Good luck getting teachers to teach the problem kids with that plan.

FrancoFile: Longitudinal results.
Longitudinal results.

Ok, say it with me. Longitudinal results.

If you teach the 4th grade, and your average student left the 3rd grade at the 54th percentile in reading, and left the 4th grade at 55th percentile, then you are a successful teacher. If they left at 53rd percentile, you are not successful.

You're kidding, right? Imagine how easily the classroom average could be skewed by the addition of even one particularly good or particularly poor reader, a student moving away or an English Language Learners. Perhaps a cohort of students at that grade level received a semester of reading intervention at some point prior to taking your class, so they score well and you appear to be a highly effective teacher. The next year, you are put on a disciplinary action plan for having your percentage of proficient readers drop precipitously, while you're being told day in and day out to "do more with less."

An administrator who doesn't like you, or is friendly with another teacher at your grade level or in your area of specialization can quite easily stack the deck when assigning students to classes to favor one teacher over another. Even one student with persistent behavior problems can act as a drag on the entire class as learning time is reduced to deal with their outbursts. Imagine you get three of those students, as well as two who don't speak English and another one who is homeless. Last year you had 18 students; now you have 23.
Flu is sweeping through the school the week students test. School boundaries are redrawn...your average scores are compared to other schools in the state whereas the prior year they were only compared to other schools in the same district. The variables are endless when you're dealing with children, not the data-regurgitating robots teachers are asked to build.

As it stands now, the worst school in the state can make AYP and be hailed a great success as long as they make "expected" or even slightly higher than expected growth in reading and math. That expected growth percentage can in fact be quite small, and the school still the worst in the state, but if by whatever means test scores are up 2 or 3% and that's all that matters. Students test once and if the numbers aren't good enough, authentic learning grinds to a halt while students and teachers are forced into remediation and test-taking skills training for two or three weeks prior to retesting.

One thing I think people often don't realize is that these tests are not like a typical half-hour or forty-five minute exams you remember. Four to six hours each is more typical. So imagine the pressure of taking the SAT or ACT at the same time you're taking end-of-semester or end-of-year tests which determine whether you pass or fail a class, regardless of your performance throughout the semester.

The various state and federal tests required simply for purposes of data collection can easily consume 15% or more of annual instructional time, as there are requirements to group students by testing modifications (such as extended time or separate setting) that they may receive due to an IEP, 504 plan or second language accommodation. It's not a matter of a few hours or even days - mandated standardized testing consumes entire weeks of school several times throughout the year. It's insane to form more than the vaguest generalizations about student learning based on these results, let alone assess teacher performance, particularly when so much actual teaching is being sacrificed to the gods of testing.

Never seen a standardized student performance evaluation which was a valid assessment of teacher ability. Frankly, never seen a standardized student performance evaluation which was a valid assessment of student performance, which is a big facet of the problem. Wouldn't mind being evaluated, maybe rewarded with funding for materials and projects and experiences and speakers, but the evaluation has to be valid.

Part of the problem is the disconnect between development and age. Another part of the problem is the disconnect between pedagogical methods and interests and personalities of the student. Professing concern for the success of students while failing to identify students and provide them with developmentally appropriate and individually compatible learning environments speaks to ignorance about education.

I want support from the system and autonomy in my craft. Money is nice, but money rewards rote task completion, which is not education, at least not as we need. Education should not be done in parallel rows with gray-paper workbooks, yet this is how student performance evaluations perceive the classroom.

hbk72777: Party Boy: ginandbacon: The teachers can barely afford the commute to work.

But Fox told me teachers were making straight bank? Man, I was going to go into teaching middle school, and go straight ballin.

You know how I know you're from a hick state?

/Long Island, where my 3rd grade teacher was making 100,000 a year- in 1985

check out these pensions, all of my former teachers are getting a shiatload of money for doing jack in retirement

Link (new window)

Hunderfund, James H- Commack- $316,245.00 a year, A YEAR

I'd like to see evidence that your third grade teacher was making that much in 1985. But as far as your link, I don't see any problem. Those making the super big retirement dollars aren't teachers, they are Superintendents . That is to say that they were upper management.

crabsno termites: Philbb: hbk72777: Party Boy: ginandbacon: The teachers can barely afford the commute to work.

My social security and VA disability (service connected) total slightly over 15K/yr. I own a house (way bigger than I need), have no mortgage or other debt, pay off my plastic every month, and bank $500 - $800 most months. To my knowledge, never made more than a teacher/gov't employee.

ARE THESE farkING CLOWNS STUPID?

I believe that the disability rates suck, but they also include lifetime medical benefits which are worth about as much as your as you disability income. They use to also include access to military facilities such as the commissary or PX. Also, this will probably sound cold, but these benefits are part of the contract that you signed.

I consider teaching to be one of the most important jobs there is. To some extent that includes the administrators. I do think that school budgets often spend way too much on administrators and not enough on teachers, maintenance, and supplies. But that doesn't change the fact.

SS is not a retirement plan, although many of us use it that way.

I don't know why you say you get VA disability and then say you've never made more than a government employee. I assume, since you're going through the VA that you were a government employee.