Cuomo and Teacher Evaluations

I taught high school for over 30 years, the last 20+ at Francis Lewis HS in Queens.  I was pretty good at reaching the students others could not and was always given the most challenging ones.  I even volunteered to take students from other teachers in hope of getting them through.  I say I was pretty good, not great and my passing results were usually in the 80th percentile although one semester I did get 27 out of 28 to pass the algebra 1 regents and graduate.  While some might say my statistics were good, they were usually the worst in the department.  No one seemed to care about the population I taught and the previous history of these students.  Stats were all that mattered. 

Today there is a mad rush mid semester to drop any students who might fail the regents.  No one wants to take a chance on helping them because the students failure translates into the teacher's evaluation.  These students then take non regents math and go on to college where they are ill prepared for success.  Even if they stayed behind and failed, they would have seen material and been better prepared for the future.  And, many who were dropped might have passed, if not the first time then the second.

Teachers should be evaluated.  I worked for a Principal who walked the halls daily and knew what was going on in each classroom.  I worked for an AP (30+ years ago-not at Francis Lewis) who wrote 5 page observations, commenting on every little thing and giving complements and constructive criticism.  She knew who was good and who should not be teaching and acted accordingly.

Teaching is an art and art cannot be evaluated with test scores.

Into The Shredder



My husband, a product of the private sector, keeps insisting teachers should not be exempt from evaluations (the stuff the media is hyping teachers want) as everyone gets evaluated.  I've tried zillions of times to explain that it is not an exemption from evaluations we want, it is a valid evaluation. 

TEACHERS DO NOT WANT BAD TEACHERS IN THE CLASSROOM.

He doesn't get the invalidity of using test scores because he doesn't know how invalid they are.  He doesn't get stacking classes because he has never had to deal with an administrator who does this year after year.  And, he has seen me take the lowest kids in the school term after term, get many to pass and still have the worst statistics and he thinks this is valid because the schools will know the population I worked with.
He claims teachers haven't come up with a better system than the one being offered, but he is wrong there too.  Years ago, when Principals and Assistant Principals were real master teachers they could judge who was good and who wasn't.  Now, most of these people wouldn't know a good teacher if they feel on one.  They mistake noise for group work and chalk and talk, often necessary, for non student involvement.  My first AP was one of the nastiest, most hated people in the school.  But, she knew how to teach and she rarely went after someone who was good.  She is the one that taught me and countless others how to teach.  Data wasn't her motivator, learning was.  My husband claims that private industry has lots of newbies and incompetents in charge too.  It is the wave of the future.  I don't understand why, instead of trying to change this, he wants to see it accepted and spread around. 

Perhaps he is right and it is too late to go back and get people who actually know something to be in charge.  But, it is not too late to change the evaluation system.  If it was up to me, I would survey parents and children and find out what they think of their teachers.  Good surveys could be worded in a way to get honest answers.  When the majority come out good, or bad, that should say something.  Administrators should also have a say.  I would even go so far as to let security guards and school aides chime in.  They often know more about what is going on than the people in charge.  There should also be peer evaluations.  Put all these together and you will get a well rounded picture of teacher.   And then, the evaluation could be made.

No system is perfect.  Every industry has people in it that don't belong.  My husband is wrong.  Teachers want and need evaluations.  The evaluations are what make us better.  They point out or strengths and our weakness and show us the areas we need to improve upon.  Showing me test scores does nothing.  They can't tell me where I feel short, only that I might have.

Cuomo is doing the public a major disservice pushing his agenda as it will do nothing to help the children of New York State.  Spending Democratic Party contributions to air his harmful commercials is wrong.  Contributions were not meant for this and these commercials should stop.  I just got a letter asking for my donation.  It went straight into the shredder.

Go To Hell



Here's  a great way to attract quality teachers--Tier 6 Pension Plan.

Let's charge them more and give them less.  Let's face it, the politicians don't care about kids or any state workers for that matter.  All this stuff about teacher evaluations and a quality teacher in every classroom is just a load of malarkey as far as any of them are concerned.  This pension plan will keep quality people from ever entering the profession.

The GO TO HELL message comes straight from Governor I hate Unions Cuomo.