A smarter way to spend education dollars

I don't agree with all the ideas but they generally seem less punative than the ideas our leaders here are proposing. Notice how the author sites how studies say merit pay doesn't work, so much for data driven reforms. This is from South Carolina. -cpg

From the state.com

by Paul Thomas

Education Superintendent Mick Zais’ recent proposals for the state education budget present an ideal platform for considering how best to move forward in difficult economic times.

First and foremost, political leaders need to set aside politics and partisanship when debating policy and funding for education. Instead, we should be guided by evidence.

Here are some evidence-based decisions that would benefit our schools and address the budget crunch, which reveal both the wisdom and the flaws in some of Dr. Zais’ proposals.

Cut funding for SAT preparation. This is his best proposal, but we should go further. Decades of data and research have confirmed that test scores are far more linked to out-of-school factors, such as poverty, than in-school quality. Exit exams have shown virtually no benefit despite huge amounts of money spent designing, implementing and scoring the tests. South Carolina should reduce or eliminate funding for test-prep and testing itself when there is no evidence that those tests are producing positive results. The only people who have benefitted from the rise in testing are test designers, test producers and companies scoring those tests.

Defund the National Board certification process, and reallocate funding to programs that are fair and match the wealth of evidence about the conditions that support teacher improvement (teaching conditions, class size, administrative support, teacher collegiality). A major study supported by National Board for Professional Teaching Standards itself has revealed that we have no evidence that board certification causes superior teaching; in fact, it is likely that board certification is attracting those teachers already excelling in the field. The board certification process is not fair (not all teachers have access to the opportunity), and it has nothing except advocacy to support the huge investment by our state.

Beware investments in technology and on-line education. Technology often widens the equity gap that disproportionately hurts students living in poverty. Since South Carolina already is suffering the inordinate burden of poverty — a fact reflected in the schools but not caused by them — massive commitments to technology are likely to increase, not decrease, our equity gap. As well, classrooms are littered with out-of-date technology and unused technology, untold money wasted, while children still lack adequate access to books in their homes.

One caveat on technology: We should work to replace traditional textbooks with electronic texts that can be quickly updated and slash the physical cost of production. Textbooks always have been the worst books in any child’s hands, lining the pockets of textbook companies at the expense of students. We can do better, and now is the time to consider something different.

Reject performance-based teacher pay, since the evidence clearly shows that it is neither motivating nor fair. Teacher accountability linked to student outcomes is flawed since teachers have no full or direct control over student behavior and test scores are a reflection of dozens of factors (and years of teachers). To characterize the teaching/learning process as a singular and direct relationship between one teacher and one student (or one class of students) is to misrepresent the process entirely.

South Carolina today and historically faces the overwhelming weight of poverty that is reflected in our schools. We must stop scapegoating schools and teachers, since neither caused our state’s poverty. Schools alone cannot erase poverty, but we can improve our schools and reshape our education budget if we are guided by evidence instead of ideology.

Thirty years of education reform in South Carolina has wasted millions and millions of dollars by trying the same things (accountability, standards, tests) over and over. If Superintendent Zais will apply the same evidence-based logic he has offered for eliminating our focus on the SAT to the rest of the education budget, I believe we can both weather the economic storm and reform our schools positively in the coming years.

Read more: http://www.thestate.com/2011/02/03/1676497/thomas-smarter-ways-to-spend-education.html##ixzz1CvoIHuAB

Teachers finally involved in education plan?

To me it stills seems punitive and doesn't address the real problems we are facing. -cpg

BY KATHLEEN McGRORY
kmcgrory@MiamiHerald.com

The teacher pay debate that rocked Tallahassee last spring is back.

Already, legislation is being drafted that would overhaul the way teachers are evaluated and paid, and do away with tenure.

But unlike its predecessor, which led to student sit-ins and teacher sick-outs, this bill is finding widespread support from educators and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Even the teachers' unions are willing to consider it.


So far, the reaction has been warmer.

``It's a very thoughtful bill,'' said state Board of Education member Roberto Martinez. ``It creates sufficient reform, but does so in a way that's not trying to steamroll anyone.''

However, Karen Aronowitz, president of the Miami-Dade teachers union, is skeptical.

``We have merit pay programs in our schools,'' Aronowitz said. ``We've signed on to major grants to work on this together. To have it legislated from afar takes value away from the work we're doing.''

