This is not so much of a testing story but it does tell of inconsistencies...I attended the ELA common core training last summer. We were told not use "base" word and "root" word interchangeably. All year long I made a point to use "base" word instead of "root" word and my students knew to say "base" word. On the online tcap practice test, one of the questions asked for the "root" word of flies. Fly is the "base" word, not a "root" word. Makes you wonder how many other inconsistencies/mistakes there are on the real test.
- A third grade teacher in Tennessee


Do we know if this happened for sure on the TCAP?  Do we know if students truly mastered the base/root word concept?  Do we know how many students got base/root word questions wrong on the real TCAP because of this inconsistency?  We will never know.  The TCAP test is top-secret.  Teachers can't see it.  Parents can't see it.  Administrators can't see it.  Taxpayers can't see it, even though we paid the Pearson corporation handsomely for it.

Our children deserve better than this.  Tennessee needs testing transparency.

Charter schools seem to have a bottomless bucket of money, while public schools are scrimping by on beans & rice.  Intense lobbying (funded by out-of-state interests) for the charter school industry has resulted in some pretty sweet laws created in Tennessee that are now making charter operators and investors rich, rich, rich and are destroying our public schools.

A smart group of TN citizens did a little research and are now requesting that the IRS investigate this illegal lobbying for charter schools:

Click HERE to download the letter

TN Parents has blogged on this issue before (click here)  TN Parents are tired of their voices being trumped by people who write checks.

Note to rich people:  If you want to start a "grassroots" movement, don't put it in your 3-year business plan and pay people big salaries to do it for you.  That is not grassroots, that is fluffy, expensive astroturf.
 

Warning:  There is a lot of pent-up anger in the message below. This frustrated teacher asked us to wait to publish this until after she quit.


I just filled out a survey on the topic of the TEM Teacher Evaluation Model and The Tripod Survey. This was what I wrote and signed my name to at the end in the comments section. If you share this, please don't attach my name publicly until I have officially resigned at the end of May. I would like to keep my job until then.Thanks.

"Please, for the sake of public education, get Bill Gates and his foundation OUT of the public schools, elect some politicians who have a background in education and can pass laws that will actually help students, THROW AWAY COMMON CORE, and STOP TORTURING TEACHERS WHO ALREADY WORK 65 HOURS A WEEK AND DON'T NEED ANY MORE WORK OR BLAME PUT UPON THEM!  When are teachers going to be respected for all the hard work and love we put into our jobs? Why have teacher evaluations become such a HUGE burden on our poor administrators, who stay up nightly until MIDNIGHT trying to finish evaluation computer stuff! We need to be able to DO OUR JOBS and you are tying our hands!

If I just worked on the computer ALL DAY and did nothing but Powerschool, grading papers, watched PD360 videos, worked on eval self scores and professionalism feedback on My Learning Plan, I would STILL work over 8 hours a day. BUT I DON'T DO THAT. I NEVER EVEN SEE MY DESK UNTIL EVENING. I TEACH. I TEACH. I LOVE. I PUT OUT "FIRES, " I COLLABORATE, I MEET WITH PARENTS, I FACILITATE PROJECTS, AND THEN I TUTOR MY BABIES FOR FREE ON MY TIME ALSO. NOT EVEN FOR AN ECU, BUT ON MY WATCH.  I HELP MY STUDENTS LEARN BEYOND SCHOOL HOURS.

What do I get for this? between 3 and 5 more hours of work at the end of an already exhausting day. That's the thanks I get EVERY day for a job well done.

I am going back to college for a totally different profession. I am throwing away ALL my years of teaching and starting over. Will I miss my students? ABSOLUTELY. EVERY DAY. Will I miss the lack of respect nationwide? NO. The torture? NO. The Evaluations ? NO. 

I am not delirious enough to think what I choose for a career will not have it's up's and down's as well, BUT I DO KNOW THAT WHAT I AM CHOOSING TO GO BACK TO COLLEGE FOR WILL NOT REQUIRE ME TO WORK OVER HALF OF MY HOURS FOR FREE AND FROM HOME. I will even work 12 hours a day somewhere if I can leave it at work when I do go home and actually rest at home. I am willing to do almost ANYTHING else if I get paid for the hours I work.

Make teachers hourly and see how much overtime you have to pay. Good luck. Our children deserve better. Our teachers deserve better. Our nation deserves better.

By the way- I am not angry because I am not doing my job. I am respected in my school. I am known for being good with troubled kids. My students seem to like my class and my evaluations are pretty good. I am NOT a scorned teacher. I am an angry citizen.

