Frontline doc about Rhee and cheating

[Anonymous]

So, we all agree that the basic concept of assessment of teachers is valid and useful, even if specific implementations like IMPACT are bad.

So, if IMPACT is bad, what kind of assessment does it get replaced with?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, we all agree that the basic concept of assessment of teachers is valid and useful, even if specific implementations like IMPACT are bad.

So, if IMPACT is bad, what kind of assessment does it get replaced with?

Well, the time-honored way is to ask your boss if he thinks you're doing a good job. If your boss is being held accountable to produce results, he has a strong incentive to have a staff that produces. Evaluations are a tool for him keeping his staff productive. That's basically how functional organizations operate.

IMPACT is as much about not trusting principals as it is about not trusting teachers.

[Anonymous]

With school admin scandal after scandal like erasures and embezzling, CAN we really trust the principals? They need assessment as well. Aren't there any other good models for assessing teachers and administrations?

[Anonymous]

^ Why for that matter do school districts all around the country keep re-inventing the wheel where it comes to trying to understand even their baseline for educational performance, let alone effectiveness of teachers and admin? Surely there are by now a ton of lessons-learned on the various things different jurisdictions have tried, what works and what doesn't work - is it that the educational system is really so parochial and dysfunctional that there is no collaboration for coming up with better models than IMPACT, or is there a lack of collective will (i.e. pushback from unions, et cetera)?

[Anonymous]

I am a former DCPS teacher, our order, which I felt was not just a principal directed mandate was that we can't fail students. If we do, we are responsible and your job is at risk. If the students don't come to school or miss classes and have a certain percentage (dictated by DCPS downtown under TAS) you can dismiss those students from your final teacher assessment. Additionally, if the school does not score a certain percentage on the DC CAS they risk being closed down or restructured. Some parents are so happy their children are getting A and B grades but sadly don't realize that these grades are meaningless. Sally got 30% of her grade for showing up to class with a pencil. She got extra credit for doing homework, the teacher suspected but couldn't prove that she had her friend do it. She got points for class participation and for going to Saturday school for the DC CAS. She got a D on the end of year assessment but her report card shows she is an A/B student so Sally and her mother are happy!!!!

There is so much yearly turmoil and overturn of staff at some schools they cannot get anything initiated or show growth. On average it takes 5 years to overhaul a school, though some experts say it is not even possible, so it is impossible to show major growth each year in a restructured school. Demographics, number of special ed and ELL students can make a difference, as can the number of out of boundary students who have transferred in due to behavior issues at other schools. Teachers cannot work miracles and have little control over these issues.

DCPS does NOT have a curriculum and aligned formative or end of year assessments, let's say that again because it seems to be something that is not addressed. DCPS DOES NOT HAVE A STANDARDS BASED CURRICULUM, it is in the development stage this year. Everyone is doing something different, schools keep trying new theories/strategies of learning that someone from downtown now thinks is the best thing going, and teachers are required to show this strategy when they are observed or they are marked down under IMPACT or by literacy coaches. Students all need a dose of reality, as others have said if we don't admit were students are in regards to learning then we cannot achieve anything. To move forward we need to give all students a series of standardized tests (proctored from outside), going forward let's have SMALL classes with differentiated learning for those in the middle band, and for those at the extreme ends of the spectrum give them remedial or advance classes. Students should get 2 grades in middle/high school, one for mastery (which does not include participation, attendance, bell work etc only the standardized exams that test the mastery of standards) and another grade that includes all the other things. Students nor parents really know what DCPS grades mean because they are a mix of mastery, attendance, participation, extra credit, etc. If we are not honest we can't move forward with helping our schools or helping our students improve. The question is, is everyone ready to hear the truth?

[Anonymous]

Using the DC CAS to evaluate teachers is a problem, see today's post article about Seattle. The DC CAS is not a teacher assessment tool was designed to determine students proficiency level in English and Math. Also, as the DC CAS does not count toward the students' final grade or graduation they don't take it seriously. Another flaw with IMPACT.

