Sunday, June 16, 2013

Chapter 50: Teaching to the Evaluation

Chapter 50: The Menial Teacher


The new teacher evaluation system imposed on the state of New York by State Education Chancellor John King signals the end of teaching as a legitimate career.  Soon teaching will no longer be considered a profession.  It will be menial labor.

Scenario 1:   English classroom, ca., 2016.

Teacher:    How do you expect to get a good job if you don’t study?
Student:    (Sheepishly)  I don’t know.
Teacher:    You don’t want to end up flipping pages in books at $7.50 an hour at the local Leadership Academy High School, do you?
Student:    You mean, like you ....
Teacher:    Don’t make the same mistakes I made.  Get yourself college and career ready.  Then you won’t have to teach rote Pearson lessons for a living ....

The new teacher rating system stipulates that 60% of a teacher's value is determined by observation.  The other 40% is determined by the performance of the teacher's students.




If a teacher is rated "inefficient" on the student performance portion of the evaluation, the teacher will automatically be rated "inefficient" for the year.

Scenario 3

Principal:    Well, Mr. Jones, I've got good news and bad news.
Mr. Jones:   Okay.
Principal:    You are a highly effective teacher in the classroom.  Congratulations.
Mr. Jones:   Thank you.
Principal:    Unfortunately, your students didn't perform so well on their standarized tests.
Mr. Jones:   I see.
Principal:    It's not me, you understand.  My hands are tied.
Mr. Jones:  But I volunteered to teach the overaged, undercredited group at your suggestion.
Principal:   Exactly.  It was one of your preferences and you got it.
Mr. Jones:  But some of those students made great progress.
Principal:   Progress is a relative term, Mr. Jones.
Mr. Jones:  And I put in all of those after school hours on my own time.
Principal:  Like I said, you are a highly effective teacher, Mr. Jones.  Unfortunately, the rubric dictates that I have to rate you "ineffective" for the year.  There's nothing I can do.









    NOTE: This blog contains an excerpt of the first draft of this book.

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