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What makes a good teacher?
The BBC article published this past Saturday, “What makes a good teacher?”, says “sometimes the simplest questions in life are the hardest to answer.”
That’s true.
And one of the huge problems with mainstream discourse on educational reform is that it asks simplistic questions and offers simplistic solutions.
The testing craze in the USA and Canada illustrates the point. In BC, the Fraser Institute, a neoliberal think tank, and it’s allies at the Vancouver Sun promote the notion that schools can be ranked, good to bad, using standardized test scores. A practice that follows the lead of the NCLB induced test mania in the USA, where teachers in New York City are being judged based on their students’ test scores and Exxon-Mobil is now sponsoring a program in seven states that amounts to bribes for test scores. Other examples of the test score madness include:
•Baltimore schools chief Andres Alonso last week promised to spend more than $935,000 to give high school students as much as $110 each to improve their scores on state graduation exams.
•In New York City, about 9,000 fourth- and seventh-graders in 60 schools are eligible to win as much as $500 for improving their scores on the city’s English and math tests, given throughout the school year.
•In suburban Atlanta, a pair of schools last week kicked off a program that will pay 8th- and 11th-grade students $8 an hour for a 15-week “Learn & Earn” after-school study program (the federal minimum wage is currently $5.85).
Test-driven educational reform is based upon psychometric malpractice, inhibits learning and deskills teachers.
What’s really interesting in the BBC article is the question of whether after years of deskilling (and an “apprenticeship of observation” in schools where they are little more than conduits for others’ ideas) if teachers are in the position to act like professionals and take control of their practice:
The new curriculum for 11-14 year olds, due to start in September, puts much greater emphasis on teacher innovation and local adaptability to pupils’ needs.
The big question now is whether – after 20 years of being told exactly what and how to teach – there are enough teachers ready to be “creatively subversive”?
Also, after years of being told in precise detail how to teach, will teachers feel ready both to devise their own way of teaching and engaging students and also constantly to evaluate and adapt their own teaching methods.
Rouge Forum Update
Dear Friends,
The Rouge Forum No Blood For Oil page is updated.
Of particular interest is the most recent piece from one of the few reporters in the Middle East who has a grasp of the “why” of these wars, Robert Fisk: http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/153837
Tonight (Sunday) on CNN, at 10 p.m. ET, the network promises a piece on Chicago’s school closings and the firing of teachers based on student test scores. Chicago teachers’ union president Marilyn Stewart is to be featured in the segment. The best way to begin to uncover the truth behind the CTU-AFT’s support for NCLB, and the disastrous results for not only its members, but kids and communities too, is to read Substance News now on the web at http://www.substancenews.net/
The wreckage of the United Autoworkers Union and the subsequent sellout of UAW members’ health benefits will reverberate on every person in the US who must work to live—especially school workers who are among the last people in the country who have fairly good health benefits. The UAW’s boss Ron Gettelfinger will be at the Detroit Athletic Club luncheon speaking to auto exec’s next Thursday, January 31 at noon. Rank and filers who are unlikely to ever be allowed to see the inside of the place might want to greet him. And here is some background on what happened to the once-mighty UAW http://clogic.eserver.org/2006/gibson.html
In California, education activists will meet on February 2 in Fresno to plan a spring opt-out of high stakes exams campaign. Time and place to follow next week. Here is one of many pieces on the NCLB demonstrating the schools to war pipeline from Rouge Forum activists
http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~rgibson/High-StakesGibsonRossCounterpunch.htm
Lots of friends of the Rouge Forum will be meeting and presenting at the Chavez conference in Fresno, March 28 and 29. Here is a link:
http://education.csufresno.edu/CesarChavez2_08.htm
And book Louisville, March 13 to 16, for the Rouge Forum conference, “Reform or Revolution?” with details updated at this link:
http://www.rougeforumconference.org
Thanks to Sean, Adam, Amber, Wayne, Gil, Penny, Jim, Perry, Marc, Susan, Ginger, Thatcher, Eric, Steve, Bob S., Rick, Theresa, Kelly, Sharon A, Kerin, Victoria, Bob, Dr K, Dave, Cal, and Carol.
