I do not usually have a newspaper in my house. I usually do not read the newspaper. However, on this cold, wet Sunday, I read the newspaper. You see, it was left there by a guest and I am glad they did. I was able to read about Measure 60 in Oregon. Not our state you say, well, it is only one state away from Washington, and not too many away from the others.
I see little merit to a system where a salary is determined by an unreliable, untested, and non-research based system.
Want to have a system for attracting and maintaining the best teachers? I am cool with that. Measure 60 is not that.
I do not see any way to accurately measure the effectiveness of teaching when it will be left up to the legislature, Oregon Department of Education, AND school boards to define–too many people, too many angles. The result–a thin, poorly planned system. A system that will take more to fix (once people realize how bad it is) than to come up with a better system in the first place. The inconsistency between schools would make the system (1) impossible, (2) improbably, and (3) an immense beauracratic nightmare that would further take education apart.
Then again, maybe that is what they want.
I am clearly against Measure 60 in the state of Oregon for what it will do to Oregon, a state that already has its fair share of bad press with education, and I am against Measure 60 for how it could confuse other states.
However, I have both sides here being that I like a rich discussion, especially where there is a chance to learn.
Information FOR Measure 60
Information AGAINST Measure 60
I teach in Vancouver, WA….just across the Columbia River from Portland, OR so this is part of my life even though it is not part of my professional life (and hopefully never will be).
What are your thoughts? There is a clear FOR and a clear AGAINST. What I find unique to this situation is that there is also an argument that cannot be summed up in one word. Is it the argument, THERE-SHOULD-BE-SOMETHING-TO-VALIDATE-MASTER-TEACHERS-AND-MOVE-OUT-THOSE-TEACHERS-WHO-DO-NOT-HAVE-THE-PASSION, but just how do we do that?
One thing is clear, Measure 60 is not the way.
This belief does not come from a fear of being assessed or judged. I invite anyone who wants to come into my classroom to see the magic. Additionally, National Board Certification evaluates the skill of teaching and I did achieved that certification. NBPTS, unlike Measure 60, is a consistent system with multiple ways to maintain its validity. Furthermore, it is research based. And again, research based.
States should encourage, support, and provide incentives for teachers pursuing NBPTS. I know Washington does, and I am impressed with the results of both the state and the NBPTS certified teachers. Maybe this could be the third argument; the one without a name.
My stance on this issue is clear, but I have not gone into detail as to why. I leave that up to you. For example, do you like art classes in your schools? This Measure would likely remove those sorts of classes from the school. Can you measure love of learning with a test? Can you measure caring? Can you measure role-modelness?
What do you think about Measure 60? What would you say to an Oregon state legislator?
Related posts by other Stories From School bloggers:
…And More on Merit Pay, by Kim
Merit Pay Anyone, by Tom
Standards for All Beginning Teachers, by Richelle
Education is Not a Business, by Kim
Photo courtesy of merebearlandon. “60” added to the photo by author. Location of “NBPTS” and “60” on the measuring cup intentional.
New article on this topic from Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/16/AR2008111601752.html
I had a wonderful conversation with a parent while I was waiting outside of my son’s school. I make a point to share with people that I am a teacher. I think that this makes the profession of teaching closer to them; they can connect the needs of “the teachers” with someone they know.
So the parent asks me my thoughts on Measure 60, and I shared them. I am pretty sure that this parent would have voted against it even without our conversation. However, the conversation allowed both of us to think about the measure with more thoughtfulness and, hopefully, the parent will now have other ways to think about how teachers could be assessed for effectiveness.
I do not have a problem with teachers being assessed on effectiveness. However, I do have a problem (or see a problem would be a better phrase) with how that will be done; with what it will be done; by who; and for what.
If you are interested in similar topics, check out Tom’s post on Washington’s Task Force recommendations. Assessment of teaching practice is in there. Again, the assessing is not the problem, the how the state will mess it up is the concern. https://www.storiesfromschool.org/2008/10/what-it-takes-t.html
Carnival of Education! The Debate Edition
Have you noticed that presidential debates are a bunch of loosely related thoughts haphazardly pulled together? Kind of like this carnival. To pregame tonight’s debate, I let our fine candidates speak. I’ve done my best to give all of them,…
The “it.”
A few years ago, Sizemore attacked PERS. The state voted that teachers pay their own retirement – the state couldn’t contribute any more. My district gave us a raise that was equal to what the state had been contributing.