The proposed bill establishes broad guidelines for hiring, firing, evaluating and paying teachers. It allows the details to be hammered out by local school districts and unions.

Half of teacher evaluations would be based on three years of student data -- such as scores on the FCATs, the new end-of-course exams, norm-reference tests or Advanced Placement tests. The system would look at student growth rather than raw scores, and would account for factors including poverty and student mobility.

Teachers' evaluations would determine at least half of their pay raises. Teachers who do not receive strong evaluations would get smaller raises, and over time the lowest performing teachers would be weeded out.

Teachers would also be rewarded for working in high-need schools or in subject areas where there is a shortage of teachers.

In addition, high-performing teachers would get credit for advanced degrees, certifications and specializations -- a provision not included in Senate Bill 6.

Teachers already in the system would have the option to give up their tenure in exchange for the higher pay and salary incentives.

``It's critical that we get this right,'' said Rebecca Fishman Lipsey, who oversees Teach for America in Miami-Dade.

Studies show teacher effectiveness is the strongest predictor of student achievement.

In fact, improving teacher quality through pay incentives has been a key part of the White House education reform agenda.

The Obama administration set aside millions of dollars in stimulus funds for states and school districts willing to try new ways of evaluating and paying teachers.

One of the key ingredients to obtain a portion of the $4.35 billion in Race to the Top funds: basing a portion of teacher pay on student achievement.

Florida lost in its first try. But in August, Florida was named one of nine winners. Its share: $700 million.

Smith, the education commissioner, said he would like to see the state's merit pay legislation based on the Race to the Top application.

``It has support from multiple stakeholders,'' he said.

In a few weeks, Crist will be leaving office. But Gov.-elect Rick Scott's education transition team has indicated it also wants a merit pay plan.

And in an e-mail to The Miami Herald, former Gov. Bush called it ``vital for Florida to continue providing a quality education for every student and closing the achievement gap.''

So it's likely state lawmakers will revisit the issue when the Legislative session begins in March.

``We have to tweak the way we measure success,'' said state Rep. Erik Fresen, who sits on the House Education Committee.

But Ford, the head of the Florida Education Association, cautioned lawmakers against moving too quickly.

``I'm hoping they move slower than last year and provide an opportunity for people to have real and meaningful input.''

``We're open to looking at paying teachers differently,'' said Andy Ford, president of the Florida Education Association.

``It's really about how you develop the plan.''

Last spring, educators complained the state Legislature, in an effort to be seen as a leader in education reform, was cramming through changes affecting their pay without any input from them.

This time, educators, parents and union leaders have contributed to a proposed bill that would reward the state's top teachers with merit pay.

Among the differences in the bills:

The old: Known as Senate Bill 6, it was based half a teacher's evaluation on student performance on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

The new: Allows end-of-course exams, Advanced Placement tests and tests developed by local school districts to be factored in, too.

The old: Did not address evaluating teachers in subjects such as music and art.

The new: Allows local school districts to develop tests in these areas.

The old: Was based only on student learning gains.

The new: Also accounts for the poverty rate, attendance rate and the number of times a student has switched schools.

The old: Had one salary schedule for all teachers.

The new: Has different salary schedules for teachers in critical shortage areas like math and science, or in low-income schools.

The old: Did not factor in advanced degrees.
The new: Would factor in advanced degrees.

The old: Would have had teachers working under one-year contracts.

The new: Would award three-year contracts. After each contract, school districts could choose to retain or fire a teacher, with or without cause.

``We really have moved a long way'' from a year ago, state Education Commissioner Eric Smith said.

Last spring, the governor's office logged more than 100,000 calls from teachers, parents and students opposing Senate Bill 6. Thousand of Miami-Dade teachers took a personal day off to protest the bill, and Broward teachers led after-school rallies. They said the bill relied too heavily on student test scores to calculate teacher pay without taking into account other factors, such as whether the teacher worked in a low-income school or with special needs students.

Even supporters of merit pay acknowledged the process to create last spring's legislation lacked collaboration and transparency.

Calling the legislation ``significantly flawed,'' Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed SB6.

But he also said he supported a performance-based pay system and urged educators and lawmakers to start over -- working together -- to develop a new plan.

