Judging+teacher+effectiveness+in+weaker+and+low-performing+schools

=**Research Question: How can we judge teacher effectiveness in weaker or lower-performing schools?**=

**Author: Amanda Taylor**

 * Newsweek Article: Why we can’t get rid of failing teachers.**

Thomas, E., & Wingert, P. (2010, March 15). Why we can't get rid of failing teachers. //Newsweek//, //155//(11), 24. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA220567709&v=2.1&u=ntn&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w

__Summary:__ In this article, authors Evan Thomas and Pat Wingert discuss teachers’ roles in the extremely large achievement gap in the American school system. They begin by explaining that after trying many different strategies to reform the school system, researchers in recent years have realized that teacher quality plays a key role. The evident problem is that weaker teachers often teach in urban schools with socioeconomically disadvantaged children, a reality that just increases the gap. So why aren’t the weaker teachers fired? Teachers’ unions have made termination very challenging due to the existence of tenure, a form of job guarantee that a teacher gains after a few years of teaching. Due to the existence of tenure, the quality of teaching in inner-city schools has decreased over time and that directly impacted the widening achievement gap. Realizing a change was necessary, different tactics have been put into place to try and raise teacher quality in inner-city schools. KIPP schools, a type of charter school, were created in the inner cities. These schools have stricter rules and require both parent involvement and teachers that go above and beyond. Recently, with all the pressure of accountability and limited job opportunities, unions are reconsidering their stance of defending ineffective teachers,which has begun to allow teachers to be held to higher standards. The authors closed this article by acknowledging the thousands of very dedicated teachers and suggesting that those teachers would get more respect if the poor ones were weeded out of the system all together.

__Reaction:__ Although there are many points in this article that I agree with, it also leaves me with many questions. The facts are apparent; the American education system needs help. I believe that teacher quality is vital, but that there are also external factors that influence student achievement. Some external factors include poverty, parental involvement, school funding, and safety at school and at home. Teachers have a limited amount of control over these factors, which present obstacles to learning. Many inner-city schools are filled with weak and discouraged teachers, whose presence makes the achievement gap widen even more because students with poor teachers rarely catch up. Teachers also become discouraged and therefore do not teach to their potential. So how do we get high-quality teachers to teach in urban settings? How do we convince them to take a job in the city even though they are offered a higher paying job with fewer obstacles in a suburb? And then, even when quality teachers have the dedication and heart to teach at low-performing schools, how do we judge their effectiveness? If you look solely at test scores, even top teachers may be seen as failures. Although I do believe there are weak teachers in urban schools, I also believe there are underappreciated quality teachers who need to be judged by criteria such as student teacher relationships and student improvement throughout the year rather than by a single state exam. I do believe that every teacher needs to enter each year with the idea that they can make a change in students’ lives, and that just because they teach in inner-city schools does not mean that they should give up or put less than 110% into teaching.


 * New York Times Editorial: A New Measure for Classroom Quality**

Bausell, R. B. (2011, May 1). A new measure for classroom quality. //New York Times//, p. 12(L). Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA255130299&v=2.1&u=ntn&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w

__Summary:__ "A New Measure for Classroom Quality" written by R. Barker Bausell is an editorial from the New York Times that endorses a different method of teacher assessment than test scores. Bausell believes teacher quality should be judged by the amount of time a teacher spends actually teaching curricular material, or how much relevant instruction gets done everyday. Efficient teachers should be able to maintain “strict discipline and minimize non-instructional activities,” which would allow the students to learn more material and therefore succeed on standardized tests. He suggests placing a video camera in each classroom to evaluate how much time teachers really spend teaching and how engaged their students are. He also explains that by focusing on this method, other reforms should be put into place such as lengthening time in school, reducing tardiness/absenteeism, punishing disruptive behavior, and offering tutoring. He ends by restating the fact that standardize tests results will not find us better teachers, but measuring the time spent on instruction would make teachers more effective.

__Reaction:__ In thinking about the ideas presented by Mr. Bausell, I agree that there does need to be a different method for teacher assessment than test scores**.** However, I disagree with his suggestion of how to judge the effectiveness of teachers. In a school district with motivated students from high socioeconomic families, this approach may indeed help improve teacher quality. However, if you look at an inner-city school, with a high poverty and violence rate, this would not be a fair testament to how effective teachers are. Even if the teachers are top quality**,** organized**,** and efficient, there are issues they have to deal with that many other teachers never experience. Academically speaking, if students come into a classroom without having learned basics they should have in years before, the teacher needs to take time to go back to the basics, which takes time away from the curriculum they are required to get through. And beyond academics, teachers in inner-city schools especially have to overcome other issues before they can even begin to focus on the academics. Sometimes addressing these issues have to take precedence which in turn does in fact decreases the amount of time spent on traditional learning. Some of those life lessons can be just as important as academic ones. Overall, I believe that you cannot compare two teachers in completely different environments with completely different types of students without taking the impact of the specific challenges into consideration.


