Teachers get beat up for kids who will not study ......

Dentists get nailed fro patients without dough!

Joel

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Posted on Sun, Mar. 06, 2005


 
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Teachers feel heat of accountability

By Dale Mezzacappa and Connie Langland

Inquirer Staff Writers

Teachers across the region and the country increasingly are being held
accountable for what their students have failed to learn.

A flood of testing data and the demands of the federal No Child Left
Behind Act are converging to force districts to measure student
learning - and teacher performance.

For now, this information is being used to help teachers improve
instruction. But eventually, even pay and job security may be
affected, educators say.

The result is a teaching force under unprecedented scrutiny and
pressure to change.

"We can't wait years for improvement - children's futures are at
stake," said Vincent Cotter, superintendent of the Colonial School
District in Montgomery County, a leader in the use of data to improve
instruction.

Many teachers agree with this laser focus on student achievement. "Now
it's all about the kids. And just like we want the kids to work
together, we need to work together as a team," said Cindy Rossien, a
reading specialist at Whitemarsh Elementary School in the Colonial
district.

In Philadelphia, schools chief executive Paul Vallas has instituted a
standard curriculum for all schools and computerized tests to be given
every six weeks to track student progress. Both are tools that can be
used to better judge the quality of teaching, he said.

"It's not our goal to terminate teachers," Vallas said. "Our goal is
to assess teacher performance like we assess student performance so we
can then take steps to make them better."

Still, teachers' unions are wary that districts will use this new
information to push their members out the door. They also question
whether teachers should be held accountable for students who come to
them woefully behind.

"One has to look at the overall experience of teachers in the
building, the kind of training they've had, the effect on kids of
having underqualified teachers in the past, shortages, and vacancies,"
said Jerry Jordan, vice president of the Philadelphia Federation of
Teachers.

A "snapshot," he said, won't give the whole picture.

In New Jersey, Education Commissioner William Librera said the
profession had no choice in the matter.

"Teaching is better than it was five years ago, better than 10 years
ago, but the challenges are greater as well," Librera said. "With the
growing diversity of our student population, teachers must expand
their repertoire of instructional skills to meet the needs of their
students."

To that end, Librera last week named a task force to identify ways to
reward good teachers, assist struggling teachers, and improve
on-the-job training.

In Pennsylvania, Gov. Rendell, in his recent budget address,
reiterated his call for greater accountability for all educators. But
so far, the idea has proven politically unpopular.

"In underperforming districts, we need contracts with superintendents
and principals that are renewed based in part on improved student
performance - rewarding teachers for boosting student skills instead
of basing pay on longevity alone," Rendell said.

In some area districts, superintendents and principals already are
rated in part on how well students do on state tests.

Pennsylvania is one of several states developing a new tool to analyze
student data, called value-added assessment. By September 2006, all
districts will track student progress from year to year - and use that
information to evaluate the quality of teacher instruction.

This is under way in 51 of the state's 500 districts, including
Philadelphia; Southeast Delco and William Penn in Delaware County; and
Cheltenham, Norristown and Boyertown in Montgomery County.

Other states and localities also are moving in this direction. Govs.
Tim Pawlenty in Minnesota and Arnold Schwarzenegger in California want
to tie teacher pay to how well students perform. In Denver, the union
and administration have come up with a new pay system based on student
performance, and in Texas, student test scores are a factor in teacher
evaluations.

Most unions, meanwhile, say there is no fair way to tie pay to
performance. They resist attempts to use anything other than seniority
and degrees earned in figuring salaries.

Still, "you have to improve your scores or you are going to be in
trouble," said Donald Atkiss, a veteran labor negotiator and a
spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association, a
teachers' union. "So everybody is doing something. There is pressure
on principals, and the principals in turn are putting pressure on the
teachers."

Teacher firings are rare; Philadelphia terminated only 14 of its
11,000 teachers last year.

But teachers rated incompetent typically resign as a result of
negotiations. Atkiss said the union worked to "counsel teachers out
the door" before they were formally fired. In recent weeks, he said,
he oversaw the exits of two teachers in Philadelphia's suburbs.

