Humiliating Teachers By Publishing Their Scores Based Upon Faulty Tests, Will Result In An Exodus Of Teachers And Hurt Student Academic Achievement.

The news media has had a field day in attacking New York City teachers by publishing their bogus TDR's despite the large errors associated with them. The errors associated with these TDRs are so large (53 for English and 35 for Math) that makes the TDRs meaningless. Worse, the maximum TDR error was calculated to be to be 87 for English and 75 for Math, yet the news media think these numbers actually mean something. Furthermore, the latest school year used for the TDRs was for 2009-10, almost two years ago. Yet the News media has jumped on the teacher bashing bandwagon by publishing articles like this. Now that all teachers will be receiving a numerical grade for their evaluations starting next year, look for the news media to FOIL the scores of every teacher in the State since a precedent has been set. Yes, the UFT and NYSUT claim that these numbers cannot be FOILED but don't count on that to be true.

Imagine, all teacher scores, which are a work in progress, will now be published by the local newspapers and open up the educators to ridicule and shame despite the flawed, and questionable assumptions used in the score. Just look at today's New York Post.The result will be that many teachers will flee the profession and as the economy recovers, there will be few people who will want to work as a teacher, knowing that their grades will be published for all to see. What sane person would work in this "climate of fear"? Look at the great article that nyc educator wrote about this issue. Better yet, read the article that Carol Corbett Burns wrote
about the consequences to students in poor and resource starved school districts.

It is hard enough being a teacher, now it will be worse as we will be"teaching to the test", try to select students based upon attendance, and behaviors, tutor only our own students, and refuse to accept difficult students from other classes, least we get artificially low scores and be humiliated in the media. More importantly, look for an increase in cheating as teachers look the other way while their students copy off each other. I guess Mayor Bloomberg will eventually get his way as the New York City teaching profession will be a low-paying, temporary position with very few getting tenure and only a select few actually getting a pension while the children that need "experienced quality teachers" will never get them and suffer academically.

What Is "Merit" When It Comes To Teachers? Of Course If You Ask The Education Reformers They Are Clueless On How To Define "Merit."

In the last month I have seen two commercials by Joel Klein's Education Reform group how New York State should end "last in, first out" or LIFO by replacing it with merit and accountability, primarily based on standardized tests. The problem is that nobody has really found a quantitative way to determine "merit". Sure they claim that you just look at the standardized test grades of the teacher's students to determine "merit". However, it really takes two, three, and even four years to see if the students actually improved above the statistical average when compared to their peers. On the other hand, many quality teachers do best with struggling students and principals try to put these students with those teachers. However, if these students are compared to more academic inclined students, they would not achieve the academic level that would show the teacher is "great" and could be rated "ineffective", when in fact, the teacher did a great job keeping her challenging students on track academically. It would not be difficult for a vindictive Administration who wants to get rid of teachers they don't like or want by comparing "apples and oranges" by claiming they both are fruit. Any teacher evaluation system would require stringent safeguards to ensure that the Administration cannot abuse the process as Tweed does now.

Furthermore, the teaching to the test syndrome has not advanced student academic achievement but inhibited it. Many schools are so focused on test preparation that the children do not get adequate Science, Social Studies, Gym, and Arts education. Yet principals will determine merit and accountability based upon a single standardized test in Math and English. Incredible but true. Even when incentives are added, it had a negligible effect on student performance. Exhibit "A" was the NYC $75 million teacher initiative program for 200 high-need schools which showed almost no improvement in student academic achievement. In fact, the NYC "teacher data reports" are so flawed that they had teachers listed for teaching the wrong classes. Yet Tweed wants to use this as a biases for terminating teachers.

While it might be possible to find a fair and unbiased teacher evaluation method eventually, there is not one now and I doubt if one can be developed before 2013.

Mayor Bloomberg's & Chancellor Klein's "Big Lie" Of Academic Progress Is Exposed By The New York State Test Results.

The results of the 2010 New York State reading and math tests are in and the numbers are bad, really bad. The composite math passing rate declined to 54% passing from a 2009 figure of 82%. That is a whopping decline of 34%! Worse, was the composite reading passing grade declined to 42% from a 2009 rate of 69%, an unbelievable decline of 39%! Moreover, the Mayor and Chancellor's pride and joy, the Charter schools, had even worse results, with corresponding declines of 39% and 42% in math and reading respectively. These dismal academic numbers are a result of a more comprehensive testing protocol by the State and is in line with core academic skills recommended by Harvard Professor Daniel Koretz whose team found that the New York State tests were too easy and not comprehensive enough as a reliable indicator for academic proficiency.

