teacher evaluation

The NFL Draft Has Lots To Teach Administrators [Edutopia]

by Jose Vilson on April 29, 2013

Tyrann Mathieu at the NFL Scouting Combine

Tyrann Mathieu at the NFL Scouting Combine

Here’s my recent article comparing the way the NFL recruits players in their scouting combine to what public education currently does.

Stats and Equations vs. the Team as an Ecosystem

Trying to develop equations for player effectiveness doesn’t always work well. ESPN tried to develop its own quarterback equation, but found it wasn’t that simple. Each throw a quarterback made or run he scored on needed additional eyes to assure that the numbers accurately reflected his performance. While people may base salaries on individual statistics, the ones that matter most to executives and fans alike are whether the entire team wins.

Looking at teacher evaluation is a difficult prospect, especially since we’re often trying to measure the intangibles. Yet we have elements of the profession that we can include in a fair system for all. Characteristics like temperament, persistence and resilience matter more than test scores, especially in schools, because it’s here that collaboration, not competitiveness, reigns supreme. Developing schools that see themselves as an ecosystem from teacher all the way through superintendent or chancellor gives us as chance to replicate real success.

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Bloomberg Is The System

by Jose Vilson on June 25, 2012

Today, Greg Kristof of the Huffington Post reported that Michael Bloomberg has announced that he wants to have schools call up parents and deliver teacher evaluations directly to parents. This comes on the heels of the passing of a bill that clearly delineates guidelines for parent-school interaction when it comes to teacher evaluations. Michael Bloomberg, in his usual pomp, went on the radio to reaffirm his disappointment in the bill and the compromises made to pass it. A quote:

“Let me tell you what we’re going to do,” Bloomberg said on the WOR radio show. “We are going to have our schools call every single parent. We’re talking about fourth to eighth grade… We will tell you, you are entitled to this information and if you want it say yes right now and we will send it to you.”

Let’s be perfectly clear here. First, Bloomberg’s intentions have been transparent in that he prefers to turn public schools into parts of a huge corporate conglomerate, an idea he continues to reaffirm every time he speaks about education. The general public understands this, and even the media reporting on his efforts have taken a more critical tone about his record. Much of that has to do with the pressure from progressive groups within and outside the city, but some of it also has to do with the general public getting a decade’s worth of evidence and seeing more turmoil than ever before.

As the old axiom goes: the emperor continues to shed his clothes.

Second, we already have enough information on some of the facets of teacher evaluations to know that we have little reason to trust it until it becomes more sophisticated and maturates over time. If we know that the 40% of the teacher evaluation is dedicated to state exams until this piece is considered substandard then it’s 100%, we know we have a long way to go before this matter is settled.

Most importantly, Michael Bloomberg’s attitude towards parents has rarely demonstrated openness. We have plenty of examples of times when a main liaison would run away from parents demanding answers, parents’ mics getting shut down at hearings, and layers of bureaucracy added to our infrastructure to ensure confusion on the part of parents less informed about what’s happening in the school system. Our central offices can print out all the infographics and flyers they want, but in no way will that replace the general tenor of Bloomberg’s rhetoric to parents.

I don’t have much of a problem with parents knowing about my teaching so long as the right information gets out and doesn’t put me in a defensive position. What I do have a problem with is Bloomberg’s inference that he wants parents and teachers to have a distrust for each other. This call can make places where this relationship is already tenuous just downright hostile. This doesn’t a good school make. If anything, it perpetuates the idea that schools stand alone from the surrounding community, and, as an institution, is not subject to substantive participation.

Making robo-calls to parents and delivering teacher evaluations to parents may backfire. Then, his next effort commences. When you’re so well-resourced and such a position of power, you have all the time in the world to bully the people serving the million plus children of the city. After hearing about this news, and reflecting on the massive sweeping changes we’ve had in this country, I realized that Bloomberg, after failing at public education, can blame it on the system, one that existed before him.

Yet, because of all the changes and the resources he’s used to keep his reforms going, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is in fact the system. He’ll have to go on record for all of this, too.

Jose, who had this itch to scratch …

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You Have No Idea What To Count, So Shut Up

by Jose Vilson on January 1, 2012


Ira Socol, the unabashed scholar he is, dropped my first favorite quote of 2012 in his meme on December 30th:

Things I don’t want to hear in 2012: (3) “Accountability” – you have no idea what to count, so shut up.

Gospel. I almost fell on my face laughing. How did he jump in my skull and pull that thought out? After the recent news that the UFT (yes, my union) and the NYC Department of Education (yes, my employer) came to an impasse about how teachers ought to be evaluated, I could only think of the tense conversations that happened in that room.

