Will the UFT members have an opportunity to vote on the teacher evaluation system? Will the DA authorize such a vote? (The NYSUT's statement on Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR); the UFT's statementand its factsheet.)
The system is based heavily on standardized tests. Yet critics in the education community, as opposed to the fly-by-night education entrepreneurs of the last ten years, have been criticizing the proposed New York State evaluation and similar programs with increasing frequency.
Note just one of the latest contributions from Bruce Baker at Rutgers University, School Finance 101 from December 5, 2012, cited in Diane Ravitch's blog. (This follows as the third piece of a series critiquing the evaluation system.)
Previously Dr. Ravitch has written other posts, under the theme, "Why VAM is Junk Science," on July 16, October 29 (She noted, "Remember: no other nation in the world is judging teacher quality this way. This is our own nutty idea. It?s main accomplishment: demoralization of teachers." and linked to Los Angeles Times' Teresa Watanabe on Los Angeles' system.), November 5 ("Linda Darling-Hammond and Edward Haertel of Stanford University explain why value-added assessment doesn?t work and how inaccurate it [value-added-assessment] is.), November 27 ("Here, we have a technically proficient author working for a highly respected organization ? American Institutes for Research ? ignoring all of the statistical red flags (after waiving them), and seemingly oblivious to gaping conceptual holes (commonly understood limitations) between the actual statistical analyses presented and the concluding statements made (and language used throughout).? ?The conclusions are WRONG ? statistically and conceptually.")
All of the juggernaut for the evaluation system is for getting $300 million. Yet, most indications are that the money would not go to the classroom, but for more dubious assessment or evaluation software. Read this contribution at New York City Public School Parents.
Shouldn't the UFT members have a vote on this system, as they do with DOE-UFT contracts?
Sign the MORE caucus' petition on the evaluation system.
From the DOENUTS blog:
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2012Sign the MORE caucus' petition on the evaluation system.Three Things You Should Know About the City's Upcoming Teacher Eval. System Let me just get right to it.
1. The rubric is too difficult and VAM is too unproven. The city's rubric (for observations and teaching artifacts) is tougher than many other Danielson-based rubrics. To be rewarded as an excellent teacher, based on observations and paper work, you'd have to move heaven an earth in your class -and then get lucky. The rubric that is worth 60% of the grade is designed to lump teachers into the middle two categories of 'developing' and 'effective'. As for value-added measures, they're calling it anything from 'Junk Science' to 'unreliable'. It is at best not yet ready for prime time and worst will ruin the careers of more than few colleagues. Certainly, it doesn't belong on a teacher's evaluation in its current form and will require a few years of improvements before they can even try calling it reliable. Yet it's coming and your job (and mine) will depend on it.
2. It's going to drastically increase our workload. Working to hit those points on the city's Danielson rubric is going to be the most difficult part.
[Ed.: Read these blog posts on the Danielson Framework for in actual application, the formula for administrators' micro-managing and teacher burn-out, this one on the misuse of the rubrics, this post, which carries a link in the comments to the UFT's fall, 2011 resolution on Danielson and teacher evaluation, and this realistic Robert Rendo cartoon reproduced at EdNotes. As these references indicate, Danielson is deeply intertwined with the education entrepreneur community.]
But the 'artifacts' for teachers will be a real pain. They'll count for almost 30% of our grade and they'll be comprised of things like our phone logs, PIP, student interventions and unit plans from throughout the whole year. Multiple measure from the local 20% (or local 15% if you're grades 4 - 8, ELA or Math) will mean we'll be spending more time observing peers (or being observed), grading mid term baselines (for HS teachers) and developing performance tasks than we've ever done before. It's going to be a lot more work.
3. That workload will come with no raise and no new contract for city teachers. If you just read that claim for the first time here, then you haven't read this blog ... or this one ... or this one ... or this one. Although the union hasn't said anything about it, it's seeming fairly clear to many people, including me, that the teachers' union won't actually fight for a raise for their teachers as they move to agree to this evaluation system. I won't spend a million words describing the analysis here, but if you read this post from Chaz's School Daze or this one from Accountable Talk or this one from Perdido Street Blog or this one (originally entitled "...I Smell a Sellout" based on the URL) from NYCEducator or this one (including the comments) from the ICEUFT Blog, you'll get the same sense that I do; no raise with this new increased workload.*
And those are the three things I think you should know about the APPR.
