L.A. Times "Without apology, they reduce children's lives to the score on their standardized tests."

[madfloridian]

And the L. A. Times also

Without any evident thought to the consequences, they restrict the definition of a teacher's purpose to raising those test scores. The article suggests that if LAUSD just had the "will" to fire our teachers based on these "facts" our children would learn and their dreams would come true.

This is an excellent column at Huffington Post written by a member of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board of Education.

Partnership and Trust most important values

The Los Angeles Times has been running a weekly series that I consider a vicious attack on the integrity of the teaching profession. The reporters have singled out individual Los Angeles Unified School District teachers, identified them by name and, using several years worth of records and a statistical method known as value-added analysis, judged those teachers ineffective or effective by whether the math and English test scores in their classrooms had risen or dropped over time.

As a career teacher and counselor now serving as a member of the LA Board of Education as well as a strong supporter of the LAUSD Teacher Effectiveness Task Force, I feel compelled to respond.

The LA Times writers christen the value-added evaluation approach as the determinate factor in measuring a teacher's effectiveness. Without apology, they reduce children's lives to the score on their standardized tests. Without any evident thought to the consequences, they restrict the definition of a teacher's purpose to raising those test scores. The article suggests that if LAUSD just had the "will" to fire our teachers based on these "facts" our children would learn and their dreams would come true.

Well-said, and that is exactly what they are doing. They are putting teachers' names in the public eye for data based on tests only.

This is going to go even further in destroying precious relationships between teachers, students, and parents.

It is going to undermine teachers without holding parents and students to account. The students are getting a chance to see teachers held up to scorn...good teachers many of them have loved.

I like this paragraph also. There is no need to turn parents against teachers this way.

Most parents I talk to may have legitimate issues with our public education system but hold their local teachers in high regard. I agree wholeheartedly that families must be informed and empowered in a different, transformative ways. But we don't have to turn parents against teachers to get there. Genuine parent engagement involves equal partners working together towards the singular goal of student achievement. This can only happen when families are approached as the experts and the ultimate decision-makers about their child's education. In these turbulent economic times, the school site is often the most stable place in a community for students and their families. Our focus must be on strengthening that school community, not turning stakeholders upon one another.

Last November Michelle Obama met with students, and she told them not to let the test define them.

Michelle Obama tells students not to let the tests "defeat" or "define" them.

First lady Michelle Obama doesn't put much stock in standardized tests.

"Don't let those tests defeat you. Don't let those tests define you," she told a group of about 30 students at Denver's South High School on Monday as part of a day of mentoring in the city.

"When I was growing up, I was never a great standardized test-taker," but she ended up attending Princeton University, Mrs. Obama said. Straight-A grades and a strong essay helped her overcome bad test scores, she added.

The first lady, however, did not hint that she thought standardized tests should go away. Speaking to a student who had asked whether it's fair to use test scores to measure schools when some students don't speak English well, Mrs. Obama said the tests are "part of the system" and can't be avoided.

"You can fight the tests, or you can work with them and turn them into an advantage," she said.

Perhaps she now has some kind words for the many teachers whose careers will be turned upside down as more and more newspapers get on the bandwagon to print the names like the L. A. Times did.

But then again there are very few words of kindness for teachers coming from the WH or the party now.

[MichiganVote]

1. Or, Mrs. Obama, you can answer the question that was asked.

Exactly how does a student with limited English proficiency, with a learning disability, with Autism, with a shitty life even turn that test into an "advantage"?

Must not have learned too much logical common sense at Princeton. Maybe she should lobby for some firings there like her husband's "education" director.

Pathetic.

[madfloridian]

2. No one will answer that question.

[slipslidingaway]

3. knr nt

[bread_and_roses]

4. Great stuff, Arne! Offer hungry, homeless kids a student data system and teacher evals!

yeah, that's the stuff. That will fix it. NY got some of this $$$ so I heard on NPR today how none of it can be used to hire back fired teachers...other stuff, can't remember it all, I started seeing red. When we are sending our kids to school from a home, not a shelter, when their parents have jobs and they're not going hungry, when some kids are not stuck in schools with rats and no books and holes in the floor, when they don't have to fear walking to and from school in their blasted third-world neighborhoods or get on the bus half-frozen in winter because there's not enough heat in the house, THEN lets talk about teacher evals, eh?

(I hope it's obvious this is not directed at MF, who's a great defender of children, public schools, and teachers as professionals.)

[Dinger]

5. K & Rec #11

[Danger Mouse]

6. Standardized testing is a farce, but it sounds nice if you use a lot of academic words...

when you talk about it.