All the best,
r
Colorado Coalition for Better Education urging testing opt outs
Paying cash for “results” in BC schools
Last week the Vancouver Sun reported that British Columbia experiment with incentive pay for school officials based for meeting goals beyond expectations.
The British Columbia Public School Employers Association (BCPSEA)—the bargaining agent for all 60 public schools boards in BC—announced that it will be offering a thousands of dollars in annual bonuses to superintendents and secretary-treasurers who are recommended by their boards of education for setting and meeting goals beyond expectations.
The BCSEA plan states that objectives and performance measures must align with the strategic plans of school boards and consider:
o Finances — Measures contribution toward achieving defined financial management goals.
o Processes — Measures contribution toward increased efficiency and effectiveness.
o People — Measures initiatives which have the potential to improve
performance levels for both employees and students.
o Clients — Measures contribution
Incentive pay tried for school officials
Bonus system aims to make K-12 education more successful and efficient
Janet Steffenhagen
Vancouver Sun
Saturday, January 12, 2008
The province is experimenting with incentive pay for public school officials as a way of making K-12 education more successful and efficient.
Since the concept is new in this sector, the British Columbia Public School Employers’ Association says it will start small, offering a few thousand dollars in annual bonuses to superintendents and secretary-treasurers who are recommended by their boards of education for setting and meeting goals beyond expectations.
The association plans to send guidelines to B.C.’s 60 school boards in coming days describing what sort of accomplishments are worthy of incentive pay. Some boards have indicated they are keen to participate this year, although most are not expected to become involved until the 2008-09 school year.
“This is something very new. It’s not something that you’ve ever seen in public education,” Hugh Finlayson, the association’s chief executive officer, said in an interview.
“It’s something that has worked in the private sector certainly, it’s worked in other elements of the public sector. Now we [want] to test it here.”
That test will begin with the two top positions but could expand in future to other non-union employees, including school principals.
The British Columbia Teachers’ Federation slammed the idea of merit pay last year after the Liberals made vague promises of financial incentives for teachers to reward improvements in student achievement.
The plan to offer incentive pay to superintendents and secretary-treasurers was hatched during recent negotiations to increase their overall compensation package for the first time since 2000.
That resulted in a 14-per-cent increase in the superintendents’ categories and a 12-per-cent increase for secretary-treasurers last year.
Salaries are calculated according to the number of students in their districts. Superintendents’ pay now ranges from $106,607 a year in small districts to $187,139 in large districts, while secretary-treasurers’ salary range is $94,468 to $159,646.
Although the ranges had not been adjusted for seven years, employees who weren’t at the maximum level were still able to negotiate pay raises.
In the Lower Mainland, salaries are frozen for about half the superintendents and secretary-treasurers because their pay exceeds the legislated caps.
Finlayson said incentive pay is not intended for employees who meet ordinary expectations, such as a secretary-treasurer who balances his budget. Nor is it intended to reward those at the helm when a district experiences an unexplained bump in student achievement.
Rather, the bonus will be for superintendents who identify an issue in need of attention (such as literacy or graduation rates), develop a plan in consultation with the community and co-workers, implement the plan and achieve measurable results.
For secretary-treasurers, it might mean finding new and innovative ways of building and maintaining schools or transporting students, he said.
The new chairmen of the two largest school boards — Surrey and Vancouver — said they are personally enthusiastic about the plan, although it hasn’t yet been endorsed by their boards.
Vancouver chairman Clarence Hansen said many superintendents would already qualify for incentive pay and they would set an example for those who aren’t performing as well.
Surrey chairman Reni Masi said he likes the idea but wants to know how performance will be measured fairly and whether bonuses will be paid by government or come out of a board’s annual spending allotment.
The association confirmed it will be the latter.
