For years now teachers have been subjected to these things. It is not getting better it is getting worse.
There have always been methods in place to grade and evaluate teachers, formal evaluations by principals and counselors who work with them. They are in written form and very vital to a teacher's career.
Yet lately I have seen teachers, most of whom have college degrees, many of whom have graduate degrees....subjected to scrutiny that is almost unbelievable. If they do a good job, if the test scores for their class and school are good...no one thanks them.
They just say the test was too easy, and they need to make it harder. There are a few voices like Alfie Kohn and Herbert Kohl speaking out....but teachers themselves are not able to speak up.
Their unions are not able to speak up for them because they want their cut of the $4.35 billions that Arne Duncan is giving out if they do more testing and do things his way. So teachers are held captive by money that is much needed. It is about performing for that money, and there is not much concern for the teachers teaching and the kids learning. On to Kohl's teacher surveillance, but first a look at Time today about the 4.35 billion in carrots.
Can Arne Duncan (And $5 Billion) Fix America's Schools?The economic-stimulus bill passed by Congress in February included $100 billion in new education spending. Of that total, Duncan has $5 billion in discretionary funding. That money alone makes him the most powerful Education Secretary ever. "I had very little--in the single-digit millions," says Margaret Spellings, Duncan's predecessor. "That's millions, with an m."
Duncan's choices could have a transformative impact on America's beleaguered public-education system. On July 24, he stood beside President Barack Obama and announced the guidelines for states to compete for most of that cash. The $4.35 billion Race to the Top (RTT) fund lets states apply for grants that focus on a short list of reforms guaranteed to anger one of the Democratic Party's core constituencies, the teachers' unions. (The remaining $650 million will go to innovative local school districts and nonprofits.) With Duncan handling the ball, the Obama Administration is about to square off with the unions over perhaps the most controversial classroom issue of all: the idea that teachers should be held accountable for the success or failure of their students.
.."But the provision that has provoked the greatest outcry is a requirement that states drop any legal barriers to linking student test results and teacher performance. After years of dancing around the issue, Washington wants to know which teachers produce the best and worst students and is finally backing up that desire with real money.
Someone forgot to tell Arne that teachers have no control over most factors that affect students learning. They have no control over their IQ, their academic limits and strengths, their home life.
Most of all they have no control over who is in their classroom. Offices can "stack" classes for favored teachers....by "favored" I mean buddies, friends..nothing to do with ability. Make a secretary mad in some schools...your name is mud.
It is not only what all this high-stakes testing does to teachers who in most cases are excellent teachers working under often bad conditions.
It is what it does to the children.
Unlocking the Classroom by Herbert Kohl.
People who insult and denigrate teachers by forcing scripted curriculum on them are perfectly aware that they are forcing teachers to act against their conscience and students to close down their minds. What must be raised and answered for is the moral cost of creating joyless schools that resemble panopticons.
..."the irony is that even with the imposition of so-called “teacher-proof” curriculum, teachers are evaluated on the effectiveness of their student’s performance on tests relating to material they have no control over. No one evaluates Open Court or other such curriculum when students fail. It is the powerless “proofed” teachers who take the hit. This is morally reprehensible and yet the question of the values underlying this kind of teaching and evaluation is neglected when experts discuss educational issues.
Teachers under surveillance are also the agents of surveillance since they are expected to do continuous monitoring of their students’ progress. Continuous monitoring implies that learning takes place in measurable increments and that constant testing somehow contributes to enhanced performance. Whether it does or not, it reinforces educational practice which has no space for conversation, exploration, or the personalization of learning. The classroom becomes a humanly impoverished environment, a sanitized place where students’ personality, charm, and ingenuity have no place. Morally it contributes to depriving the young of opportunities for the development of their minds. Fortunately there are many subversive teachers who work in the service of their students and according to their own conscience rather than submit to the coercive education they are expected to provide.
Add high stakes testing and school-wide punishment for failure and you have even greater weapons of control and coercion. Student and parent anxiety is increased; teachers, being judged themselves by the results of the tests, have incentives to press and pressure their students to perform or even in some cases encourage them to be absent on testing days. Because of no tolerance and no exceptions policies, students who just can’t do well because of disabilities that are no fault of their own, or students who don’t speak English, are forced to take tests they know they will fail. Setting students up to fail is simply immoral, and yet there is surprisingly little outcry about this attack on these young people’s very being."
EXACTLY right, Mr. Kohl. No one evaluates the book companies, no one monitors the testing companies. They only evaluate the teacher and the students, and we must take their reliability in blind faith.
When teachers are surveilled they in turn must surveil their students. The joys of teaching and learning in a relaxing and caring environment is no longer possible.
The parents are the only ones who can stop the mindless testing. Teachers get marked down for speaking out too much. In the Time article Arne Duncan says he thinks changing the name of the NCLB program will help, but that he needs to add more testing.
He is confronting teachers' unions and state education groups as though they are falling down on the job. Wrong approach, and a very bad one.
If parents will acquaint themselves with what is going on, that states and teachers' union are in effect being bought to follow the orders of the Education Department....they could put an end to the testing tension under which their children live.
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