Legislative Action Alert on Teacher Evaluation Bill 5895

The LEV/PTA/SFC backed teacher evaluation bill was shoved through the Senate last week without more than a few hours for anyone to review and evaluate it and yet it would have a tremendous impact on our students.

From the Washington Education Association regarding Bill 5895:

(The bold is mine)

The Senate’s new teacher evaluation bill (SB 5895) was released publicly just four hours before the deadline for legislation to pass the Senate. WEA’s education policy experts are reviewing the legislation and will provide a more in-depth analysis, but based on a cursory review of the bill:

We have concerns with some aspects of the bill. A lot rests with how this legislation is implemented at the local and state levels. This new legislation must not derail, short-circuit or otherwise interfere with the evaluation pilot work that is already underway, and educators must be allowed the flexibility to meet the unique needs of students in their local schools.

The larger concern: Teachers, the professionals who are directly affected by this legislation, were not at the table where the bill was negotiated. We didn’t know what was in the bill until a few hours before it passed. For any education reform to work, the voice of teachers needs to be heard and respected. We expect to work with the House to improve on the bill.

Additionally, this bill ignores the real crisis facing our K-12 public schools — the Legislature’s failure to amply fund K-12 schools as mandated by the state Constitution. As the state Supreme Court ruled in January, the Washington Legislature is failing to fulfill its paramount duty to our children. Simply changing education policies isn’t enough to ensure all children have the opportunity to receive a great education. It is time for the same legislators who passed this bill to comply with the state Constitution and fund our public schools.

So basically no one had a chance to look at the bill and yet the PTA and LEV are calling it a triumph…over what?…the democratic process?

And now from one of our PAA parents who has been following this bill:

This was originally the bill supported by the governor and the union, but a striker amendment was adopted yesterday with significant changes which were approved through a closed-door deal.

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=5895&year=2012

Where is it?

The bill has been passed by the senate and is currently in the House Education Committee

 What is the next step?

SB5895 has been scheduled for a public hearing in the House Education Committee on 2/16/2012. After that it will be heard in executive session on Friday (2/17) at 1:30.

How much will it cost?

About 5.8 million for the first few years

What are the biggest concerns?

The most significant change that I see from the original 5895 is that now student growth data “must” be used. (Instead of just using if available and relevant) I don’t know how this will be applied to teachers who don’t teach reading, math, and science subjects with readily applicable standardized tests. If I were an art teacher I would be really worried about how this would apply to me. I’d also hate to see the state or districts creating more and more tests in more and more subjects just to satisfy this legislation.

What can we do about it?

Write and call your representatives and members of the house education committee and ask:

How do you expect this will apply to teachers without standardized tests in their subject matter?

Can we please get this clarified through an amendment?

Explain your concerns about the one size fits all nature of requiring student growth data for *all* teacher evaluations.

And from another PAA parent, more questions regarding the bill  that need to be posed to our legislators:

Do you understand how measures of student growth will be developed for teachers of all subjects? In other words, who, and at what expense, will develop measures of student growth for Auto Tech, Theory of Knowledge, Family and Consumer Science, IB Business, and so on? For subjects for which standardized district-based or state-based assessments don’t exist, will teachers then have the latitude to develop classroom-based assessments that will figure into their own evaluations? If so, what incentive would anyone have for (1) teaching in a district-based or state-based tested subject, (2) taking on classes of historically low-growth students, (3) teaching, say, three preps instead of one or two, (4) taking on a new course, or (5) working an especially difficult schedule (teaching a 7th or 0 period, working an 1.2 FTE contract, and so on)?

In the absence of funds to develop new measures of student growth, won’t most high school assessments be classroom-based? In that case, why would anyone want to teach language arts or math?

Parents ask the darndest things don’t they? At least PAA parents do. Why is the PTA not asking these same questions?

And from another PAA parent:

As I understand the evaluation frameworks from TPEP (the pilot) don’t use VAM (Value Added Measures eg: student test scores), but use other student growth measures. This is a minor technicality though since non-VAM growth data is no better than VAM.

After watching the working session on Monday, I came away with two main impressions:

1. It is, at best, way to premature to mandate the use of student growth data in teacher evaluations. TPEP provides no data that shows this is beneficial and we know from prior research that it’s not.

2. That said, I was impressed with the TPEP project. It seems like a collaborative effort with educators to improve teacher evaluation.

And from another PAA parent:

One of the Highline schools has a transient rate of 80%. In other words, only 20 out of 100 start and then end the year at that one school. These value added measurers would be a mess in that situation. I don’t know of any teacher that would want to teach at that school, and have student evaluations on top of that. I’m not sure the supporters that come from stable schools understand this issue either.

And this is what happens when you’re too hasty in pushing legislation through that is of no value but costly in terms of money and the time spent on testing and the evaluation of those tests as well as the psychic energy expended by students, teachers and school staff. See States Try to Fix Quirks in Teacher Evaluations

Please contact the following legislators and ask them a few questions about this bill before it becomes law and then too difficult to fix:

santos.sharontomiko@leg.wa.gov,

Steve.Litzow@leg.wa.gov,

Tracey.Eide@leg.wa.gov,

joe.fain@leg.wa.gov,

Nick.Harper@leg.wa.gov,

andy.hill@leg.wa.gov,

Steve.Hobbs@leg.wa.gov,

king.curtis@leg.wa.gov,

sharon.nelson@leg.wa.gov,

Rodney.Tom@leg.wa.gov,

Rosemary.McAuliffe@leg.wa.gov,

Christine.Rolfes@leg.wa.gov,

kristine.lytton@leg.wa.gov,

fred.finn@leg.wa.gov,

andy.billig@leg.wa.gov,

sam.hunt@leg.wa.gov,

connie.ladenburg@leg.wa.gov,

maxwell.marcie@leg.wa.gov,

john.mccoy@leg.wa.gov,

probst.tim@leg.wa.gov,

bruce.dammeier@leg.wa.gov,

glenn.anderson@leg.wa.gov,

Lisa.Brown@leg.wa.gov,

cathy.dahlquist@leg.wa.gov,

john.ahern@leg.wa.gov,

susan.fagan@leg.wa.gov,

mark.hargrove@leg.wa.gov,

brad.klippert@leg.wa.gov,

kevin.parker@leg.wa.gov,

jt.wilcox@leg.wa.gov,

edward.murray@leg.wa.gov

It might come down to this for us in Seattle at some point: Piccolo Elementary Occupation

On February 17, 2012 students, parents demand the removal of Piccolo and Casals from “Turnaround” list.