Sun education reporter
jsteffenhagen@png.canwest.com
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BC Teachers step up battle over testing
BC teacher groups sponsored a full page advertisement in the yesterday’s Vancouver Sun urging parents to opt their kids out of the provincial FSA testing.
FSA (Foundation Skills Assessment) test scores are used by the neoliberal Fraser Institute to rank all elementary and secondary schools in British Columbia.
The ad urged parents to “Withdraw you child from FSA testing!” and described out teachers are concerned about the negative effects of FSA tests on student learning. The ad included a form parents can complete asking their school’s principal to excuse their child from FSA testing.
Today’s Vancouver Sun reports on the ad and reaction from parents and Shirley Bond, the BC Minister for Education.
…Education Minister Shirley Bond said she doesn’t like the Fraser Institute’s rankings either and would be willing to discuss that issue with the BCTF. But she said she won’t drop the FSA because it provides valuable data that can guide school improvements.
“We do think it’s an important tool,” she said in an interview. “Having that snapshot at two points in 10 years in a student’s life is not overly onerous.”
BCTF president Irene Lanzinger said teachers would be satisfied if government would change the FSA so that it did random sampling of student performance — as is the case with international assessments — rather than testing every student. Results from such a sampling would be too small to be used to rank schools.…
The BCTF is also encouraging its members not to mark the tests and late Monday sent out an alert stating that the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association has a legal opinion saying FSA scoring is not teachers’ work. But the association sent out its own release minutes later, saying it has no such legal opinion.
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Tuesday » January 22 » 2008
Teachers step up battle over skills testing
Instructors oppose tests because ‘they consume valuable time and money’
Janet Steffenhagen
Vancouver Sun
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Teachers have intensified their campaign to win public support in their battle against a provincewide test that is used by the Fraser Institute to rank B.C. elementary schools.
In a full-page advertisement Monday in The Sun, teachers urged parents to use any excuse to pull their kids from the Foundation Skills Assessment when it is delivered next month to test reading, writing and math in Grades 4 and 7.
The government insists the tests are not optional and students may be excused only if they have special needs, low-level English, a family emergency, a lengthy illness or “other extenuating circumstances.”
But the locals of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation that sponsored the ad say “other extenuating circumstances” can mean anything, including parental objections to standardized tests, concerns about tests in general or frustration over the way results are used to rank schools.
“We think that is broad enough to encompass all kinds of legitimate reasons a parent might have,” said Linda Watson, president of the North Vancouver Teachers’ Association, one of a dozen teacher locals sponsoring the advertisement.
Teachers say they oppose the tests because they consume valuable time and money and do not improve learning. They also object fiercely to school rankings — produced by the Fraser Institute using government data — which they say pressure schools “to pump up test scores” rather than focus on student learning and teacher assessment.
Education Minister Shirley Bond said she doesn’t like the Fraser Institute’s rankings either and would be willing to discuss that issue with the BCTF. But she said she won’t drop the FSA because it provides valuable data that can guide school improvements.
“We do think it’s an important tool,” she said in an interview. “Having that snapshot at two points in 10 years in a student’s life is not overly onerous.”
BCTF president Irene Lanzinger said teachers would be satisfied if government would change the FSA so that it did random sampling of student performance — as is the case with international assessments — rather than testing every student. Results from such a sampling would be too small to be used to rank schools.
Lisa Cartwright, head of the North Vancouver district parent advisory council, said government needs to take another look at the tests to ensure they are worth the annual tug-of-war that leaves parents stuck in the middle. “We really need to ask somebody to look at this situation that is causing angst on all sides of the community,” she said.
“It doesn’t make sense to be doing this in an environment where everybody is uptight about it,” added Cartwright, who has a child in Grade 4 who will be writing the FSA next month.
Bond said she hates the fact that parents are caught in the middle but has a responsibility to ensure there are achievement measures in the system.