Even the usually reliable Bloomberg & Klein media mouthpieces couldn't sugarcoat the terrible results. Here, Here, Here, and Here. However, the New York Post editorial did try to blame the State for the dismal test scores but also rightly questioned the academic gains the City claimed for the past four years. While the New York Daily News editorial gave the Administration a pass by falsely claiming that there was academic advancement. Where did they get that from? The NAEP which they have ignored for years and then cherry-picked the reading statistics. As well as the Math statistics. The question I have is now that the New York State test results show that the academic gains were an illusion, do all those "Leadership Academy Principals" get the real school grade they richly deserve? the answer is of course not. Already the DOE has said that the school grades will be marked on a curve. However, what is exposed is the Mayor's and Chancellor's "children last" policy which includes starving the schools of funds, increased class sizes, "education on the cheap" programs, an unfair strident funding formula, and misspent funds on non-classroom items. A must read is the article by Leonie Harrison "A Teachable Moment" that exposes Bloomberg and Klein for what they really are. Liars, and cheats when it comes to manipulating data to suit their propaganda. How about the City's claim of narrowing the achievement gap between white and black students? You guessed it. It is an illusion. The achievement gap actually widened from 17% last year to 34% this year, (41.3% between Asian and black students this year compared to 20% in 2009) which is the same as 2005. In fact, according to NY1, the racial academic achievement gap is as wide as it was before Mayor Bloomberg took over in 2002. More phony gains exposed as being an illusion. However, in a press conference with Chancellor Joel Klein, Mayor Bloomberg still claimed academic progress despite the numbers. Incredible, I guess Joseph Goebbels would be proud of how the Mayor and Chancellor continues to sell the "big lie" of academic progress hoping the public actually believes it. Now that the "big lie" of academic progress is now exposed, just ignore the data and continue claiming academic progress. Or maybe the Mayor and Chancellor were simply being Abbott and Costello when it comes to Math, considering how they manipulate statistics. To say the least, both the Mayor and Chancellor has a credibility problem and should be held accountable for their lies.

It is about time that the Administration's "children last" policy is exposed and shows that there has been no real academic improvement in the New York City Schools. It is time that educators regain control of the New York City schools if there are to be real academic progress for our children.

Update: Please read Juan Gonzalez's article about how the "kids are the big losers in the Mayor Bloomberg, Joel Klein School Test Scores Game". A must read.

The New York State Math Test For The Middle School - When A Level 1 Student Becomes A Level 3 Student

I usually complain about the DOE and to a lesser degree, the UFT in my posts. However, this post is reserved for the ridiculous travesty of the NYS sponsored middle school math test. It is common knowledge that the NYS Education Department has annually "dumbed-down" the State test so that the seventh/eighth grade math test appears equivalent to the third grade math test given years ago. What is even more disturbing is that the State has also changed the matrix so that a child who gets 22 out of 50 multiple choice questions (44%) correct will see his or her grade adjusted to 65%, and be labeled a level 3 student in Math. In my day 44% would qualify you as a student in need of improvement or level 1. I guess Tweed isn't the only organization that plays with the numbers.

Even the Daily News realized how easy the middle school math test has become when it published an article questioning the scores. Furthermore, to help the students even more, many teachers allowed the students to use their calculators in addition to constant coaching the students on what problems will be on the test. Is it any wonder that with level 1 students now labeled as level 3, that Mayor Mike and Chancellor Klein have crowed about improving student scores and the narrowing of the racial achievement gap?

The trend toward easier State tests are not limited to the middle schools. In the high schools the Algebra Regents required a student only answer correctly 17 of the multiple choice questions. Further, the students who knew how to use the calculator can correctly answer 13 of the 17 questions without even understanding the Math. Just guessing the rest of the multiple choice by selecting one number (for example 2) would get you the additional correct answers necessary to pass the Algebra Regents. Unbelievable, but true.

This trend to easier State tests may help the self-esteem of the students but has little effect on real students achievement, reducing remedial courses, and improved college graduation statistics. The State's "smoke & mirrors" testing does not result in real student academic improvement or reduce the racial achievement gap. Only low class sizes, experienced teachers, a stringent student discipline code, and adequate classroom resources are the answer for real student achievement.