I think the solution is for people to understand that Sizemore is a horse’s rear. He is under scrutiny right now because he used contributed funds for his personal use. Oregon is starting to see that he’s just a wingnut.
@Meredith, sorry, but can you tell me what the IT is in this part of your comment? Thanks.
“Yeah, but they did it when Sizemore got the state to stop paying for PERS….”
So what is the solution? Anyone? is it something like this? https://www.storiesfromschool.org/2008/10/procert-or-proc.html
Or http://www.NBPTS.org
Yeah, but they did it when Sizemore got the state to stop paying for PERS (Public Employee Retirement System). My school district just gave us a raise that made up the difference. I don’t think the institutions are excited about all the more documentation that will have to be done in order to justify raises/no raises.
The part about this bill that does not surprise me, but scares me is the HOW the assessment of teaching success would be measured would be left up to the legislature and school boards after the bill is passed.
That is saying, let’s do this, but we will figure out how to do it once we say we will do it.
The problem is, that once they figure out how to do it, if they are smart, they will realize that it was a bad idea and then they will have to construct some way of getting ride of the Measure (unlikely) or some way of repairing it with even more fixin’ tape that the system would be failure on top of ignorance on top of bad idea.
Travis, the measure really doesn’t have a lot of teeth. There is no provision written into the bill as to HOW this merit pay bill will be carried out. Typical Bill Sizemore stuntage. I guess that I could get really upset about it, but it’s out of my control. Really, the parents I work with are supportive, and the community in which I teach is not against teachers.
As for moving to a new school? Not a snowball’s chance in…you know where. I love the population that I’m working with. The relationships that I have with some of my ELL kids is worth more than any raise I could get. Last year, 41% of my 8th grade students passed the OAKS science test (our version of the WASL). 41% is a failing grade, right? Did I forget to add that all of these kids were Profile 1 or 2 ELL kids? Oh…and that I taught mostly in English? My merit pay was seeing the huge smiles and hearing the sighs of content when the kids who passed saw their results. Or when one of my little tough girls passed the test, looked all cool, and then ran out of the room squealing with delight.
You’re right. We just need to stay with the kids. THAT’S how to get through this stupid bill.
@Meredith, it is tough when you feel like everyone is against you and all you want to do is help kids and teacher students. I can empathize with your situation. For you, what do you do to keep yourself going?
How about other teachers? What do you do in situations like this to keep yourself going? You may not have the upcoming Measure that Meredith does, riddled with faulty logic, or teach in Oregon, but what do you do?
I find that at least once a year, I get caught up in the negative and I have to get myself out of it. In education, where people tell me what to do and how to do it; hold expectations that are not reasonable; make statements like “you should be able to do this” when they do not know; and expect me to change their mistakes and ruin of the educational system all within a 43-47 minute period, oh wait, some days it is not even that due to testing or forecasting or job shadowing…
I find I just need to go back to my classroom, look at the students, and that reminds me why I am there. My students care. They appreciate me. They know that I am working as hard as I can and they are learning. What I do is go back into my little world and ignore the rest.
Hopefully this will not make me complacent.
Hmmm…I think that next year I’ll transfer to the middle school that has single-digit free and reduced lunch kids and away from my 50% free and reduced lunch school. Oh, and that school has 5% ELL to my 25% ELL. There I’ll be assured a raise because those kids don’t have ELL issues, or the problem that they’re too hungry to learn. Yeah, that’s a good idea.
@Bob Heiny, I believe that teachers do adapt, and adapt mightily to our benefactors. However, what would concern me are sweeping generalizations determining the future of education. I would be concerned with a system that was not valid, being used to validate teaching.
Interesting post.
I read the measure at http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Oregon_Ballot_Measure_60_(2008) and a summary of groups opposing it, including “The Parents and Teachers Know Better” campaign by the Defend Oregon Coalition. It looks like groups entrenched around existing schooling practices that don’t like a non-believer in their territory.
I’d have cautions also, if I lived in OR. My main caution is that the measure does not mention the word “learning.” Increasing student learning is the necessary reasons for schooling to exist, not teacher performance.
Teachers feed opposition to school practices. Teachers know simple ways to increase measured student learning promptly and consistently, and choose not to use them for various reasons. This measure, it looks to me, takes direct aim at some of those teacher choices, irrespective of reasons for making those choices.
I wonder why we as teachers don’t adapt at least a little to our benefactors, including those who signed OR Ballot Measure 60. petition?