Reader TTS

Dear Deborah, The assault on public education and the teaching profession is now in full swing, as states scramble to qualify for the billions of federal funds in President Obama’s Race to

the Top program. The latest outrage just occurred in Florida, where state legislators passed an extraordinarily stupid piece of legislation. This law abolishes teacher tenure and ties

teacher pay to student test scores. In addition, the state will no longer consider either education or experience as factors in teachers’ compensation. What teachers earn will depend on

their students’ test scores. The economists who floated this bad idea, perhaps as a theoretical exercise, should step up to the plate and take responsibility for what they have wrought. This

path devalues education, devalues whatever cannot be measured, and undermines teachers’ morale. It may be that high school students, with a few weeks’ training, can produce even higher test

scores in basic skills than teachers with National Board Certification. If so, we should turn the schools over to anyone with a pulse and forget about professionalism. We may be the first

nation in the world with a federal program intended to dumb down our schools and destroy the teaching profession. You know how easily the test scores may be corrupted when high stakes are

attached to them. For those who don’t know, may I recommend that they read chapter eight of my new book, which demonstrates how high-stakes accountability has promoted cheating by teachers,

principals, districts, and states. The polite term for cheating is “gaming the system.” For those who want to learn more, read Richard Rothstein’s _Grading Education_ and Daniel Koretz’s

_Measuring Up_. And if you want to see the latest research on how pointless it is to evaluate teachers by test scores, even by “value-added assessment,” read chapter nine of my new book.

Since my book appeared, I have received hundreds of e-mails from teachers around the country. All of them express profound disappointment, even despair, about the current demand to punish

teachers if scores don’t go up. It is not that they fear evaluation, but they know that students are not randomly assigned to classes; one year they will have an eager and receptive group of

students, the next year they might get a group dominated by reluctant learners. Several Florida teachers contacted me, seeking help. I asked one to explain how the new Florida law would

affect her. She said that the law would create hostility among teachers, as well as between teachers and administrators. She wondered whether anyone would ensure that the demographics of

every classroom would be the same, so that all teachers had an equal chance. And she wrote as follows: > I teach at a Title I school so I already have a low level of parent > 

involvement as well as a high ratio of transience. My students do > not have a great deal of stability in their lives. My students may > go home to an empty house (if they have a house

 at all) and may not > have much to eat for dinner. They may not get a good night's sleep > because they are worried about gang activity (yes, we have active > gangs in my 

small city), or they can't get to sleep until they know > mom is home from her second job at night, or they are caring for > younger siblings, cousins, neighbors, etc. There is no

 one at home > to help them with their homework, or if there is, they cannot help > because they don't speak English or they are illiterate themselves. > No one is at home 

teaching my students about the importance of > health and cleanliness so my student may come to school with poor > hygiene. My student needs glasses, but the family can't afford 

to > provide their child with the tools necessary for his/her success. My > student does not even possess adequate background knowledge to fully > comprehend the passages he/she is 

reading. So many aspects of my > children's lives are out of my control; yet I will be held > accountable (to the point that my teaching certificate itself is on > the line) 

based on how these children perform on one test, one > standardized test, taken on one highly stressful day out of their > already tumultuous lives...According to NCLB and its 

brilliant > analysis of adequate yearly progress, we are not even measuring my > students according to the learning gains they made in one year. AYP > does not compare my third 

graders at the end of the year with those > same children at the beginning of the year. The flawed system > compares my third grade students' scores this year against > 

completely different students from previous years. Can we just put > an end to this numbers game we are playing? The legislation in Florida was initiated by a Republican state senator

named John Thrasher. The bill will indeed thrash teachers and thrash the state’s public schools. Who will be the beneficiary of the teaching-to-the-same-lousy-standardized-tests? We can

safely anticipate more cheating and greater demand to private public schools. Almost alone among the national media, Valerie Strauss of _The Washington Post_ has kept close watch on this

legislation. She tried to get a comment on it from Secretary Arne Duncan, perhaps hoping that he would denounce it. The Secretary, who was quick to applaud the mass firings of staff at

Central Falls High School in Rhode Island, had no comment on Florida’s plan to abolish the teaching profession and turn it into the test-prep profession. (See also these other blog posts by

Valerie Strauss: “Florida Senate Approves Disastrous Teachers Bill,” March 24, 2010, and “Disaster for Florida Teachers: Senate Bill 6,” March 24, 2010.) Diane