Making teacher ratings public is no more popular — with teachers — in Culver City than anywhere else that schools exist.
David Mielke, President of the Teachers Union, told the newspaper:
“I do understand why the public is concerned about our schools. I welcome the spotlight on them and an effort to improve them.
“What is frustrating now is that those of us who work in the schools daily are being seen as the bad guys in the story.
“How did that happen? I think the public is frustrated. They are looking for someone to blame.
“People who have chosen not to go into public education are demonizing those of us who have dedicated our lives to this work. How fair is that?”
Reversing the True Reason
Mr. Mielke said that the tests that form the basis of the rankings have been flip-flopped.
“These tests were not designed to be used to evaluate teachers,” he said, “but to see how students are performing.
“If we want to devise a system of teacher evaluation that incorporates student achievement data, fine.
“But it seems incomplete and unfair to use one test, alone, to evaluate a teacher.”
Since the tests only measure performance in two subjects, math and language arts, the union president asks: “Are these the only things worth learning in school?
“If we only are measuring math and language arts- — and it’s done by a multiple-choice test — how can we measure the intangibles that teachers bring to our kids, the ability to motivate, to support, to challenge, to bug, to make school fun.
Teachers Who Are Valued
“I am sure teachers who influenced today’s parents the most were not the ‘drill and kill’ teachers making sure you could spit back information. They were the ones who believed in you, who valued you and inspired you.
“We studied Benjamin Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives, which correctly saw just remembering information as the lowest level of learning.
“I could go on. Diane Ravitch has a great book out now suggesting that the emphasis on school choice and school accountabilty have not brought us the results we need. She suggests instead that we focus on teacher quality and a demanding curriculum.
“One test cannot measure teacher quality. But we want to make sure to get quality teachers in every class.
“Here is one way to do that: Make the profession more attractive to our best and brightest. As things are now, our top graduates go into fields where they have more earning power. Top grads aren't going to choose a field where salaries start at $40,000 and top out at $80,000.”
Right Answer or Wrong One?
Mr. Mielke said that when students wonder “Do these tests count?” to be correct, “we should say: ‘No, they don't count toward your grade. But they count toward the grade the school gets (and now, toward the grade the teacher gets.)’”
He said that when “many” students learn a test does not count, “they will just bubble in randomly, put their heads down and go to sleep.
“A teacher can't control student effort in a testing situation. A teacher can't control student effort throughout the year, either. Many kids show little effort. I am not home with them at night making sure they are doing their homework.”
Mr. Mielke asserts that poverty, the socio-economic level of students, is a major factor.
“Are teachers at Beverly Hills High better than those at an inner-city high school” he asks.
“We cannot ignore the fact that 1 in 7 kids in the U.S. lives in poverty.”
The union president contends that contemporary education “is in a retrograde stage right now.
“Back in the 1970s, when i was being trained as a teacher, just having students spit back information was not the goal! It should be even less so now that information is at our fingertips on the internet.
“We were taught to focus on higher-order cognitive processes like understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating.”
In a ratings-driven environment, Mr. Mielke said that teachers cannot relax.
“Regardless of the measuring stick,” he said, “employees who are not measuring up should not have to fear their employment record will be published for the world to see.
“I have no problem with employers addressing underachieving employees. But I think that is something between the employer and employee, not for the public at-large.”
Mr. Mielke may be contacted at dmielke@ca.rr.com