In the classroom, there's a shift away from teachers following their
own scripts behind closed doors to teachers working together and
sharing ideas.

The 2002 federal No Child Left Behind law "was intended to change the
way the work of teaching gets done," said James M. Lytle,
superintendent of the Trenton schools.

The law mandates that by 2014 all students in all schools be able to
read and do math at grade level. Schools not making annual progress
goals face penalties. The new data identify groups of students falling
behind by race, poverty, disabilities and limited English.

Advocates say change in teacher accountability is long overdue - that
for too long, teachers have had job security, automatic raises, and,
in Philadelphia, the ability to claim more desirable assignments
regardless of whether their students were learning.

Teachers are feeling the heat, and many are getting help.

"There used to be a 'gotcha' mentality; now we're trying to figure out
how to help teachers do a better job," said Cindy Farlino, assistant
principal of Central East Middle School in Philadelphia.

"One teacher who had a problem with classroom management sat and
watched a tape with me where we discussed every few minutes what the
teacher on the tape was doing," Farlino said. "We saved that teacher."

For principals, the issue may be whether teachers can be helped. When
they don't improve, then "it's my administrative job to do what's
necessary to coach the person into another profession," said Michael
Silverman, principal of Henry C. Lea Elementary School in University
City.

Others caution that data can be misused and teachers and principals
punished for circumstances beyond their control. Other teachers say
there is too much testing, taking time away from teaching.

At Roberto Clemente Middle School, seventh-grade teacher Joanie Brooks
has 33 students - all learning English. Many only read at the fourth-
or fifth-grade level even in Spanish, and several are being tested for
learning disabilities. It's difficult, she said, to get all of her
students to proficiency in English-language tests as the
administration expects.

"We don't have the environment we need to achieve the goals set up for
us," Brooks said.

Carl Rosin, a Radnor High School English teacher, says the best
feedback came from fellow teachers who knew the subject and the
students. "I wish it were as easy as 'If we can measure it, it is
valid,' but it's not necessarily so."

Beginning in 1999, the Colonial district tried to rely on test scores
and other data to identify and reward successful teachers. "With merit
pay, it was every man for himself," recalled Rossien, the reading
specialist at Whitemarsh Elementary.

Administrators came to agree with the teachers' union - which struck
over the issue in 2001 - that the formula was flawed, unfair and
unworkable.

But the district still touts the value of data-driven instruction,
though some teachers retired or found jobs elsewhere rather then jump
on board, Superintendent Cotter said.

Now teachers mine students' data to identify their academic
weaknesses; then they craft action plans to remedy deficiencies. With
that kind of focus, students benefit, and the teachers gain expertise.

The district still rewards extra effort, inviting faculty to apply for
a "master teacher" program that includes an annual $5,000 stipend. And
the schools can win extra money for gains in student achievement and
other improvements.

Rossien has master-teacher status, as does Jason Bacani, 29, a
third-grade teacher at Whitemarsh and mentor to first-year teacher
Jared Gamble, 24.

One recent morning, the two men took turns coaching third graders in
writing. Bacani, a collector of bobble-head characters, had an easy
manner, while Gamble seemed a bit stiffer. Both kept the class on task
and showered their charges with praise when they came up with good
ideas.

"There is pressure," Gamble acknowledged. "You have 20 students in
your class, and there are expectations from the district and the state
to bring them along from the beginning of the year to the
[standardized state] tests in April."

He said he felt stress, but not burnout. Far from feeling threatened
by the almost instant analysis available through data, Gamble said he
viewed it as a bonus - a "learning tool for the teaching staff to know
what information the students are picking up and where they need to
improve."

Contact staff writer Dale Mezzacappa at 215-854-5112 or
dmezzacappa@phillynews.com.

Get the facts on teachers, district spending, test scores, and more
for public and private schools in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, along
with multimedia presentations about favorite teachers and more at
http://go.philly.com/reportcard.

ONLINE EXTRA

Complete databases on area school districts' performance:
http://go.philly.com/reportcard