Our education system will continue to fail as long as politicians continue to think that standardized testing has ANYTHING to do with the problems in our schools.

I used to want to go into sociological research...for education...to try and improve schools. But then I had professors teach me that politicians don't care about the truth...just what sounds good to their constituents or puts money in somebody's pocket.

And thus, I gave up the dream...I wouldn't pursue a hopeless cause.

[OmahaBlueDog]

7. I truly believe a lot of this comes out of Six Sigma

Six Sigma was part of the Q/C philosophy used by GE in the Jack Welch era> Anyone working in a corporate environment whose goals are spelled out in a "Balanced Scorecard" using "S.M.A.R.T." goals knows what I'm talking about.

The idea is to develop a quality control program around metrics. Find a way to measure or quantify something, determine how much is falling outside the metric, and then determine an acceptable benchmark. Fire the workers (generally the bottom 10-25%) not producing items within the benchmark.

This is fine if you are millng bar stock. You get out a micrometer, you take a measurement, and the milling is either within tolerance or it isn't. Increasingly, I see this methodology misused in areas where the measure of good outcomes is highly subjective.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. S.M.A.R.T. goals

LOL

Isn't about time for those to go away? Their time on the fad train should be about up.

[OmahaBlueDog]

10. We should only be so lucky

:argh:

[Recursion]

18. Reduce variability. Great for manufacturing widgets

Not so good for teaching people

[midnight]

9. K&R

[Starry Messenger]

11. I'm just waiting for someone from here or the White House

to tell a teacher that being fired is "uniquely American". We are the new scapegoat. We're hosed.

[defendandprotect]

16. Obviously, your union is also a target for this anti-education attack . . .!!

[Jakes Progress]

12. The Obamas are coming off as dolts.

There really is no defense for these actions. We have been screwed by the very people we elected to help schools. They have joined forces with bill bennet and newt gingrich. Someone tell me where in his campaign literature Obama promised to privatize schools and implement ronald reagan's education plan.

No one but a traitor Democrat could have done this. Had any republican tried, the outcry from the Democratic party would have been ferocious. The worst kind of traitor is one who sells out his friends for his own gain. We have one of those in the WH.

[defendandprotect]

17. +1000% --

"You can only really be betrayed by those closest to you" --

Thanks why it isn't only corporations buying the GOP ---

In order to own government, they also had to infiltrate and "own" the Democratic Party --

and the process is well and long underway!!

Nice post!!

[LarryNM]

13. More Attacks on American Labor and the Middle Class n/t

[flyarm]

14. Is LA Times Owner vying for Eli Broad's Foundation money Influx?

Is LA Times Owner vying for Eli Broad's Foundation money Influx?



http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/technology/03iht-papers.1.5124367.html?_r=1
New owner sparks dismay at The Los Angeles Times
By Laura M. Holson and Sharon Waxman
Published: Tuesday, April 3, 2007

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Times was nothing but trouble for the Tribune Co., and it may prove even more of a challenge for its new owner, Samuel Zell.

Ever since Tribune bought the Times Mirror Co. in 2000 - and, with it The Los Angeles Times - there has been a culture clash between the Chicago-based owners at Tribune and its marquee California newspaper. The schism seems to have helped fuel things like the public criticism that the paper is out of touch and the recent battles in the newsroom that have led to high-profile resignations.

The tension has been particularly pronounced throughout the deal-making process, which pitted Zell, a Chicago resident, against a pair of Los Angeles businessmen, Ronald Burkle and Eli Broad. Also in the running was a Hollywood mogul, David Geffen, who on Monday reaffirmed his interest in either acquiring The Los Angeles Times outright or buying a stake in it and running it.

But the backdrop of wounded civic pride was only one factor that provoked cries of dismay from the newsroom and the community Monday at the news that Zell had prevailed. There was also the fact that Zell has stated that he has no interest in newspapers, and that he is taking the corporate reins at a critical time of declining circulation.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1048893120090310

Broad's interest in LA Times still alive
By Lilla Zuill

NEW YORK, March 10 | Tue Mar 10, 2009 2:06am EDT

NEW YORK, March 10 (Reuters) - Eli Broad, a wealthy philanthropist who once looked at buying the Los Angeles Times, is still interested in a foray into the newspaper business, he told a gathering in New York on Monday night.

[defendandprotect]

15. Who would value tests over a liberal education, except the right wing???

If we want to maximize the intelligence of our children -- our future citizens --

a liberal education is required.

This alleged testing of children and teachers is completely arbitrary and nuts!

Thought when we elected a Democratic president that attacks on public education

were end? So did I!