Crist put together a group of teachers, superintendents, parents and union leaders, headed by Miami-Dade schools chief Alberto Carvalho, to develop a game plan everyone could support. Gov. Jeb Bush's Foundation for Florida's FUture drew upon that in crafting the new proposal.

The new legislation is still a work in progress, said Jaryn Emhof, a spokeswoman for the foundation, but a draft of the proposal is being circulated.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/12/25/1988680_p2/teachers-give-higher-grade-to.html

Florida Education Reform: Follow the money

Make no mistake; education in Florida has become big business. Whether it’s Pearson, College Board or one of the other companies involved with data collection and test making and scoring or charter and private schools that don’t play by the same rules as their public school counterparts, somebody is getting rich. Sadly this more than what is best or the states students and teachers is what's driving our leaders’ policies.

I would have more faith in the education reforms the powers-that-be are proposing if most did not involve short changing students and teachers. Florida has long underfunded education and many of these new or considered reforms are designed to continue to do so.

Take the class size amendment for example. For all of time smaller classes were thought to be better then suddenly when it came time to pay for smaller classes the legislature balked. The same legislature by the way which has doubled the homestead exemption, allowed owners of multiple houses to have exemptions on each property and given huge tax breaks to bottled water companies and luxury yacht makers among others. The legislature has many friends, sadly however, public education is not among them.

Then there are the changes that they are attempting to make to how teachers are paid. Teachers with advanced degrees get paid more; suddenly advanced degrees are no longer important. Teachers who have been teaching longer get paid more, now all of a sudden experience doesn’t matter either. Now I don’t think having a masters or Doctorate degree makes you automatically a better teacher. Teaching is a profession where you have it or you don’t, but it certainly doesn’t hurt, to work on and/or improve your craft through further education. The lack of experience argument however is very disingenuous. Yes sometimes you will have a wunderkind teacher hit the ground running but more often than not the first few years of teaching is less about teaching and more about surviving. These two reforms will enable districts to get teachers on the cheap.

Even the reform that the anti-teacher movement hails will be a boon to teachers, performance pay is unreliable. There are so many factors that can determine success or not, who is deserving or not, but among them are very few quantifiable numbers that can point to who is high performing or not. Yet certain people, most of who were never teachers, seem to think this is the panacea that will save teaching.

After that there are vouchers. I think a parent has to look out for their child and I wouldn’t fault one for wanting to send their child to a school they thought was better but at the same time this does take money away from cash starved public schools. Shouldn’t the answer be first to make public schools better, before we tried other things out. I also see vouchers becoming welfare for the well off. With the way things are going, how long will it be before any kid from any neighborhood, regardless of how much their family makes, be able to get a voucher?

Furthermore a lot of these vouchers go to for profit private schools, private schools by the way, that like their charter counter parts have not proven to be any more effective than public schools. An article in the Times Union about a local charter schools a few years back reported the principal was making over 150 thousand dollars and that several of her immediate family members were making considerably high salaries too. Private and Charter schools don’t have the same oversight as public schools and where I am all for everybody making as much as they can, I just don’t think they should make it on the backs of our children.

Next there is the data collection and high stakes testing which has become the tent poles of the blame the teacher education reformers, tent poles that are making some parties very rich. Friends, Pearson just signed a contract to collect data for 320 million dollars, which has me wondering, why I am still spending my planning time entering data and how much of that money is going to be a profit for them? Think about this, if the state of Florida said, you know what, we’re done with data and spent that money on teachers instead; they could have hired almost 5000 more. What do you think is more important, a company that basically gives teachers the same information most get anyway from working with their kids for a few days, or 5000 more boots on the ground providing instruction and services.

Finally let’s talk about the unions which are bearing the brunt of the ire caused by the blame the teacher crowd. Despite the fact we have unions, teachers here in Florida are some of the lowest paid, most over worked professionals in the country. Can you imagine how many teachers would flee the profession if they lost the little cover provided by the unions? Also I have never heard of our local union protecting bad teachers, just making sure all teachers get due process and they work with the district so much and so closely that many of us rank and file teachers think the line between them sometimes gets blurred.

Many of these reforms seemed designed to save money and why? Is it so the legislature can reward their friends and remember make no mistake the legislature is not a friend of education, or to make their friends at the education companies rich. Sadly all of this is done on the backs of our children and those dedicated men and woman who teach them.

