By Kristin

Dear Jim,

Your report wandered a bit, and I'm not sure where you got that fabulous "the same number went from here to there as there to here!" detail – the footnote didn't say.

If this paper had been written in my class, I probably would have conferenced with you, asked you to clarify, and encouraged you to work through a few more drafts.  It's clear that you don't think the National Board bonus has done what it set out to do, and isn't worth any more money (shame on so many teachers for going after it, anyhow!), but your paper doesn't prove that to me.

Still, I really love this section.  "Some research has found that success in the certificate is a signal of a good teacher. Other research shows that NBCTs, on average, do not produce better test score gains than non-NBCTs. The effect of NBCTs on low-performing students is more consistently positive."

Jim, here, I might have had a little talk with you – from a public school classroom teacher's perspective, of course, something that might be a rare and elusive bird in your world – about tests in Washington State.  They keep changing.  They change and they change.  On top of that, until the recent change to MAP and MSP testing, they were given only every few years. 

Even now, in my building, the MAP test stops in 9th grade and, of course, it tests only math and reading.  So, to review, the 9th grade test is the MAP, and the 10th grade test is the HSPE.  I don't know about you, but if I'm going to measure my corn to see if it grew, I'm not going to use a light meter if my first measurement was in inches. 

If you're going to use only tests to measure a teacher's impact, you need to test students in September and then again in June.  Every year, for every teacher.  Has Washington State found an effective way to use test scores to gauge the impact of a teacher?  No.  Testing a child in 4th, 7th and 10th grade did not give an accurate report of how effective the 4th, 7th and 10th grade teachers were, to say nothing of using them to measure the 5th, 6th, 8th, and 9th grade teachers, who loved teaching those grades because their names were never printed next to a score.

And the MSP and MAP are better, but as my earlier post demonstrates, a huge jump or fall in test scores might have nothing to do with the teacher, a little to do with the teacher, or everything to do with her.  We just can't tell by looking at the numbers.

But finally, I wanted to thank you.  Thank you for having a little human slip – a little moment when your subconscious must have shot out and tapped those keys that wrote, "The effect of NBCTs on low-performing students is more consistently positive."  Because really, when we don't have accurate or reliable tests to go by, that's all we have.  And it may be the most important thing of all.

Sincerely,

Kristin