*And why would you have to hear that from a blog? Because your union doesn't particularly care to communicate that with you. That's why. So if you did just read that claim for the first time here, just remember; you had to hear it from some dude name (feggin') doenuts before your own union would tell you. "...dark day for teachers", indeed.
UPDATE (Norm Scott Comment)
Sign the MORE petition (online or print & sign) calling for a vote in the UFT on the deal.It is not enough for individuals who read this to sign. It will be much more powerful if you school holds a chapter meeting and votes it up. They also should ALL sign the petition. Let MORE know if your school votes for it. The more schools that sign on the greater the impact. If MORE can show up on Weds with some backing behind it at the DA it could shake loose some people who can go back to their schools and rally around the idea of a vote.
My guess is Unity will not hold a vote and expect not enough people will notice. Show they are wrong.
Posted by NYCDOEnuts at 9:04 PM
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December 8, 2012 9:28 PMSign the MORE petition calling for a vote in the UFT on the deal. It is not enough for individuals who read this to sign. It will be much more powerful if you school holds a chapter meeting and votes it up. They also should ALL sign the petition. Let MORE know if your school votes for it. The more schools that sign on the greater the impact. If MORE can show up on Weds with some backing behind it at the DA it could shake loose some people who can go back to their schools and rally around the idea of a vote.
My guess is Unity will not hold a vote and expect not enough people will notice. Show they are wrong.
Reply
RepliesNYCDOEnuts
December 8, 2012 9:49 PM
I'll bring it to my CL on Monday.NYCDOEnuts
December 8, 2012 9:53 PM
Sorry ... OF COURSE they won't hold a vote. The only way this was ever getting to a vote was if it was tied to a contract. I thought, because of the references to "U" and "S" outside 8J that they'd have to vote a contract, but I guess not. I'd also suggested a petition that demands a new contract with the system, just to put egg on their face when it doesn't pan out, but there wouldn't be any higher purpose to it than that.Reply
reality-based educator
December 8, 2012 9:47 PM
I've been hitting on the VAM and the observation rubric for a long time now. I think your second point - It's going to drastically increase our workload - with PIP's, unit plans, instructional rounds, etc. is a very important one.Most teachers have no idea this is coming to pass. In my school, we are already doing instructional rounds weekly focus groups per prep, monthly PLC's. Every teacher in my building - except for the one guy who belongs to E4E - complains bitterly about this stuff. But just wait until APPR comes to be - it will triple the workload we already have and turn the job into a sixteen hour a day extravaganza.
This is total overreach by the DOE and the NYSED. You couldn't ask for a better way to turn like 99% of teachers against the reform movement than by pushing through this plan.
As for the UFT, these guys think they can get away with anything and the membership will take it. But the groundswell against them is growing from places I have never seen it before. If APPR comes to pass the way you have summarized it above, you will see the floodgates of hostility open against Mulgrew and the leadership. I wonder, do they know that? Or do they figure they can ride this out like they've ridden everything else out?
It's going to get really, really bad. But maybe, just maybe, in how bad these people are overreaching with this, we have the seeds to grow something good and positive out of this for students and teachers.
We'll see.
Reply
RepliesNYCDOEnuts December 8, 2012 10:17 PM
Those posts you've been putting out have been hitting the nail right on the head. As for the possibility for a better tomorrow, I hope you're right.As for now, I think very much that they're going to get away with it. Partly thanks to their valiant efforts, most of the membership is completely uninformed and will depend on what the media says when the agreement hits. By the time their leadership reaches a vote, we'll have a 'big fat' contract and the (still uninformed) members will just vote them through (partly because the new generation of Americans (and city teachers) don't know how to use snail mail).
Based on AT's last comment to me today, I don't think they're even scared about it. (I hope I'm wrong).
Source: http://nycityeye.blogspot.com/2012/12/countdown-to-vote-on-nyc-evaluation.html
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