excuse me, but this is a MATH test - do the Pearson people not realize that 1.5 rounds UP to 2? So we don't score in favor of the child - instead we score in favor of failure? In favor of the agenda of privatization? But of course, parents who see failing schools, failing teachers, failing public education won't see the truth - the only failure here was incredibly poorly written tests! Who grades Pearson?
So we are being told by the world according to Pearson to re-write the rules, to do everything in our power to set children up for failure, to blindly accept the imposition of their rules, and those at NYSED are going to agree?
I will be writing to NYSED about this, and next year, when everyone is scoring these tests, I will not be occupying a seat at the table. I cannot sit by and be a part of this travesty against children, and I am thinking that maybe this is another form of opting out. What, I am thinking, would happen if teachers ALL respectfully declined the "invitation" to participate in the scoring process that has been designed as part of the attack on our profession?
Some food for thought!