DOE Rep: If you read the Danielson framework carefully, you’ll see right there that it says you can fire teachers at will.
UFT Rep: No, it doesn’t.
DOE Rep: I’m telling you, if you read the appendices and the fine print, she says so unequivocally.
UFT Rep: No she doesn’t.
DOE Rep: But we want to fire teachers.
UFT Rep: No.
DOE Rep: Please?
UFT Rep: No.
DOE Rep: Ummm … you really don’t understand. There were … umm … a few dimensions she just added …
UFT Rep: Where?
DOE Rep: Umm … they’re right … there. It says it. Why are you so difficult?
UFT Rep: I can read.
DOE Rep: You saying I can’t read? I’m insulted.
UFT Rep: Oh ok.
DOE Rep: So … when can we start firing teachers?
UFT Rep: Nope.
DOE Rep: Nope is not a good time. Nope isn’t even a time. What are you talking about?
UFT Rep: Not happening.
DOE Rep: Aww man. Well, we’re telling the media.
UFT Rep: #shankershrug

All this over a cool $60 million in funds that probably won’t go straight to the schools, but will be in “deliverable goods” like third party vendors and the like. They’ll eventually swim right through the schools, the city will have to foot the bill when the funds run out, and then they’ll be back to square one. $60 mil is a good spot of cash for any public school system, but if there is a school system that won’t do the money justice, it’s ours. Instead of investing in experienced teachers and administrators, we invest it in people we may or may not see a few times a year.

Naturally, some of my detractors might say that if I don’t believe in the DOE proposal for evaluating teachers, then I believe in the status quo. Well … not exactly. Sherman Dorn did a good job of addressing the issue of status quo a while back, but here’s something else: I do believe in teacher evaluation. However, if we’re going to do it, it’ll be under some stringent conditions, ones that might *ahem* revolutionize the school system as we know it.

  1. Evaluators need to have been in the classroom for five years or longer i.e. become a good teacher.
  2. Teachers ought to see and understand the nuances under which they’re evaluated.
  3. People should be taught the difference between tenure and due process, the latter which should be afforded to all teachers.
  4. Administrators should assure that the systems created help everyone in the system grow as professionals, not just make them punitive measures.

That’s only my off-the-cuff thoughts on teacher evaluation. Based on the Danielson model, it’s harder to “count” things or make them into checklists for administrators to see, but people have done it already anyways. In the meantime, the idea of mutual “counting” never happens here. It happens to the people at the school level (generally), but, for the person who controls it all, there is no accountability. No slap on the wrist. No expose in Newsweek or ABC Nightline. If a feeling of disappointment and a grimace are somehow the means for accountability, then we’re very far from an education system for all.

If it’s about $60 million, we ought to just give it back. Outside of that money, we don’t even know what to count.

Jose, who will savor as much writing as he can do for the next few days …

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Special Guests on Pardon the Interruption: Jose Vilson and John Holland! [Future of Teaching]

by Jose Vilson on June 13, 2011

Pardon the Interruption with Tony Kornheiser, Michael Wilbon, and Tony Reali

Wilbon: I’m Michael Wilbon.
Kornheiser: And I’m Tony Kornheiser, and welcome to the PTI program. We have a special edition of OddsMakers today because we’re old and tired.
Wilbon: Maybe you’re old, but I’m tired from the EXCITEMENT of this year’s NBA Finals.
K: I was tired from my first name being used all night last night at the Tony’s.
W: Can we welcome our guests already?
K: With us, we have two teacher leaders with a knack for differing and vociferous opinions. Know anybody like that, Wilbon?
W: HA! No! But, we welcome to the program Jose Vilson from YOUR town of New Yawk, and John Holland from beautiful Virginia. Welcome to the program gentlemen!
JV: Glad to be here.
K: I hear that you’d like to do our next segment on education. Give us a bit about what you’re going to talk about.

JM: When I think about the story of teaching 2030 as it is becoming, I know that it is the story of a new generation of teachers. Many of these teachers are passionate and even more committed to creating a more equitable society than the group of teachers I started with 15 years ago. Recently a group of young teacher leaders in Denver took on the task of describing what they believe about being evaluated fairly and with the intention of making education better for students. Their report titled, Making Teacher Evaluation Work for Students: Voices from the Classroom is a challenging perspective on what it means to evaluate with the intention of making teaching better for students. As I read the report I started thinking of one of Vilson’s favorite ESPN segments, Odds Makers. The idea of percentages in public education policy has a kind of arm chair quarterback feel so I thought, why not try it here.

K: Alright, well I’m gonna go sip on a pina colada in the meantime. Wilbon, can you let go of this program for even a split second?
W: Yeah, because these guys seem alright, unlike that guy Dan LeBatard!

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Giving Rouge Parties Too Much Credit [On E4E and Sarah Palin]

June 2, 2011 Jose

Part of me sees the parallels with giving Educators 4 Excellence (E4E) and Sarah Palin too much credit. They’ve both become popular for their views, and have the backing of conspicuous and inconspicuous organizations alike, both steering their “constituents” in the wrong direction. Case in point, NYC Educator pointed me in the direction of a [...]

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