Where are the realistic reforms that add to public schools not take away? The last one before it was vilified (the class size amendment) seems to have had some success. I imagine if we followed the money we would have a better idea.

Those seeking to steer the course of education reform in Florida, which includes many of Governor elect Rick Scott’s education team, would have the public believe several falsehoods.

Poverty is just an excuse. The truth is poverty is a huge issue. Kids that come from homes with absentee parents, where a lack of food and violence are constant factors often perform poorly in school. Quite frankly they have more serious issues to deal with than learning the capital of Alaska and dividing two digit numbers.

Class size doesn’t matter: Class size is extremely important. It allows students to gain more valuable face time with their teachers and fewer kids get lost in the crowd. The Heritage Foundation (Jeb Bush’s education think tank) recently touted all of the great progress that Florida’s schools have experienced over the last decade but completely ignored the fact that most of the progress has occurred since 2003 when the class size amendment began to be phased in.

Test scores are the way to measure student learning. Test scores should be a component of education not the end all be all that they have become. Some kids don’t test well, some kids have bad days, and no kid should be tested all at once time over a whole year, or several years worth of material.

Reform MUST be driven by external measures such as comprehensive tests. Assessments are most useful and reliable when they are closely connected to classroom instruction. Furthermore just who is going to get rich creating and scoring these tests? The Bush family profited greatly from the F-Cat and No Child Left Behind.

Classroom experience doesn’t matter. Most teachers don’t hit their stride, where they are most effective, till they are several years in. Unfortunately about half of all teachers do not last five years.
Tenure provides teachers with lifetime jobs. Teachers do not have "jobs for life"; they have due process and what’s wrong with allowing professionals who sacrifice so much having at least that.

Charter schools are deserving of public funds and support. Actually, charters have not been shown to have better test scores, on average, than regular public schools, their teachers aren't certified and they pick and choose who they allow in and retain.

Data must drive our children’s education. How about having a child’s ability, aptitude and desire drive their education; that might prove more effective.

Vouchers give parents choice. Vouchers also provide welfare for the well off and take much needed resources from cash starved public schools. The answer at least in the short term should be to improve public schools, not further erode them.

Performance Pay for the most deserving teachers. This sounds great in a vacuum, unfortunately when put in practice it is arbitrary and hard to quantify. Somebody way smarter than me would have to come up with a way for this to be done fairly if it is to be both effective and meaningful.

Sec. Duncan: Districts Need to Rethink Class Size, Salary Structure

Is he saying do more with less, or are kids just aren’t that important? –cpg

By Alyson Klein

The dismal economic climate may well be represent "new normal" for schools, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said today at a forum sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute, a free market think tank.
That means schools are going to have to make hard choices, Duncan said. And he's hoping they'll use the opportunity fundamentally rethink long-held ideas, such as the need for students to have a certain amount of "seat time" in each particular class, class size, and teacher pay scales that reward educators for getting advanced degrees.

Duncan is hoping that school administrators won't cut areas that directly impact the classroom, such as trimming instructional time, and scrapping art and music classes. And he doesn't want districts laying off "talented young teachers."

"Unfortunately this pattern of cutbacks has too often prevailed in the past," he said.

Instead, districts might want to look at rethinking transportation routes, and closing down schools that are under-enrolled, Duncan suggested.
And he urged districts to consider "modest but smartly targeted increases in class size." As a parent, Duncan said, he'd much rather have his kids in a class of 26 with a really excellent teacher, than in a class with 22 kids, lead by a mediocre teacher. And he said that in Asian countries that tend to do well on international benchmarks (like South Korea and Japan) average classes in secondary schools are 30 or more, as opposed to the U.S. average of about 25.

During a question and answer period, one teacher questioned that rationale, saying that if she took on additional students, that's asking her to do more for the same amount of money. Duncan said he'd like districts to consider reworking contracts so that effective teachers (particularly those who choose to work with more kids) can make a lot more money, say $80,000, or even $125,000.

I think there are lots of folks out there who would probably agree that is a good conversation to have. But I'm wondering if the economic downturn will make those types of discussions easier (as in, we have to cut costs anyway, so let's rethink salary structure) or much harder (since districts may not have the spare cash for huge salary increases to compensate good teachers for taking on more kids.) What do you think?

