Track the Teacher
Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett is about to launch a program that will definitely raise the ire and the eyebrows of the education establishment in Indiana.
Bennett’s office is preparing to launch a tracking system tying graduates of Indiana’s Colleges of Education to the academic performance of their students. The program is based on a Louisiana model where students’ test performance is tracked back to the teachers and then the teachers’ preparation programs.
According the New Orleans Times Picayune…
[Education Secretary Arne] Duncan called the Louisiana strategy “a simple but obvious idea.”
“Colleges of education and district officials ought to know which teacher preparation programs are effective and which need fixing. Transparency, longitudinal data, and competition can be powerful tonics for programs stuck in the past.”
He said that as a result of the study’s findings, officials at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette added a career counseling program to help teachers adapt to the classroom and strengthened course requirements in English.
“Real change, based upon the real outcomes of children — revolutionary, isn’t it?”
Bennett says bringing the same system to Indiana will bring more accountability to education and show which colleges of education in the state are producing quality teachers and which ones aren’t. Bennett says he will also use the data to rank Indiana’s colleges of education from best to worst based on student achievement.
Life in the classroom is going to get interesting.
October 26th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
The concept needs work, but it has promise. Here are my problems with it:
1. There are about five states whose education programs you do NOT want to model…La. is definitely one of them. But, I'll keep an open mind–a broken clock is right twice a day.
2. Bennett and his ilk are locked into the idea that teachers are the problem. Some of them are, but the overwhelming blame here belongs with administrators. If they weren't so damned central-office-heavy and lazy, they'd go after bad teachers and coach them up or out. It is hard work to do that. Maybe it should be a little easier.
3. I understand accountability and penalties. I don't see anything in this program that tracks good results and rewards them. That has to be part of the final program–in fact, it needs to be the banner headline.
4. There must be some allowance for students who are more difficult to teach. I am confident that can happen.
Overall, we've got to find programs that work and enhance them. Outdated theories are still being taught in our ed schools, and they need to be rooted out and destroyed. Yesterday. It'd be nice if the proponents of the changes…could do so in the vein of lifting up, rather than tearing down.
October 26th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Your argument falls flat here, TA. Anyone who's on here on a regular basis knows you're an apologist for the teachers union. That support is in diametric opposition to holding teachers accountable.
But I will agree on this point: It is the fault of management (administrators) for giving in to the stong-arm tactics of unionized teachers who don't want to be held to account. No matter how one looks at it, this is a systemic problem with unions and their demand
to be rewarded regardless of performance.
October 26th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
The Legislature made the first contract with the unions and that public law makes them the school board with their IEERB as enforcer. Aside from La example, the ag professor from Tennesse says that data mining the ISTEP data would almost immediately shine the light on those teachers who need to be gone. There are really not that many of them, probably less than 10% but however many they are they need to be gone. Why? Because kids cannot recover from the experience, ever. The recent Columbia University studies on schools of mis-education cannot be good reading for the status quo clowns in Indiana schools of mis-education-the only surprising thing is that after 70 years they finally realized the foolishness and published their findings. Rico, you ought to serve on a school board sometime where most of your fellow board members were elected openly by the local union…so much for checks and balances. The legislature has made ronan of school superintendents (management as you call them) with average tenure in a system of three years? ISTA, as TA will tell you, help elect a lot of drones in our Legislature and even Superintendents of Public Instruction. It is a nice title, instruction, and much more measurable than the greasy term, “education”. Note too, that “educators” in universities are shunned by scholars in real disciplines. So far, this Bennett fellow reminds much of the new Mayor of Muncie, and sacred cows remaining ought to head to higher ground.
October 26th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
I called them 'management' because I was equating school administrators to management in several industries (auto manufacturing, airlines, etc.)that are failing due to caving in to union demands.
October 26th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Rico, you don't know me. You don't know how I feel about this—read what was written, comment on that all you want, but don't “make up” things about which you know little.
It isn't very attractive.
I am a strong supporter of teachers. Their mission is much more complicated than my public school teachers' mission three decades ago. Are there bad ones? Yep. Maybe 2-4%. But not enough that, if you got rid of all of them tomorrow, this schools would improve dramatically.
The culture of public education is top-heavy. Four layers of crap are buried in the command structure, and have been for four decades. Cut the number of admins in half tomorrow, and listen to the good teachers…we'll be better off immediately. And save money in the process.
I've always maintained that public education getgs all the money it needs…it's just a shame that too many whacked-out power-hungry superintendents consolidate power in their central offices, instead of pushing it into the buildings, where teachers and staff can make good decisions with fewer layers to decipher.
These layers are truly expensive. They drain creativity from the core of schools.
AND LAPDOG SCHOOL BOARDS GO ALONG WITH IT.
October 27th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Since government schools are now political in nature it is time to get rid of elected school boards and put accountabilty back on the backs of politicians. The Chicago Way might work since Mayors used to appoint school board members and school performances went south soon after that was changed to allow the inmates to run/game the system. Better thinkers might question why we even have government schools in this day and age. There is wide agreement that the system isn't working and hasn't worked well for decades and isn't likely to work well for decades to come regardless of tinkering around the edges and leaving the little islands of applied socialism to continue to float on taxpayer blood.
October 27th, 2009 at 8:41 am
A potential negative effect is that Schools of Education will begin doing all they can in order to get their graduates into those schools where the children are already successful. To do this they will partner with those school systems and have their students do their in class training there etc. (Rich suburban districts)
And the poor districts will be avoided.
(The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.)