On February 20, 2012

Press release:

PARENTS END PICCOLO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL OCCUPATION AFTER CPS BOARD AGREES TO MEET IN RUN-UP TO WEDNESDAY BOARD MEETING

Chicago, IL – Parents ended the Piccolo Elementary School occupation at
3:30pm yesterday after Vice President of CPS Board of Education, Jesse Ruiz,
met with them at Piccolo and committed the rest of the Board members to meet with the parents regarding their demands that the board reverse its decision to “Turnaround” Piccolo and Casals and engage with them meaningfully on a community proposal to promote educational excellence at the school.

“Thank you to the hundreds that came out in the cold to support us and show
that they care about our kids,” said Piccolo parent and Local School Council
Chair Latrice Watkins.

The Board of Education plans to vote on Wednesday, February 22 to hand over management to AUSL, the Academy for Urban School Leadership. The private ‘non-profit’ firm has close political ties to City Hall.  Despite receiving millions in additional funds from CPS and private entities that regular public schools do not get access to, AUSL ‘results’ are little better than – and in some cases lag behind – district averages.

The protest and occupation to resist takeover by AUSL was led by a core
group of committed Piccolo parents who were acting on behalf of 288 parents
who had voted ‘No’ to the Turnaround of their school in January but were
ignored by CPS. They are asking that CPS – the Chicago Public Schools
administration – instead invest in the current school and provide current
staff with the types of resources and funding that the district currently
plans to funnel to AUSL. Their core appeal: Education should be about what
parents want for their children not what’s good for politically connected
private school operations.

Parents were also critical of the way authorities handled the occupation.
They blocked a group of Piccolo parents from getting back in the building to
relieve other parents and did not let food or supplies in the building,
including for one diabetic parent, right of use to her medications. That
treatment has, nonetheless, left parents undeterred.

“I got the strength to stay [in the school] through the pain because I knew
I was on the side of justice and this will inspire other schools to stand up
to privatization,” said Elisa Nigaglioni, parent occupier and member of the
West Humboldt Park Community Action Council, who met for a year to draft a
proposal for improving Piccolo, Casals and Cameron elementary schools.

Parents and their supporters have vowed to defend their children’s school -
and the public right to neighborhood public education – in their scheduled
meetings with board members. Parents are guardedly optimistic as they wait
for a call from CPS to confirm the times for the hour-long meetings on
Monday and Tuesday with individual Board members to inform them on their
concerns with AUSL and have a real conversation about their community
counter-proposal.

“It’s shameful that it had to come to this for CPS to engage meaningfully
with parent proposal,” said Cecile Carroll of the community group Blocks
Together, which supported the parents’
occupation.

Blocks Together, the parents and their allies have vowed to step up efforts
to prevent what they see as a wholesale assault on accountable public
education in the city.

Also see Piccolo Parents Call Victory After School Occupation

You do what you have to do for your children.

Go Piccolo!

Dora

Teachers as the new “Welfare Queens”

In one of the episodes on Bill Moyers and Company, Mr. Moyers speaks to Heather McGee on the subject of Economic Malpractice and the Millennials.

One of the phrases that comes up during the conversation is teachers who are viewed as “Welfare Queens” in terms of how the corporate reformers have framed the debate on the value of professional, qualified teachers.

Here is that part of the transcript:

BILL MOYERS: How did you get a start? What were your– who were your parents? What did they do?

HEATHER McGHEE: I’m the descendent of American slaves. I’m from the South — Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana. My grandparents and great-grandparents moved up to work in the steel mills of Chicago.

My grandmother and grandfather both had public sector jobs at a time when there was rampant discrimination in the private sector. They became, you know, leaders in the police force in Chicago, a social worker in the Chicago public schools. And they were able to retire comfortably. And they were able to help my parents out. And my parents were able, in turn, to help me out. But the idea that I’m going to be able to do that for my children, given the amount of debt that I have is something that I think I’ve just had to let go of.

BILL MOYERS: Well, that’s what can happen in the public sector. That the public sector over the last 50 years has created a very large middle class for people who would otherwise never have gotten into it. And now with the assault on public unions and public sector, that ladder’s being taken down, right?

HEATHER McGHEE: Absolutely. It’s been so shocking to see the demonization of public servants. It’s really part of this 40-year attack on the public. And I think the fact that we’re seeing right now that teachers, public janitors, school workers, bus drivers, cops, firefighters are the new welfare queens in our public life.

I mean, really they are. I mean, if you think about the stereotype that’s being trafficked right now. They’re talking about these lazy, you know, bloated pensions that are just, you know, cheating the system. I mean, that’s the welfare queens of the 1980s. And what has been– what’s the same between the welfare queen and this image of the postal worker who doesn’t really deserve the benefits they’re getting? These old shop worn stereotypes of race and gender.

To watch the episode in full, which I would highly recommend doing, go to Economic Malpractice and the Millennials.

Dora