And what's your take on Duncan's class size comments? My colleague Sarah Sparks of Inside School Research fame is looking into this and would appreciate your thoughts. Comments section is open!

Taken from Education Week: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2010/11/sec_duncan_districts_need_to_r.html?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4ce47e381a377a2c%2C0

Arne Duncan: Not the Change I Hoped For, Not the Change I Can Believe In

I have to say during the lead up to the '08 election, I allowed myself to be hopeful. Then Senator Obama was saying all the right things. “No child left behind” was a failed experiment that would become a thing of the past and education would finally (after much lip service) become a priority. If only I would have read the fine print as (fast forward two years) things have become worse since he was elected. Teachers now have all the responsibility but none of the authority to teach our children and have had creativity and flexibility stripped from them all in the name of data. Instead of doing what's right for our children, we have turned to “in vogue solutions”, like charter schools and merit pay that both rob public schools of valuable resources that, incongruently, the “data” says work no better than not doing them.

I was very disheartened the other day when now President Obama’s Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan came to town to visit the new KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) school. The KIPP school is truly a formidable beast. Kids go to school longer, on Saturdays and all year long. They have to wear uniforms and parental involvement is mandatory. It also has resources far above and beyond the resources that local neighborhood schools have including a $500,000 grant to support its music program. That’s right, folks - this pseudo private school gets money from the government for a music program just as music programs in most middle schools are being slashed. Hey, Mr. President and Mr. Secretary of Education - how about helping the kids at P.S. this or P.S. that so they can have a music program too, before you fund one at the KIPP school. I mean aren’t the kids in public school worth it as well?

You know what scares me the most? It's what’s going to happen when the KIPP school succeeds and the man on the street says, look there, why can’t they do it at PS this or PS that. Public school teachers must be terrible. Then the powers that be in their far off ivory towers are going to have the excuses they need to further rob teachers of flexibility and creativity and buy them with even more paper work. They are going to have one more reason to take money out of the coffers of the already struggling public schools and steer money to more charter schools and voucher programs. Arne Duncan, by showing up and patting backs, has just given them tacit approval to do so.

Arne Duncan also talked about every kid going to college and this is a sentiment that his boss President Obama has echoed on many occasions, further showing us just how out of touch they are with the reality of the situation. I would just like to remind them and anybody reading that we don’t have the students and parental involvement we wish we had, we have the students and parents that we do and it’s time we made realistic plans to service their needs as well. The truth is the way we are doing things now with a one size fits all everybody is going to college mentality, regardless of ability, desire, and family support, curriculum, stacks the deck against the public school. It practically ensures failure. We need to change things so that in six or seven years from now when two sixth graders graduate, (one from the KIPP school who goes to college and one from PS that graduates with a skill and gets a steady job with room for advancement) we should applaud both. To me, that’s much better than dooming one to a life of public assistance and hopelessness, (that’s the public school kid, by the way).

In the end, however, other than a shiny bow, the KIPP school can’t make any promises that the public school can’t and their principal admits it. On the to the public school I work at, I heard him on the radio. He said, if the kids try hard and stick with the program, we’ll see them through. Well you know what - I am going to go ahead and make the same promise to all the kids in the county at all the public schools. Kids, stick with it and try hard and we will get you through, as well.

Unless you are teaching rocket science, education is not rocket science. Instead of trying extraordinary measures, charter schools and merit pay, (by the way, most teachers teach at the challenged schools because they love the kids there - not because they were bribed to do so) let's do what we should be doing anyway.

Let's put discipline in the classroom; let's not pass kids along until they have the skills to be successful at the next level; let's put in safety nets like social workers, counselors and legitimate summer school opportunities; let's have multiple curriculums that play to kid's strengths and desires, even if that means they don’t go to college right after they graduate and let's do so by making the teaching of trades and the arts as important as the teaching of math and science; let's not make school drudgery, (it’s no stretch of the imagination that if a kid doesn’t like school they aren’t going to do well); let's bring back rigor and slow things down; let's make sure they master the subjects even if that means they learn fewer subjects (we went through 157 pages in a nine week period in one of my classes as I was at the mercy of the pacing guide), and most importantly, instead of dumping on teachers and making them the scapegoats for all that’s wrong in education, we give them some autonomy - don’t overburden them with task after task that has little to do with education, and allow them to use creativity and flexibility even if it means they use data a little less.

