Comments on: Teaching, Testing and Counseling

By: Deb B

Deb B — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:59:54 +0000

If you had listened during the campaign Obama told you what he believed.

Our district is finally asking good questions about the assessments and the data we have collected. It is not being used to inform instruction. We are also asking questions about how the data connects to each other and which are valid measurements of what children know.

KV said it best, “So it goes…

By: Hripsime M.

Hripsime M. — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 01:44:20 +0000

I don’t know what to say that hasn’t already been said, but it’s almost discouraging to read that teacher performance will be judged almost solely on test scores. With so many changes already taken place in education and educational reform, is higher pay really going to be the incentive for teachers to focus on test scores?

It has always been a low-paying job that educators have said they enjoy doing because making a difference is important. How is prepping students for tests considered making a difference? Teachers don’t just strive to teach what’s in the textbooks, but should also (hopefully) strive to teach students to think outside of the box, to analyze, to question and to determine.

By: Liz Priebe

Liz Priebe — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:06:58 +0000

I echo the “this article was startling” comment…how would you calculate the pay for a teacher of students with significant disabilities? The alternative assessments would be a terrible yardstick of their progress, and by definition, a student with a cognitive delay would not be expected to make a year’s progress in a year’s time. I don’t mind being held to a high standard, but kids are not a clear cut, cookie-cutter population any more than adults are. I don’t want to be judged (or paid) according to a standard that isn’t appropriate to the kids and the situations I teach in.

By: Diane Thorson

Diane Thorson — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:33:21 +0000

While I am not a teacher, I feel complelled to comment on this blog of education and the direction that we seem to be heading. It feels like we are straddling the fence where we can not fully see the new location.

I will use an analogy to express my excitement and fear. Education today feels like a spaceship leaving the earth for a distant planet. The challenges of leaving the earth’s gravitational pull and the stresses on the students, teachers, and parents causes us to second guess our decision and journey. We start with: Why am I doing this? What’s wrong with my life here on Earth? What benefit will I gain by leaving this life and pursuing life somewhere else that I perceive to be more valuable.

While this idea of impeding excitement, allows us to focus on the journey, I can not help to wonder about the scientists that have calculated our path. What do they gain? What if their calcuation was wrong, and we miss our destination? Can they get us back to Earth?

I think we need to understand what we are measuring? Why are test scores the only measure that teachers are graded on, when this might not be a valuable indicator anymore….

By: Anna Scott

Anna Scott — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:20:07 +0000

I don’t know if it will be easy, but you should try using SMS, ie, cell phones. Cell phones can be disruptive, but they are in fact hand held computers. Rather than try to use rich media, go for the rudimentary and work assignments like game shows. You can get a shortcode and put up “quizzes” that students can respond to in real time rather than send home home work. This would likely get their interest up to do more during class time.
The reason why this is not easy has to do with whether or not the student’s phone allows text messaging, if they even have one, of the parents are okay with you having their number, if your administrators will not freak out.
I teach college, so I can get away with a certain level of ‘innovating.’ Here is the company I used to create a costume that was also a communication device for an interactive piece on water shortage: http://www.textmarks.com/ I think now they charge or drop ads into the text, but they may work with you since you are an educator.
The other service I’ve used is FriendFeed, it is like a stripped-down wiki in many ways. My class (all frosh) preferred it to Twitter. We did group research assignments and took quizzes through FriendFeed. Requires access to a desktop/laptop, or a higher-end cell phone with a data subscription.
You can also have them make micro-documentaries using their onboard video cameras on their cell phones–again, those are the higher end ones. Those can be sent directly to various online services. They also make photo essays with those cameras and place them in a Flickr feed that you would set up, then tag each picture later in class as pre-writing.
Yes, with all the beeping and collaborative work, the classroom gets a bit chaotic, but the quiet types thrive because they can text you or send you a backchannel message through FriendFeed which you can then verbally share with the room and the “attentionally challenged” shine because they really can follow the ‘spores’ of ideas, pulling up videos/links/articles/pictures that the more linearly focused student would not even bother to click. Those students by the way end up loosening up, realizing that teachers are everywhere, not just in the front of the class.
a colleague of mine has designed a system for SMS instruction, but it is not widely available yet. get in touch with her! She is looking for test sites in the US: http://texterritory.com/

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:28:12 +0000

This article is startling. I currently work at an inner city school in Detroit and would be bankrupt if my salary was dependent on the achievement of the students. I spend a good portion of the day writing up anywhere between 5-10 detention referrals, which limits instruction. Additionally, I have made in excess of 200 phone calls this school year and still have half the students failing to turn in homework. What a policy like this will do is force good teachers to leave their jobs with more challenging students for financial reasons. Do you agree?

In my opinion, the current problem we are facing in education is that teachers are overworked and do not have time to make engaging lessons for our 21st century learners. It is nearly impossible to incorporate YouTube, myspace, podcast, PowerPoint enough with so many other duties. I am learning a plethora of educational technologies to better my students, and attempting to find ways in which to efficiently implement them. Does anyone have any suggestions of technologies that I could incorporate rather easily?