The BCTF is also encouraging its members not to mark the tests and late Monday sent out an alert stating that the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association has a legal opinion saying FSA scoring is not teachers’ work. But the association sent out its own release minutes later, saying it has no such legal opinion.
jsteffenhagen@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
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Rouge Forum Update
Dear Friends,
Nearly all of us are back to school now. Here is to all those hard-working and persevering school workers who are proving that kids, curiosty, and reason can be reclaimed from No Child Left Behind.
As we await the opening of the financial markets on Tuesday, let us take note of James Baldwin’s speech to teachers, linked here.
The Rouge Forum No Blood for Oil page is updated here.
Below is a note from Dr Adam Renner about the upcoming Rouge Forum Conference, March 14 to 16, in Louisville. It will be our biggest and best ever. Please plan to join us in building a social movement for equity and justice, in schools and out. Whatever the state of the economy, whatever the state of the wars, it is clear that justice demands organization.
That organization will need to go well beyond unionism. We note that the boss of the United Federation of Teachers, the AFT’s New York bellweather local, hid from her members the fact that individual New York educators are being monitored on their kids’ test scores. See the link here It’s an incident that should worry every teacher in the USA.
Earlier, the California Teachers Association shut down the Eliminate NCLB web site that was initiated by Visalia eductors. The site remains down.
You can help the test resistance and the struggle for peace. Subscribe to Substance News (www.substancenews.net) and pass along a sugestion to sign on with the Rouge Forum to a friend.
Thanks to Adam, Sean, Bonnie M., Jean and Jennie, Amber, Kerry, Sarah, Wayne, Perry, Steve, Sharon A., David, Colleen, Tallie, Nancy S and T, Susan, George and Sharon, Dr K, Bill, Greg and Katy, Doug, Jill, Dan H., Bob, Tommie, Linda, Sue W., Michael, Hallie, Jakmet, Victoria, and all those who worked hard to build our work at NCSS.
All the best in the New Year.
r
New York Measuring Teachers by Test Scores
The New York Times has reported on a secret scheme in which the school board is evaluating teachers via student test scores. The teachers union, United Teachers Federation, knew the project was underway but did not inform its mambers. See the 21 January article, New York Measuring Teachers by Test Scores.
Randy Newman provides “A few words in defense of our country”
In my ear late 2007 (catching up on last year)
Even though I did post a best of 2007 entry a couple of weeks (BTW I think I’ve already changed my mind on many picks as I am just now catching up on my late 2007 CDs/MP3s), thought I’d fill you in on what I was buying and listening to the final quarter of the 2007.
In October and November I took my GbV/Robert Pollard obsession to the next level and started filling in the gaps of my collection. Pollard is so prolific if I’ve become a completist my financial health is in jeopardy, maybe it already is! Here goes:
October 2007
Robert Pollard, Not in My Airforce
A minor classic from 1996
Robert Pollard, Silverfish Trivia
First of three solo albums Bob released in 2007, short and sweet. I like this one.
Robert Pollard, Coast to Coast Carpet of Love
One of two albums Bob released on the same day in October, this is solid power-pop Bob.
Robert Pollard, Standard Gargoyle Decisions
Glam-rock Bob
Robert Pollard With Doug Gillard, Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department
“Pop Zeus” and “Slick as Snails” are classics
Guided by Voices, Under the Bushes Under the Stars
From 1996: hooks, hooks, and more hooks as usual. “Cut-out Witch”!
Mexican Institute of Sound, Pinata
Trippy Mexican electronica
Mem Shannon, Live: A Night at Tipitina’s
Solid blues from former New Orleans cabbie
Radiohead, In Rainbows
Best $2 I ever spent, super album
Bruce Springsteen, Magic
Doesn’t work it’s magic for me, but it grows on you.
November 2007
Dwight Yoakam, Dwight Sings Buck
Dwight finally does the album of covers everybody’s been waiting for and does his hero proud, makes my heart skip a beat!
Derailers, Under the Influence of Buck
Can’t get too much Buck!