[Anonymous]

Montgomery county has a system called PAR that works quite well. It was devised by the union and the administration and does NOt include rating teachers by their students test scores.

"Mentor teachers" who take three years awy from their regular teaching assignments do the evaluating, then go back to their classes. So being a mentor is not a way out of classroom teaching.

I don't have the stats, but have heard that numerous teachers have been counseled out by the program with little fuss.

Mont co offered to help DCPS devise its system using the MC already successful system, but DCPS was not interested.

[Anonymous]

I saw the documentary and I miss the ol'girl at the helm of DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I saw the documentary and I miss the ol'girl at the helm of DCPS.

I'm curious how you reconcile that with the culture of cheating and deception?

[Anonymous]

Everyone is worth forgiving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I saw the documentary and I miss the ol'girl at the helm of DCPS.

I'm curious how you reconcile that with the culture of cheating and deception?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dc-schools-pass-yet-another-test/2013/01/11/93af43d6-5b45-11e2-88d0-c4cf65c3ad15_story.html

Maybe because there wasn't one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone is worth forgiving.

Nice theology, but bad public policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Your stories about teaching make me even more concerned for the young woman I tutor who is a junior at a charter school. From what she tells me, it sounds like her school does a better job than Anacostia but I continue to worry about her low level of reading ability. They keep taking her and the other students on college visits, creating expectations that she, too, will go to college. When she applies herself, she does get decent grades so it's conceivable she could get into college but I know she can't read well enough to survive college. She's a good kid who, except for some typical adolescent stuff, is pretty responsible. Chances are good she will graduate from high school but I worry a lot about what will happen to her when she graduates. I'm not confident that anyone is really preparing her for life after high school. Your stories about being pressured to hand out good grades are not helping my anxiety!

Paul Tough in his most recent book, How Children Succeed has a chapter on a program in Chicago that helps kids that are scoring in the bottom 20% of the SAT that are trying to go to college. It maybe worth sharing that chapter because the girl he profiles is definately not an obvious candidate for college, but does develop some strategies that help her succeed intially, she had not finish college yet, when he finished the book, so you don't know if it is enough.

Pp here. Thanks! I've read that book already and it gave me hope that there was some way that I could help my student. I thought it was a great book - useful for any parent who wants to know how to help their kid in school.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I saw the documentary and I miss the ol'girl at the helm of DCPS.

I'm curious how you reconcile that with the culture of cheating and deception?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dc-schools-pass-yet-another-test/2013/01/11/93af43d6-5b45-11e2-88d0-c4cf65c3ad15_story.html

Maybe because there wasn't one.

The editorial says that there is no evidence of widespread cheating. However, there hasn't been an investigation into widespread cheating. Check out Jay Mathew's on this topic:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/time-for-michelle-rhee-to-probe-test-tampering/2013/01/13/c4681ec8-5d4b-11e2-9fa9-5fbdc9530eb9_blog.html

He describes what has occurred as:

"A series of superficial investigations, the parameters controlled by D.C. school brass, that never called on the expertise of psychometricians, never dug into the data, and lacked any reasonable explanations of how such erasures could have been made by anyone but adults."

Mathews has traditionally been supportive of Rhee and even this article is full of praise for her. The Post editorial board has been in Rhee's pocket from the very beginning when the paper was given exclusive access to her even before the Council was told of her selection to be Chancellor. Post editors simply have no credibility where Rhee is concerned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I saw the documentary and I miss the ol'girl at the helm of DCPS.

I'm curious how you reconcile that with the culture of cheating and deception?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dc-schools-pass-yet-another-test/2013/01/11/93af43d6-5b45-11e2-88d0-c4cf65c3ad15_story.html

Maybe because there wasn't one.

If the Post editorial board genuinely believes that there was no cheating, they owe it to the District's students to do a front page piece on all the the policies and practices at Noyes that contributed to massive test score gains.