GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

StudentsFirstNY – what a hilarious name for a business driven, CEO rich organization looking to make kids take myriad exams so test-producing companies can make a nifty profit on the backs of children.

Families Taking Action?  formed “to act as a counterweight to the influential teachers union during the upcoming mayoral campaign.”  Astroturf organizations bankrolled by corporate means.

Sickening.

Absurd comment by Anna Hall; if many schools are struggling perhaps they should look at the management & the systemic conditions that they are subjected to, as in the example of class size instead of scapegoating individual teachers. Sadly, Michelle Rhee who founded This organization and is on record opposing efforts to reduce class size, is on the wrong side on this issue as so many others.

The UFT (And all local teacher unions in NY State) should flatly refuse Cuomo’s blood money in exchange for a faulty evaluation system that is designed to be a gotcha system to remove veteran teachers who are higher up on the salary scale. The fact that is always left out in this debate is that the millions of dollars that Cuomo threatening to “withhold” from school districts would never see the inside of a classroom if new evaluations are agreed to. The money the state is threatening to “withhold” is earmarked for more testing and implementing more evaluations for teachers and students. None of that money is to be spent on class size reductions, hiring more teaching staff, or getting additional school supplies. The whole thing is a farce to begin with. Teacher unions here and elsewhere better be careful when they negotiate with those who have hidden agendas.

 ”But, the reason only 13% of Black & Latino’s are college ready is
because they have poor performing teachers.” LOL. How can you even come to that conclusion. Did you not ever think that they are just pushed through the system to reach Bloombergs data goals??? Just alone, the premise of blaming HS teachers, when they receive students way behind to begin with. The premise that it is the teachers fault is just ridiculous. How would you even come to that conclusion.

Correction – for the ONLY 13% of Black & Latino students that are college ready. 87% of Black & Latino students are not college ready. That’s not something to laugh about.

 You never said how you came to the conclusion WHY it is the teachers fault. Because a teacher has the student for 40 minutes 5 days a week?? Well that child is with YOU, the parent, from the beginning, a lot longer. What is YOUR role in this?? And what college ready?Everyone is supposed to be college ready? Everyone should be going to college? It diminishes the prestige of college. Next everyone should go to Medical school. I will tell you this, if my 2 daughters mess up, i will not be blaming it on the 5 percent of bad teachers she came across during her school career.  I would not dare allow my kids to come up with excuses for failure. Plain and simple. It is called parenting.

remember joel klein and when he was teamed up with bloomdoe??omg how did we survive that crash wreck…hey klein go spy and listen to  peoples phone messages..isnt that what they do over there at your “education” division…

A teacher must go through a long and, according to the DOE, rigorous process to acheive certification.  What, exactly, is the training that parents receive to be judges of the process for evaluating teachers?
I have over a quarter century of teaching experience, three college degrees, and years worth of professional development.  Despite the political winds that are blowing, in all my time in the profession, the only parents I have met who might be remotely qualified to understand what I do, are other teachers.
I would never presume to be knowledgeable about the process for certifying and eveluating doctors, lawyers, engineers, systems analysts, accountants, etc.  I have to trust the judgment of the professionals in those fields.
Just because teachers interact with children, does not make the parents authorities on teacher eveluations.  Despite how many articles they have read in the Daily News or New York Post.

I completely agree with your first and second paragraph.  We are professionals and should be treated the same way other professional are treated.  There should be accountability and a certain amount of transparency about our profession.
Now, as to your third paragraph:  Are children allowed to evaluate their pediatrician’s or dentist’s medical skills, regardless of how perceptive they may be?  As to your statement that parents know their children, I think you’d be surprised how rarely that is true.  Parents may know their child, but that does not mean they know their child’s academic profile.  They may know their child’s grades, but they know and understand very little about how those grades come about.
I firmly believe the idea that anyone can evaluate a teacher is a direct result of the trivialization of teaching as a profession.  At this time, many of the supervisors in the NYC school system are barely qualified to evaluate teachers they supervise.  The idea that a supervisor, without the subject knowledge of the teachers they evaluate, can be an effective evaluator, is ludicrous.  A parent that is not a trained high school math teacher, or a middle school science teacher, or an early childhood reading specialist is most definitely not qualified to evaluate the corresponding teacher.
The current “ed-reform” movement has tried to trivialize teachers’ skills in an effort to make them appear easily replaceable for purely economic reasons.  It is important that teachers rise to a level of professional competence so as to repudiate this onerous idea.
I truly believe that if I am performing as a qualified professional, I can only be fairly evaluated by someone with the same or greater level of training.  And, as a professional I welcome THAT kind of evaluation and would be very comfortable sharing it with the public.
By the way, as a side note, “value added” evaluations are a complete and utter statistical boondoggle and the worst kind of shady statistical manipulation.

“I firmly believe the idea that anyone can evaluate a teacher is a direct result of the trivialization of teaching as a profession.”
 
When Steven Brill was going around promoting his book on television and saying that teachers believe that theirs is the only profession in the world that is entirely incapable of being evaluated, a lot of level-headed people probably assumed he was just being hyperbolic.  Sure, they probably thought, teachers (like most people) don’t like being evaluated, and they may have gripes with the particular kinds of evaluation, but surely teachers wouldn’t actually say that they should never, and can never, be evaluated. 

But wait, here’s the teacher Brill must have been talking about!

Bed Stuy parent.  You should be ashamed of yourself saying that THE reason these kids aren’t ready for college is because of poor performing teachers.  If you have any experience working with children in the classroom or have studied the effectiveness of high stakes testing then you will understand that evaluating teacher quality based on test scores is just plain ridiculous and absolutely not the best indicator.  You are fooling yourself if you believe StudentsFirst seeks to be honest about FTA or any other part of its org.  The only reason they even have a grassroots organizing arm is because they understand people power and they want to use low income, communities of color to push their policy agenda to Albany to get their mayor elected. Unfortunately they aren’t telling these parents that they’re really seeking to dismantle public education, turn it into private for profit and replace quality but pricey teachers with cheaper but less qualified teachers.  Wake up and smell the BS Bed Stuy Parent. Most of the staff at StudentsFirst has no experience whatsoever in the classroom and if they do it’s extremely limited. Teacher evaluations are important but not solely through testing. What we need is parents and teachers working together.  The problem with StudentsFirst is they are operating with the wrong motive and also have this one size fits all approach to education.  They aren’t willing to work with anyone unless they support their agenda.  If they really wanted to change the landscape and improve things why haven’t they done any research on schools that have been successful with ALL students regardless of their socioeconomic background and make suggestions to implement some of these programs/curriculum into the schools.  No StudentsFirst wants to close poor performing schools and ultimately replace them with charters.  I don’t expect them to admit it because they’d have no support if they did.  Jackpot for those board members!  You expect us to believe they all of a sudden give a damn about poor black and Latino kids.  Please!  

How can StudentsFirst tout teacher quality yet be so willing to bring in teachers from alternative certification programs such as TfA?  Cool but everyone knows these such programs are really resume builders and revolving doors.  Most of these teachers are ineffective and not highly qualified. Has anyone ever asked why these programs are only pushed in low income inner city struggling schools and not high performing ones.  I didn’t think so.  Yet StudentsFirst wants to close schools, reopen them and hire these types of teachers who are low on the pay scale yet inexperienced.  Please someone explain to me how teacher quality is important to StudentsFirst yet they want to push to bring in THE most inexperienced teachers on the planet.  You’ve gotta be kidding me Bed Stuy Parent.