Guided by Voices, Get Out of My Stations
Originally released in 1993, this edition, from 2003, includes live versions of ‘Motor Away’, ‘Hot Freaks’, ‘Weed King’, ‘Postal Blowfish’ all from the early 1990s
Guided by Voices, Isolation Drills
Brilliant! Chasing Heather Crazy’, ‘Glad Girls’, ‘Skills Like This’ (featuring Elliot Smith) and ‘The Brides Have Hit Glass’
Guided by Voices & Airport Five, Selective Service
Side project between Robert Pollard (GBV) and his long time friend Tobin Sprout (ex-GBV) from 2001
Guided by Voices, Vampire on Titus
1997 release: “Melodies materialize out of ominous white noise, shamble about for a few seconds, then dissipate again”
December 2007
Band of Horses, Cease to Begin
“There’s a ghost in my house!” And I’m pretty darn sure it’s My Morning Jacket!
Carolina Chocolate Drops, Dona Got a Ramblin Mind
A group of youngsters resurrect the old timey African American string band tradition.
The Avett Brothers, Emotionalism
“Echoes of influence from the Band, the Burritos, the Everlys, and beyond, but the music of this North Carolina family band refuses to be pigeonholed”
Andrew Bird, Armchair Apocrypha
Unconventional (violin and whistling) Bird’s 10th album, pretty much covers a waterfront of genres–“across the great chasms and schisms and the sudden aneurysms”
The National, Boxer
Iron & Wine, The Shepherd’s Dog
Paste Magazine says it’s the best album of 2007. Don’t know about that, but it’s mighty forelorn and a good ‘un.
The Takeovers, Bad Football
No it’s not an album about Ohio State’s play in the BCS championship game, but it is an album by Buckeye fan Robert Pollard and Chris Slusarenk. So let’s see, Pollard released at least 4 albums this year (I’m sure I’ve probably missed a few). “Calling on likeminded bedfellows like Stephen Malkmus (Pavement), Tad Doyle (Tad), John Moen (The Decemberists) and Dan Peters (Mudhoney) to help follow their tuneful and psychedelic hearts,” The Takeovers don’t disappoint.
Blktop Project, Blktop Project
The musical experiment known as Blktop Project first came about when skateboard magazine Slap organized a tour in the summer of 2002 for Ray Barbee, Tommy Guerrero and Matt Rodriguez–three accomplished skateboarders ever who also happen to love making music.
Bettye LaVette, Scene of the Crime
Northern soul queen goes south to record at Muscle Shoals’ Fame Studio with Drive-By Truckers. Maybe the best album of the year. Deep soul!
Steve Earle, Washington Square Serenade
Home in NYC with his partner Allison Moorer, Earle writes of all things NY, but his personal contentment doesn’t dampen his rage against the system.
Various Artists, Stockings By the Fire
Pleasant xmas tunes from Starbucks.
Led Zeppelin, Mothership – The Very Best Of
Okay, I know…
Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, 100 Days, 100 Nights
Retro-soul/funk from Staten Island. Great!
Caribou, Andorra
“Caribou is one Don Snaith, formerly known as Manitoba (he switched names after threat of lawsuit by ex-pro wrestler Richard “Handsome Dick” Manitoba. No joke).…an exhausting slab of avant-pop. ’60s grab-bag comparisons here are inevitable.”
Amy Winehouse, Back to Black
No she’s not going to rehab. Lot’s of great soul music this year and this is one of the best, from the neo-soul queen of the gossip columns.
Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Stupid title, but the Beatlesque power-pop is on the mark.
The Weakerthans Reunion Tour
Manitoba quartet records best tunes ever about curling (and best song ever about Gump Worsley). I’ve been playing this one a bunch.
Shawn Lee, Ping Pong Orchestra, Very Ping Pong Christmas: Funky Treats From Santa’s Bag
Electronic funk for the holidays.
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Raising Sand
Unlikely pair produce beautiful album.