By: Linda

Linda — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:11:03 +0000

I am a special education teacher. I have high school students who struggle with severe learning disabilities and communication impairments. How will I be judged based on their test scores? Will my job be in jeopardy because some do not score “Proficient” on the High School Proficiency Assessment? I look for growth in my students. I feel that is more important than reaching some number that determines their proficiency in a subject. But is that enough as far as the politicians and my Superintendent are concerned?

In the past year, my school district has increasingly relied on data-driven decision making. We analyze test scores to see in which specific skills they are weakest. We look at the students who missed scoring “proficient” by less than five points. We develop plans to try to help these students “get over the hump” on the next test. We are looking at our courses and have to prove what we are doing is working. It’s all about the numbers. This disturbs me. Don’t our students, our children, deserve to be treated better than a number?

By: Phil

Phil — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:16:29 +0000

Extremely sad and frustrating to watch. However, in the end we do what we do as best we can, and if that isn’t good then I guess it’s time to move on. I believe there are still enough people with the common sense to see the fallacy in such an endeavor, and prevent it from becoming a reality, but I’ve been proven wrong before..;)

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:12:32 +0000

I must agree with you, Mr. Richardson, when you state the following:
“But if you’re a teacher and you read the part where teachers whose kids don’t get good test scores “need to be identified and counseled,” I can’t imagine how you could be feeling very good about your profession right now. Forget the relationships you build with those kids. Forget the love you give many of them that they may not be getting at home. Forget the way you try to help them navigate the complexity of their lives or their families or their relationships.”

A truly scary thought! Not to mention that, in the school where I teach, classes are homogeneously grouped. I was given the “lowest” group of students (according to their test scores) because the principal understood my effectiveness. Will my students bridge the gap of their previous test scores to achieve AYP? That depends on so many factors out of my control. What about teachers who have special education or ELL students pushed into the classroom? Should they not be paid as effective teachers?

I apprecaite you putting this notion into perspective for the public. Your book does the same with implementing technology into the classroom.

Thank You,
J. Noel

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:58:04 +0000

Will, everyone else already said what I would want to say too! You do know how to create a “hot button” for response. Perhaps you should lead this topic into a major Survey Monkey activity and morph this passion into “data” to send to the “powers that be”!

By: Chris Miraglia

Chris Miraglia — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 04:04:57 +0000

I am also disturbed about the discussion about the relationship of student performance with teacher performance. Apparently, the thought is that with pay being tied to student performance, better students will be produced. I guess that teachers will then not considering teaching to the test, as if they already don’t do that in some places.
Perhaps all those associated with educational reform should readYong Zhao’s, recent book Catching Up or Leading the Way, which makes the point that America is falling in the trap of comparing our country with China and others. Moreover, the testing movement that our nation is currently embarking on is the exact opposite path many of our competitors are focused on. These countries have realized that standardization and over-testing only leads to standardized thinking and decreased creativity. The book provides an interesting look to the future of education in our country.

By: Lyn

Lyn — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:02:29 +0000

I am amazed at the lack of respect for our president of the United States. I believe people were waiting for the ink to dry to set out to destroy his credibility. Does it even matter that he inheritied the worst mess in modern history? Let’s try to respect our president, if we do other countries will too!

By: Diane Saienni Albanese

Diane Saienni Albanese — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:42:29 +0000

Your comments are right on. Look at the focus that is continuing with the Race To The Top initiative. More emphasis on a single test and then even more high stakes for the students and the teachers, as if nothing else matters. There needs to be a revolution right now to take back the schools and place them in the hands of trained, caring professionals. Reduce class sizes, allow for innovation and creativity and evaluate children on more than one measure!

By: Melissa

Melissa — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:47:57 +0000

Simply put. So true!

By: Kat

Kat — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:03:51 +0000

I totally agree with your comments. The conversations on merit pay vs. comments like Thomas Friedman’s are just so…they make my head hurt. No Child Left Behind with, ironically, its punitive course is so at odds with a collaborative classroom environment that develops the qualities that Thomas Friedman discusses.

But which direction is more persuasive for schools? In a school that is not meeting the targets required by law for AYP, what is it that you are going to do more of? You are going to keep hammering away at trying to meet those impossible AYP targets — because there are consequences. No one likes pain. So, schools try to avoid the pain of those consequences. And it is going to get worse as more and more schools fail. In the meantime, since we are trying to meet the targets for AYP, we are neglecting — or doing far less of the types of activities — projects that require deep thinking, questioning, collaboration, and using technology that requires students to create in more sophisticated ways — that will develop the problem solvers and creative thinkers that Thomas Friedman mentions.

And then the education process receives another injection of the same type of thinking that is already not working with No Child Left Behind — merit pay. It amazes me that the opinion — due to the data, of course — seems to be that the classroom teacher makes or breaks students all by himself/herself. In good schools, classroom teachers cannot do what they do well without a whole host of supports — from cafeteria services, to paras/tutors, to maintenance, to library/technology, to administrative support, to guidance and social work. How do those supports figure into the merit pay scheme??

Again, we are trying to improve education by creating divisions rather than by banding together for the sake of students. I just don’t see how out of a culture of division you can create a culture of collaborative thinkers and problem solvers.