I wish the staff and students at the KIPP school nothing but success. They have a long and hard road ahead of them, but at the same time I urge the powers that be not to forget about the neighborhood schools and the students and teachers there. I urge them that instead of funding pseudo private schools that really can’t be fairly compared to the typical public school, that where noble at the same time go to extraordinary lengths, how about they do what's right by the student and teachers at the neighborhood schools first. Then if that didn’t work, though I believe with all my heart it would, then well of course we would have to try something different.

Think about it, shouldn’t we be doing what we should be doing first and then only if that doesn’t work try something else after. Isn’t that how you do, say, everything?

Arne Duncan and his boss do not represent the change I hoped for. I hoped we would take education seriously and realistically. I hoped we would play to children's strengths and start respecting teachers. If extraordinary charter schools is the change they are selling, it is not a change I can believe in and it’s not a change that will work for most children.

Garrulous Mr. Gates

By Arthur Goldstein, NYC Teacher since 1984

It's been a busy year for Bill GatesHe's been spreading his gospel far and wide. He spent 2 million dollars promoting Waiting for Superman, yet its alleged villainess, AFT President Randi Weingarten and company choose Gates to address her convention, an unlikely choise, to say the least.

I'm not an education expert like Gates, so I'll comment only on a Ted talk he gave last year. My experience is limited to teaching 25 years in New York City. Still, even a layperson such as myself has to wonder where the influential Gates gets his information:

How does that [KIPP charter school] compare to a normal school? Well, in a normal school teachers aren't told how good they are. The data isn't gathered. In the teacher's contract, it will limit the number of times the principal can come into the classroom -- sometimes to once per year. And they need advanced notice to do that.

My principal can and does visit my classroom whenever he golly goshdarn feels like it. He offers no advanced notice, and walks around the building visiting my colleagues in exactly the same fashion. Gates's version of what happens in a "normal school" sounds more like a crass stereotype than any contract I've ever heard of.
So imagine running a factory where you've got these workers, some of them just making crap and the management is told, "Hey, you can only come down here once a year, but you need to let us know, because we might actually fool you, and try and do a good job in that one brief moment."

I'm having trouble imagining a teacher who shines like a Christmas tree on an annual basis. If you can't teach, you don't give a sterling lesson on command. If you hate kids, you don't instantly learn to love them when the principal walks in.

Gates claims a top quartile teacher will increase the test scores of students by over 10 percent in a single year. Thus, he reasons, if all students had this teacher, we'd be doing fabulously. I don't know if I'm in the top quartile, but I raise scores when I have to. Yet when I do, I'm not as effective as a teacher.
.
I try to inspire kids. I try to trick them, for example, into loving any book I teach, with high hopes they'll love not only that book, but another, and then another. Will those kids get higher test scores? Maybe. But isn't it possible a love of reading might pay off in some as-yet undetermined future? Isn't it possible they might make career choices, pivotal decisions, based on something gleaned in my classroom?

Gates suggests teachers lack motivation, perhaps because we're not getting merit pay, or because too few administrators tell us how wonderful we are. Why, then, do we write glowing recommendations for kids, pushing for them to be admitted to universities, special programs, or new careers?

Teachers have intrinsic motivation Gates can neither measure nor (apparently) conceive of. I appreciate money, and I'll say thanks to praise from almost anyone. But I especially treasure it from kids. Last June I told my class I'd miss them. They shouted, "We'll miss you too!" They asked me if I'd teach them next year. I was honored, far more than by anything Gates could do or say.

But Gates proves things with charts, one of which says:
Once somebody has taught for three years, their teaching quality does not improve thereafter.

That’s proposterous. Many societies value wisdom and experience, but if they don't drive test scores, Gates's charts are unaffected.

But charts don't face 34 teenagers at a time. I do. You never know what can, what will happen next. Live kids do unimaginable things, things that constantly perplexed me in year three. Even now, I steal any trick, any tip, anything from anyone if it sounds practical. My bag of tricks is considerably larger now than it was 22 years ago, and I learn new things every day.

Says Gates's chart:
A master's degree doesn't raise scores.