Teachers are against everything that is being done in the educational system today. They just can't say so because they wouldn't have a job. Do you know what the new "buzz word" for teacher lay offs is? They are calling it "ABOLISHING" TEACHERS. To be abolished means to do away with, void. What a terrible way to lay off a teacher! I have already told my principals that I am not coming back next year, so watch them "abolish" me so they won't have to lay off any teachers who plan on staying. If they call it that when I resign, I am getting a lawyer. Anyway, I work in a good school with great administrators. But the entire system is flawed. It's high time someone started sounding off.

~ Sally, a frustrated teacher in Shelby County, TN


This breaks our hearts.  This is no way to treat someone who devoted her life to helping children.  This insanity must stop. 

Keeping great teachers is more important than getting rid of bad ones.

A former worker from the TN Dept. of Ed speaks of the problems with the state of education in TN: 
 
1. The Value Added Model (VAM) is a flawed, inaccurate formula for measuring teacher quality, as more and more data research groups are finding. Be that as it may, I do not believe that Bill Sanders ever intended for his data to be used for teacher evaluations, teacher compensation, nor license renewal requirements.

2. A quality teacher preparation program can produce more effective teachers than a summer boot camp training. [Of course, we need to be constantly striving to update, modernize, and improve!] Also, I believe the time teacher candidates spend in classrooms with good, veteran teachers is the most valuable training tool we have (and the benefit is reciprocal). 

3. Charter schools are often being taken over by corporate entities more interested in turning a profit than in educating children. They are also leading to increased segregation.

4. Teachers cannot be intimidated into improving. They need to be supported, encouraged, well-compensated, and held accountable in a realistic way.

5. 'Merit pay' will never be applied accurately or fairly. (I remember attempts at implementing Merit Pay dating back to the 60's!)

I do believe that there are many good people at the State Board of Education and the TN DOE, who truly believe they are doing the right thing. . . . I believe that they are being led astray by the 'pied piper' of DC mentality in the Michelle Rhee mode. I observed first hand the frenzied efforts to race through the checklist of their reform agenda passing laws, policies, rules, etc. without taking the necessary time to research thoroughly; to gather input from teachers and parents outside of their elite, chosen few; and to develop a plan for implementation that assures all of the pieces are in place and working properly (i.e. the TCAP test results disaster of the past week or so). 

I am a firm believer that the best leaders for policy development and implementation should be 'home-grown' educators who understand the cultural landscape in Tennessee, not people from the Washington, DC crowd who come here solely to promote the national reform agenda. Most of the people I reported to in the last two or three years at the Department were extremely intelligent and well-educated, but are younger than my own children and have less than five years of teaching experience.

The above law was violated by a person appointed to a position of authority over our public schools, Commissioner Kevin Huffman.  The law is clear: he did not have the power to grant TCAP waivers to over 100 school districts.

Teachers are being unfairly held accountable for test scores on tests they are not allowed to see and whose cut scores are admittedly manipulated....  Students are being held accountable for grades on tests that their parents are not allowed to ever see.... but....

Who is holding Kevin Huffman accountable? Certainly not Governor Haslam who appointed him.

Legislators:  All of the laws you pass are worthless if they can be blatantly ignored without any penalty by those at the top.  Not a single legislator voted against this law in the House or Senate.  Beth Harwell, Ron Ramsey, & Bill Haslam all signed it.  Is it okay for the Commissioner of Education to break the laws you pass?

Superintendents & School Board members:  This is a case of "Do as I say, not as I do" by Commissioner Huffman.  Speak up for your districts and demand an end to all of this excessive testing and top-down control.  Talk to your legislators.  Your voices are important.  Do what you know is best for your students.

Media:  Publish facts, not what they want you to believe and print. 

 

An elected school board member wrote this to the teachers in her district:

I met with the Alpine Education Association (AEA) last week.  I have appreciated their support and their collaboration with our district through some very difficult decisions.  I have been pleased to work with these very good people who serve in the AEA.

The biggest concern of the AEA was that teachers feel frustrated by my vocal, but honest, opposition to Common Core.  As a teacher, you have to implement Common Core.  The district has to implement Common Core.  (I did support funding for new textbooks for Common Core.) The AEA stated it has to put out fires when teachers and parents have concerns.  They wished I wouldn't say anything about my opposition to the Common Core Reform Package.  It increases their workload to have to address the questions of parents and fellow teachers who hear my concerns, I think.  It would be better for the district leadership (including those of us on the board) to not voice our concerns about Common Core when it just has to be done. Additionally, they added that if one of you were to be vocal about your opposition to Common Core, it wouldn't bode well for you, professionally, and those in the family of Alpine District would view you differently.