 * Scholarly Journal: Choosing to matter more.**

Haycock, K. (2005). Choosing to matter more. //Journal of Teacher Education//, //56//(3), 256+. Retrieved from [|http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA132229765&v=2.1&u=ntn&it=r&p=AONE&sw=]w

__Summary:__ In this article published in the Journal of Teacher Education, Kati Haycock gives her point of view, backed with data, on how much teachers matter in the debate over how to close the achievement gap. She acknowledges a message that many teachers and even future teachers have heard for years. Although she disagrees with the message, it is a commonly heard idea that teachers cannot close the achievement gap because socioeconomic status overpowers anything a teacher can do. Through her travels, she has heard of and experienced an overwhelming amount of examples of this message still being drilled into the minds of young educators, which she believes starts teachers off in their career feeling “more impotent than empowered.” Many graduate students in the education field have heard time and time again that no matter what they do, poor and minority students simply will not perform as well as rich white students. This is both untrue and devastating as there is plenty of data that show stories of successful urban schools. The schools that do show high-performance with a majority of lower class minority students have demonstrated that when students consistently have above-average teachers, it offsets the disadvantages of their socioeconomic background. Haycock clearly conveys her belief that teachers can impact children more than society seems to believe. She advocates for the importance of quality teachers being put into schools with socioeconomic disadvantages to try and close the achievement gap.

__Reaction:__ While I do believe that there are certain external factors that teachers have no control over, I also agree with Haycock about how important teachers truly are. I agree with her from start to finish of this article. In my few years of studying education, this is the first article I have read that acknowledges the success of some low socioeconomic schools, which is refreshing. It gives me hope, which is something I think many future teachers are robbed of. In a way, I think we forgot that we are all in this together, which means that as a student goes through schooling, if they encounter two poor teachers in a row, it sets them back for years to come. The idea of consistently having a high quality teacher is imperative if we wish to see our students succeed. This point is especially evident when we address the issue of the achievement gap in America. Haycock states that our country needs to “figure out how to get our best teachers to the students who most need them.” Although I do not believe this to be an easy task by any means, I believe the results would show a significant improvement in the achievement gap.


 * ERIC Digest: The Impact of PDS**

Wendy Schwartz. (2000). The impact of professional development schools on the education of urban students. ERIC Digest. //ERIC Digest//, //156//. Retrieved from http://www.ericdigests.org/2001-2/urban.html

__Summary:__ Professional development schools (PDSs) have been suggested as a way to improve school’s atmospheres for urban students. Wendy Schwartz describes what PDSs are and what the advantages and disadvantages these programs would bring to American education. PDSs are partnerships between universities and public schools that allow opportunities for student teachers to have crucial role in education reform. Some benefits of this program is that student teachers can relieve teachers in the classroom while they participate in training to restructure the school and the execution of the integrated service programs, which includes counseling and gang prevention. Another point made is that PDSs will address the fact that not every student fits a specific model, which is what standardized testing seems to imply, by implementing different strategies that apply to the diverse population of students. Some issues that have been discovered during the growth of professional development schools are that it does not always raise test scores, it is expensive to enroll in the program, and it could unintentionally increase teacher stereotyping by bringing teacher’s attention to the different learning styles. This being said, Schwartz does believe that urban schools could benefit from this program if they are dedicated to achieving the goals of the program.

__Reaction:__ I found the idea of professional development schools very intriguing. Although my knowledge of these programs is very limited, I believe that the objectives behind them, if implemented correctly, could have a huge positive impact of education reform. I agree that the diversity of students’ learning styles cannot be molded to fit one set method of teaching. I also love the idea that schools can benefit from student teachers. Whether they teach the whole class or take a small group aside to ensure the focus of those few kids, they are making a difference. One thing that did worry me was that if a student teacher does relieve the main teachers, the class could take advantage or suffer academically from having a student teacher versus their own teacher. Despite that as a downfall, I do see more pros than cons to applying PDSs to urban schools. Although it may not directly raise test scores, if it allows the students to learn more, I think it has done its job.

Overall Reaction to Your Research
//What did your research teach you about your original question? How would you sum up what you've learned?//

Through my research**,** I came to the conclusion that one can not judge a teacher's effectiveness by standardize testing alone. There are simply too many external factors involved that can interfere. When looking at schools with a high population of students at a low socioeconomic level, you must take into account the obstacles that the teacher must face day in and day out. That being said, my research also endorsed my previous belief that although these external factors are somewhat out of the teachers' control, a quality teacher can in fact offset some of these disadvantages. Urban schools need to consistently provide students with high quality teaching in order to close the large achievement gap that we face in American education today. However, judging the effectiveness of teachers cannot be done with one standardize exam. Criteria to supplement standardized tests should include how teachers engage and interact with their students, as well as students' improvement throughout the year. I still do not believe that I can come up with a solution or formula of how to judge teachers, mainly because you simply cannot compare teachers by one method without taking into consideration the different environments they are in.

Relevance in Rhode Island Schools
//How does what you learned in your research inform efforts to reform schools in Rhode Island?//

Teacher effectiveness plays a vital role in Rhode Island's reform efforts as shown in the Rhode Island Strategic Plan. One of the major goals of the Strategic Plan in to ensure educator excellence. They wish to accomplish this goal by creating higher standards, using professional development programs, and establishing a better way to evaluate teachers. My research has been directly related to all of these topics. Rhode Island's concern and focus on having high-quality teachers across the state is essential to improving the schools. As my research stated, having high-quality teachers can consistently offset other factors that may lower performance. My research could specifically apply to Central Falls High School, which is one of the worst performing schools in the state. With a dropout rate of nearly 50%, over 40% of the children in Central Falls are living below the federal poverty threshold. Central Falls could sincerely benefit from high quality teachers and by evaluating such teachers in a different manner. Overall, Rhode Island how the right idea that in order to reform their schools, they need educator excellence!