But if I hadn't studied bilingualism, language acquisition, and the structures of English (that we all know instinctively but have likely as not never thought about), I'd be unqualified to teach ESL. I'd also never have passed the grueling Board of Examiners test the city required back in the day.

For my kid (and yours), I want a teacher with the deepest possible subject knowledge. Teachers compete with cell phones, iPods, and Microsoft's own Xbox 360 (on which teenagers play some of the most sordid and vulgar war games I've ever seen), and need all the help they can get.

Maybe you don't need a master's to move kids from 55 on one test to 65 on the next test. A more worthy challenge is developing a kid who derives joy from class, one who eagerly participates and will continue studying it even when force is not involved. I will give that kid a better grade than test scores indicate, even if charts disapprove.
Anybody who has access to a DVD player could have the very best teachers.

That's because he wants to film what he considers to be good teachers, and amass a video library. But doing that would mean only that anyone with a DVD player would be able to watch the best teachers.

There'd be no interaction, and certainly no assessment of the kid's work by these best teachers. It's not the same as having someone in your face. Gates seems to know that when it suits his purposes. When he describes his experiences at KIPP, he becomes giddy with excitement:
The teacher was running around, and the energy level is high ... and the teacher was constantly scanning to see which kids weren't paying attention, which kids were bored and calling on kids rapidly, putting things up on the board ... ... keeping people engaged and setting the tone that everyone in the classroom needs to pay attention.

Here, I agree with Gates. But in my school, these things happen every day. And of course everyone needs to pay attention. Were someone to make a statement like that to my 14-year-old, it would merit an unhesitating, "Well, DUH!"
96 percent of KIPP's high school graduates go to four year colleges.

That may be true. Or it may not. KIPP hasn't been around that long, and mostly runs junior high schools, so KIPP students in college represent a very small sample. More to the point, the 96 percent figure, if true on any level, doesn't include kids who don't finish the program -- which at some schools could run to more than half. Who teaches the kids who fail KIPP, and who does Gates blame for that? (I'm thinking me.)

Why not give the high schools the kids attend after KIPP some credit? Are they the "normal" public schools, the schools in which Gates claims administrators are contractually forbidden to observe teachers? Maybe Gates should sponsor that contract.

Charts don't show underlying problems with poor performers. What if the kid has interrupted formal education, shuffled back and forth from one country to another, and by high school cannot read or write? What if there is abuse, neglect, or who knows what waiting for the kid at home? Gates seems to think if only we could raise that kid's test score by 10 percent, all would be well.

Gates's employees can't be bothered with rudimentary fact-checking, nor can American print reporters. They're all too busy fawning over him.

Frankly, it broke my heart to see 3,400 teachers in Seatle doing precisely the same thing. Americans deserve the truth, and if we check a little more carefully, it's not that hard to find.

Taken from the Huffington post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arthur-goldstein/teaching-in-the-out-back_b_741413.html

MAP Money, 20 pieces of silver

People have bought into teacher incentive pay like it's the savior of education. This is a piece I wrote three years ago. Coincidently the last year I got the MAP pay.

If you heard a few screams of joy coming from Ed White high school two Fridays ago it wasn't because a few pimply faced freshmen passed their first big test of the year, it was because a few teachers found a little note in their boxes notifying them they had been awarded the Duval Merit Award Program (MAP) performance pay bonus for the 2006-2007 school year, I was one of those teachers. If you don't know, the MAP bonus was given to the top twenty-five percent of teachers in Duval county and amounted to five percent of the average teachers pay or about 2200 dollars and change, even after taxes an appreciated and significant amount.

I was very excited to receive it, and more it was unexpected, you see when they announced the criteria for it very late last year, I thought there was no way I would get it. This despite the fact there were only two eligibility requirements and I met them both, having received a good evaluation and seen improvements in my students as well. The catch being they were going to use students F-cat scores to determine if they improved or not, and that was a problem for me, and not because like many teachers I feel it's an unfair assessment tool but because despite the fact my students are in high school, they don't take the F-Cat.

You see I don't teach math or science, or even English of history, heck I don't even teach art or P.E., no what I teach is life skills and personal safety, I sometimes jokingly tell people I teach the penny, the color brown, how to make popcorn, and the big hand on the clock, the joke however is, I am actually not joking, to (trainably) mentally handicapped (TMH) kids. How they were going to evaluate teachers in my area as well as art and P.E. and a few others was significantly vague, it seemed as if we were going to be left out, so when I left for the summer the thought of me getting the bonus, where it wasn't completely out of the question, it was nearly so.