October 27th, 2009 at 10:03 am
I don't know you, TA. For that, I am grateful. Words mean things (to some of us). I based my post on your very words on previous posts here. What a short, selective memory you have.
October 27th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
It's not a short memory, Rico. It's a consistent advocacy for kids and teachers, and pretty consistent against layers of administration. I have more than a passing knowledge of this arena.
But believe whatever you wish. Clearly you walk through life angry. Words mean a great deal to me, too. So try this one on for size:
Stifle. Yourself. (That's really two words)
I don't know you either. Can't say whether I'd want to. But it's pretty clear someone crapped in your mess kit at one time or another.
October 27th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
And anyone who is on here on a regular basis knows that your are rude, crude and off your medication.
October 27th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
You actually stated last week that you didn't call Rush a racist when you did exactly that on a different post from the same day. So I stand by my assertion that you have a selective memory.
I am not an angry person by nature. But I am a patriotic American, so of course I get angry when I see folks you hold in high regard trashing our country. A lot of us are angry out here at President ACORN and his minions trying to 'transform' our nation into their version of a socialistic utopia. And we're angry at the Minton-McNeil's of the world not being held to account. There's a lot of anger out there to go around. And folks are getting angrier by the day.
October 27th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Hilarious, Rico. You're patriotic and use slang or intended-derogatory comments about our president? That's hardly patriotic. You don't have to like him or his policies to be respectful……respect for the Presidency is patriotic. Disrespect isn't necessarily unpatriotic, but it's a good start.
As for El Rushbo, my ears are on loan from God, and I heard him say the completely racist things he said about NFL players. If you'll scroll baaaaack, you'll see that I specifically said I didn't think he was racist. But I am absolutely certain he's said racist things. Perhaps because he's an entertainer and it gins up the audience?
By the way, he's also a hypocrite, having railed against loose drug control policies, all the while he (allegedly) heavily abused prescription drugs, allegedly sent housemaids to buy them illegally, and behaved badly when caught. He escaped serious legal trouble, but he's living with a severe hearing loss as a result of the drug misuse. That's punishment enough.
And as for Mrs. M-M's council district, Wilson, you might want to check the boundaries…I believe she represents a great deal of Center precincts. Could be wrong, but that's the way my eye caught the maps. I can do that with my unLatin eye.
And she owes her constituents some explanations. For her sake, I hope they're good. I don't wish her any ill will, but she's certainly found the wrong side of issues lately. And excuse me all to hell, but sending a letter to indicate you're abstain…that's just, uh, dumb.
October 27th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
I believe it would be unpatriotic to support such an anti-American president. I used to believe the office itself deserved respect. Well, why should I respect the office if the man holding it does not?
And how patriotic is it to make time for David Letterman, Golf, and Basketball when he's barely made time for his commander on the ground in Afghanistan. He sits on an urgent request from that commander(one he hand-picked, incidentally) while we have the deadliest month of the war for our soldiers yet. All the while, our classless president still blames his predecessor for virtually everything involving the wars. (Hell, he blames him for everything, in true childlike fashion.)
My sentiments are exactly the opposite of Michelle Obama's: For the first time in my life, I'm ashamed of my country (for voting Barry in).
And several quotes attributed to Rush were pure fabrictions. It is still just your opinion that the comments he did make were racist. But your friends Jesse and AL agree, so you're in good company. You must be proud.
October 27th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
TA, you are correct. DMM is my councilor and I live in Center Township. Much of her district is in Center. I like her and she has been a good councilor but……there needs to be some resolution to the current problem of her attendance whatever the cause. I am assuming that it is a medical excuse. Due to her superb advocacy for her district, I am willing to be patient but at some point I want represented on the council.
October 28th, 2009 at 9:11 am
Rico,nothing personal just trying to point out that analogies with real performers don't work with statist, socialist, unionized bureaucracies found in poorly performing government schools. You have to unlearn the analogy. So, Superintendents are not really managers or leaders. Principals are not really headmasters (since principals have rarely mastered anything). And teachers are not educators but only poorly trained instructors. Res Ipsa Loquiter, as they used to say where RES would mean today the pre planned results obtained by our captive students on any standardized test…those results are perfectly acceptable to our Legislature and have been for decades according to the plans of the Legislature. That is, reward teacher unions in exchange for money. The only excuse for having government schools as an Indiana joke is that of student academic achievement. Everything else for the student can be obtained at VASTLY less expense. What sort of management would you expect from Superintendents with average job tenure of three years in a school system? Even a real manager would have difficulty in bringing achievements in a government school to equal their expenses in only three years…if ever. At least the UAW product was drivable.
October 28th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Rico,nothing personal just trying to point out that analogies with real performers don't work with statist, socialist, unionized bureaucracies found in poorly performing government schools. You have to unlearn the analogy. So, Superintendents are not really managers or leaders. Principals are not really headmasters (since principals have rarely mastered anything). And teachers are not educators but only poorly trained instructors. Res Ipsa Loquiter, as they used to say where RES would mean today the pre planned results obtained by our captive students on any standardized test…those results are perfectly acceptable to our Legislature and have been for decades according to the plans of the Legislature. That is, reward teacher unions in exchange for money. The only excuse for having government schools as an Indiana joke is that of student academic achievement. Everything else for the student can be obtained at VASTLY less expense. What sort of management would you expect from Superintendents with average job tenure of three years in a school system? Even a real manager would have difficulty in bringing achievements in a government school to equal their expenses in only three years…if ever. At least the UAW product was drivable.