This is precisely my point.  As an employee, perhaps you can't speak out, if you find things amiss.  It's your job; you have to do it.  It's the same with my job.  Sometimes, you have to just put a smile on your face and do what needs to be done, whether you agree with it or not.  I completely understand that.  Do I wish it weren't the case? Yes.  But I acknowledge the reality of it.  Elected officials, however, are elected for a reason.  We can't be fired or lose our job for speaking out, except at the hands of the voters.  If anyone is going to stand up for teachers against a program that isn't good, it must be the elected officials.  And every new change, program, or implementation that comes along really should be debated, discussed, and vetted all the way along the line, especially at the local level.  

Let's take something we probably agree on: teacher evaluations being tied to testing.  This is wrong.  I've said so.  I will continue to say so.  It, too, is state law.  We have to do it.  But it's horribly wrong.  Placing so much of a teacher's evaluation and thus, his/her livelihood, on a single test is absolutely the worst use of a standardized test.   Like Common Core, should we just go along with it and be supportive?  I know you all will do the best you can, trying to not focus overly much on the test and still teach as professionals, but it it's got to weigh you down.  The direction we are going is that once all education and all educators are evaluated on a single test, funding will follow.  It's nice and simple, but still wrong.  I can't sit by and be supportive.  I have to find a way to scream from the rooftops that this can't work, and that it gives way too much authority to the test makers over teachers, over local boards, over HOW standards are taught in the classroom.

Let me give you an example.  Several years ago, my son had a phenomenal teacher.  He LOVED class, loved her lessons, enjoyed nearly every moment.  He learned a lot and enjoyed it.  She even expressed appreciation that he had shushed the rest of the class one time because he wanted to learn what she had to teach.  Do you think I cared what he got on the CRT's that year?  Nope.  I don't think I even looked at them.  He had a wonderful year with a wonderful teacher.  That was worth more to me (and to him) than any standardized test score.  And I am afraid that, despite her best efforts, that love and that thrill of teaching will be reduced to making sure she can keep her job by getting higher test scores.  (Note: She was/is his favorite.  But he's had many, many others who were just as wonderful, just as dedicated, and just as appreciated.)  I don't choose and evaluate my kids' teachers by their test scores.  

So, back to Common Core.  It is top-down, which violates the principle of local control.  A little bit of local control isn't local control.  And just to be clear, my opposition isn't just with the standards. The Common Core standards come in a nice little package along with tying test scores to teacher evaluations, courtesy of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Waiver.  The other two parts of that package are 1) a longitudinal database on students and teachers and 2) "improving" low-performing schools (determined by the test scores and "improved" by shutting them down and bringing in private enterprises, and redistributing successful teachers to these "failing" schools).  The entire package is flawed, and it's flawed on principle.  You, as a teacher, need to be able to have the freedom to connect with your students--the freedom to do what you know is best, regardless of where the student falls on the 'testing' rubric.  The Common Core Standards are just one tree in that forest of standardizing everything: tests, schools, teachers, curriculum.  Already, there are calls to use the copyright of the Common Core standards to 'certify' curriculum.  And, in the end, if your wonderful lesson plan doesn't deliver the results on the test (even if it delivers the results you, your students, and your students' parents want), it won't be around for very much longer.

You got into teaching because you love kids, and you wanted to be able to affect their lives for the better through education. You have natural talents and professional training on how to make that human-to-human connection that makes teachers irreplaceable. We need more of the individual attention you provide. Common Core, with its associated numbers-driven, top-down, accountability to the state, not parents, can only take education in the wrong direction. The Common Core standards, and the rest of the NCLB Waiver package, will reduce teachers to standards-implementers, test-preppers, and data points. I realize this is your job, and you have to make the best of whatever is presented to you.  But that is why we have school boards and a political process.  It is my job to fight against policies that interfere with the parent-child-teacher partnership. I am happy to do this job. I hope you will understand that my opposition to Common Core and its "package" is to support you as the professional you are. Our community must stand strong and eliminate all obstacles that stand in the way of you doing your job and realizing the highest aspirations that originally brought you into education. You may not be able to do it, but I should.

- Wendy Hart, School Board member in Alpine, Utah
(originally printed on her blog: http://www.wendy4asd.blogspot.com/2014/04/for-teachers-only.html)
 


"But if it is believed that these elementary schools will be better managed by the governor and council, the commissioners of the literary fund, or any other general authority of the government, than by the parents within each ward, it is a belief against all experience."

"What has destroyed liberty and the rights of man in every government which has ever existed under the sun? The generalizing and concentrating all cares and powers into one body, no matter whether of the autocrats of Russia or France, or of the aristocrats of a Venetian senate."
--Thomas Jefferson (February 2, 1816)