Rants are great! It is where our greatest truths are expressed. Here is mine for today...
A long answer to the question... Why would we want to lower the VAM scores??
I've often compared the testing sales pitch to the selling snake oil... It's all about the pitch and how you package it. Done right... people will buy the snake oil (er testing products). They just will...
I think the teach-to-the-test-performance-pay-frenzy and "testing culture" tied to teacher evaluations is a big part of what is pitting teacher against teacher, demoralizing educators and conveniently demonizing our once trusted and respected profession to benefit education reform greed corporations.
The culture and ideology that we can rate teachers via test scores was developed for one thing only... to make money for test manufacturers and those who tout school reform ("deform") due to the unlimited profits now available to them because education coffers can be ransacked by the private sector, thanks to crafty legislation that benefits the wealthy and at times the lawmakers themselves. Should be illegal... right? Of course! But we do not get out the educated voter and those who do get out and vote.... keep voting these jokers in!!
It's a unholy alliance and it is crafted to make good people believe that test scores actually determine the worth of students and teachers and schools. THEY DON'T!!!
Can shrewd test salesmen actually convince intelligent legislators that the snake oil really works? Or... Is this all just a money chain to the tip top that all involved are quite aware of and buying into and assisting it to continue??
There's my dilemma.... Can this primly packaged snake oil (er... standardized testing )actually appear to do what it is being touted to do? Or are the politicians voting for it all on the take??? Hmmm? That is what I lay awake at night wondering!!
They claim... All the world's educational problems will be solved when we buy millions of these tests, force students to take them, hire folks off Craig's List to score them, pretend the results are actually valid, and find the "BAD" teachers whose fault it is that American schools do not out perform Finland! Then, of course, we must give these "BAD" teachers their walking papers and hire new teachers who will agree... when they are hired... that their value as educators hinges on student these test scores a/k/a Pay for Performance Contract Teachers.
Of course, these eager young ones are usually not given the research discussing the invalid test scores, the discrimination of certain groups in the testing process, the errors and poorly written questions found on these tests, or the mathematical impropriety of a thing called VAM! LOL! VAM????? YEP! That is what they call it.... VAM.
For some teachers it is... "VAM... BAM... THANK YOU, MAM!" And out the door you go...
Who could come up with such Alchemy? Only an individual or group of individuals who stand to gain by imposing such a ridiculous mix of products laden with error and a voodoo math spell on the American public.
Good teachers outnumber teachers who need training by the vast majority. I've worked at many schools in three states and I have not seen a lot of "BAD" teaching going on. But what I see today is a lot of great teachers whose morale has been clobbered by a system seemingly strategically designed to chase them quickly out of the profession so that rich guys who pull the testing snake oil strings can profit ever more than they already profit. This we do, because of course, it is the greedy education reform corporations that must profit, not the American people, communities or school teachers. No! Definitely NOT THEM! It's just absurd.
And as we watch the indecent amounts of money from the taxpayers' education coffers being funneled in the direction of the greed corporations, hedge fund investors and ed reform groups, we scratch our heads and wonder when... oh when.... will we FINALLY find all those "BAD" TEACHERS, so the world will once again be safe from them and things can go back to normal.
Here is a fact: Teachers who are not performing at a level of excellence can easily be identified by qualified and trained Principals and administrators. I don't think we need standardized tests to find the teachers who need support! We need better qualified leaders and administrators who are ready to do the work of cultivating great teachers!
Hey... Let's shift the dialogue of those who are trying to devalue our profession and let's STOP trying to find the "BAD" teachers (er...teachers who need support) via student test scores. Let's instead chase after and identify the "BAD" administrators since they are actually the ones responsible for insuring that "GOOD" teachers are teaching in their schools. Shouldn't a good administrator know how to hire and cultivate good teachers? Why... yes... they should!
It's easy to do! No standardized tests needed...
But... if we went back to such a sensible system as was in place before... the test makers will NOT get the hefty profits of the present... find-the-"gains"- or- fail- the-teacher-testing-system they are packaging and selling like testing snake oil to legislators and voters. Hmmmm!?
Today's high stakes testing madness and teacher witch hunt harms kids and teachers, schools and communities, and is bringing our profession down to a joke. We are becoming "test gamers" and "test monitors." That is not why any of us became teachers. We became teachers to touch lives, and inspire learning.
That is not happening today in Florida or in Broward... we are being limited in our ability to teach authentically do to laws and tests and I believe we must all stand against it.
Lowering VAM scores is a start. Doing away with them is even better. Shirting the dialogue back to include teacher input and taking the educational decision making out of the hands of businessmen and profiteers is what we need! And... We need it now!
Good admins should know how to hire, retain and cultivate excellent teachers. This is what we need to look for and help others to know how to do the same. The teacher which hunt has to end. The revolving door of test mayhem and devalued souls must stop. To those ends I am committed.
Wake Up, America! Wake Up, Broward!
No comments:
Post a Comment