So when I got it I proceeded to giggle like a little school girl while simultaneously doing a happy dance. After my giddiness subsided I went to share my good news with my colleagues, little did I know, I would soon be sneaking to my car with my head down.

I went to the classroom next store to share my good news with my good friend and fellow TMH teacher. He taught the same kids I did as they rotated back and forth between us and two other teachers, he was also my mentor at school (not only was 06-07 my first year at Ed White, but it was also a return to teaching for me, after some time in the private sector) and without him I would have been lost. I told him about my windfall thinking he probably received the bonus himself and he would be happy for me because in my mind he played a big part in me receiving it, but all I got was a rather cold "that's nice for you". He didn't get it and I later learned out of the four of us that literally taught the exact same kids, only two of us had received the bonus.

Not feeling the love I went and visited another friend of mine. She is the head of her department, teaches honors classes, sponsors clubs, and is regarded as one of the best teachers around, she had to have received it, and I thought we could bask in our greatness together, I felt I would be safe in sharing my good news with her. The problem was she didn't get it either and all I got was another cold "that's nice for you".

On my planning period I headed to the lounge, before I entered I overheard a few teachers talking about the MAP bonus, one said I can't believe this teacher got it, another said I can't believe that teacher didn't get it, when I finally decided to enter their conversation literally screeched to a halt, and after a moment they all got up to leave, on the way out one of them gave me a "that's nice for you" smile. The whole rest of the day I felt a bit like a pariah and all I had done wrong was to do my job well, something I had in common with the vast majority of teachers at Ed White high school.

So here I am the pride and excitement of receiving the MAP bonus earlier in the day quickly subsided, now it was replaced with guilt and instead of inviting kids out to celebrate our successes I was now trying to avoid my colleagues as I snuck to my car. I was afraid if I saw more of them, I would just upset them as well.

I felt bad on the lonely ride home but not because I didn't feel I deserved it, on the contrary I think I am a very good teacher and I definitely deserved it. When it comes to instruction and forming relationships with students, the two things I feel are the most important things teachers do, I think I am in the top one percent, though if I am being honest there are a few other areas that the modern teacher is responsible for that I lag behind in, no I felt bad because I thought a lot of other teachers, some who are just as good at the things I am good at and some who are good at the things I am not so good at, deserved it to.

A few years ago while taking a Learning Strategies class for my certification the teacher showed a video of a teacher, and we were supposed to rate her effectiveness on a scale of zero to four. She was dry and boring, a little haphazard with her classroom management and unfair with her discipline. I turned to a teacher friend who was taking the class with me and said "I am going to give her a zero, what are you going to give her?" He looked at me and said "I am going to give her a one."

"What" I literally shouted back, "she was unclear, uncaring, unfair and undeserving of even one point, how can you justify giving her anything." He then calmly replied, your right, about all that, but what you are forgetting about, is she showed up, she came in, when so many other people in society won't." I later changed my score of her to a one too.

And that's what teachers do, they show up, often to overcrowded classrooms, not enough supplies, rowdy students, apathetic parents, and demands on their time that far exceed the 7.5 hours a day they are paid, and the vast majority of them are a lot better than the teacher in the video, and the vast majority of them deserved better, than seeing a quarter of their colleagues rewarded for basically the same work that they had been doing.

Now I am not saying every teacher should have gotten the bonus, though if it would have been distributed equally among all teachers, each of us would have received about six hundred dollars, and I am definitely not saying I plan on giving the check back, under the system I earned it, also last year as a sixth year teacher I was making less than first year teachers do now, and right now my raise for next year is scheduled to be a whopping 219 dollars (which means after inflation my actual disposable income will go down).

Also I don't want to sound unappreciative or ungrateful because I am not, but I also think I am a bit lucky to. When teachers like ***** and *****, along with so many other great teachers don't get the bonus, it's obvious the system is broke and unfair and if we can't get it fixed by next year, I say unless your that one teacher in that video lets go ahead and split it up evenly, as much as I would like the extra money, I really don't want to have to sneak to my car at the end of the day again.