Why the DC Impact system Bloomberg wants NYC schools to emulate caused me to leave teaching

[proud2BlibKansan]

A teacher's story: Why the DC Impact system Bloomberg wants NYC schools to emulate caused me to leave teaching

There is huge pressure from all sides – the federal government, Governor Cuomo, and Mayor Bloomberg – on the UFT, the NYC teachers union, to agree to a test-based teacher evaluation and compensation system in NYC. Similar pressures are being exerted on teachers throughout the US, as a result of "Race to the Top" and the corporate reform agenda being promoted by the Gates Foundation and the other members of the Billionaire Boys Club. In his State of the City address, Bloomberg also proposed that teachers rated highly through such a system should get a salary increase of $20,000 a year.

Merit pay has been tried in many cities, including NYC, and has never worked to improve student outcomes. When challenged about the evidence for such a policy, Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson tweeted a link to a recent NY Times puff piece about DC’s Impact system, in which a couple of teachers who had received bonuses after being rated “highly effective” were interviewed as saying that this extra pay might persuade them to stay teaching longer.

Stephanie Black is a former teacher in Washington DC. In both 2010 and 2011 she was rated “effective” by the DCPS evaluation system. She is now living in Chicago where she tutors math and coaches in an after school program. Here is her story.

From 2007 until 2011, I taught in the same DC Public School. My first year, like many teachers' first years, was a stressful learning experience full of trial and error, but a disproportionate amount of error. In my second year, I believe I got fantastically lucky. Since I was picked to teach a newly formed fifth-sixth grade combination class, I was allowed to have a much smaller class than most – only about 17 students – as we figured out how the combination would work. My second year was wonderful. My students and I formed magnificent bonds, and since I was still relatively new to education and no test-based evaluations yet existed, I was blissfully ignorant of any sort of need to teach to the test.

more . . . http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2012/01/teachers-story-why-dc-impact-system.html

[ChalkFace]

1. Occupy the DOE

To whom it may concern:

On March 30th to April 2nd, 2012, the grassroots education reform organization United Opt Out National (http://unitedoptout.com) will be holding an event in Washington, DC called Occupy the DOE. As a collection of teacher educators, K-12 teachers, and parents from around the country, we ask for your participation and support.

For more than a decade, the reform narrative in education has been dominated by test-based accountability, competition, and punishment. Large foundations and other corporate entities have propagated market-based principles like school choice, pay-for-performance, and for-profit management of schools. Consequently, large amounts of private wealth go towards influencing legislators and other public officials to dismantle public education, ultimately in favor of a private system that can be run for profit.

The key lever is the vaunted score on high-stakes state standardized tests, used to justify a slew of controversial decisions. As a result of ten years of this kind of reform, we are experiencing schools just as segregated by race and social class as they were in the 1950s. We in the United States are also experiencing a teaching profession that is constantly undermined and under attack. The culture of punishment and competition created under No Child Left Behind and now Race to the Top has proven to be a massive failure. Yet, private entities still push for test-based accountability measures despite near-universal opposition from educators and the pile of evidence against it.

In order to grind this failed reform climate to a screeching halt, we at United Opt Out National feel that an ultimate act of civil disobedience is all that we have left. We therefore call upon educators, leaders, parents, and students across our vast public education system to withhold the data by opting out of their state’s standardized tests. If policy-makers, legislators, and other officials cannot make responsible decisions based on quantitative data, and if they refuse to appreciate evidence to the contrary, then the only arrow left in our quiver is to simply refuse to hand over the data.

We at United Opt Out National certainly understand the potential consequences of refusing state standardized tests. We appreciate the reluctance of teachers and administrators to engage in an opt-out measure. Various state departments of education and their officials falsely claim that parents do not have the legal right to opt-out, that their refusal to concede to the tests will unfairly punish their children and their schools. While officials might be able to fire teachers, they cannot fire parents. If school systems wish to continue their obsession with test scores, then they must also be prepared to offer alternatives for the growing wave of parents who see test preparation violating their consciences and robbing their children of meaningful educational experiences.

Our Occupy the DOE event will include numerous teach-ins, social events, and actions in protest against test-based and corporate driven education reforms. In preservation of a free and equitable public education, and to support a new direction in education reform, we ask that you strongly consider participating in our event. If you would like any other information, feel free to contact any one of our administrators through our site at http://unitedoptout.com, which provides direct links to our myriad social media accounts, endorsements, readings, and other documentation.

Thank you for your consideration,

United Opt Out National
http://unitedoptout.com

[elleng]

2. May send this to POTUS and FLOTUS.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Why??

[elleng]

4. So I will have done my best

to inform them about serious problems with current 'education regulation,' espoused by Obama administration and others, in States.
My daughters attended private schools in DC, as do theirs, and I'd like to suggest they recognize harm that's occurring to those NOT obtaining fine education our daughters have experienced.
May also attach link about Finnish education.

Why NOT?

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. I appreciate your motivation

And I wish you luck.

But I don't believe he's listening.

[elleng]

6. He's certainly busy,

and made a horrible decision on arne ages ago, my only serious disagreement with PrezO, but its one of those times I've just GOT to do what I can, and as I'm not a 'marcher,' I do words and discussions, I'll do this.

AND, younger daughter studied Preschool & Special Ed at WVU, is a natural teacher, now informally teaches and sits for several kids, including with special needs, hasn't completed her 5-year degree, and this stuff inclines me against even bothering to encourage her to complete her degree. I don't want her to be subjected to this crap, in public schools. Would be HORRIBLE.

She attended fine private and then parochial schools in DC area (see link I've provided, re: Lowell School,) so we're as 'spoiled,' or as well-educated, as Malia and Sasha Obama, and I want that education for EVERYONE.

(Sorry for rant!)

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. Rant is great. Keep on.

I too want that education for EVERYONE.