Teachers tied to test scores.... more and more.....

(Excerpts from) Boston gets an F in teacher appraisals; Report criticizes evaluation system, termination rules, The Boston Globe, Tue Feb 23 2010, James Vaznis (emphasis mine)

A new state law that bolsters a superintendent's ability to fire teachers at underperforming schools could be undermined in Boston because administrators routinely neglect a basic task: evaluating teachers. ...... according to a report commissioned by the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education that was provided to the Globe yesterday.

Under the law, superintendents can terminate teachers at a failing school only for ``good cause,'' elevating the importance of job evaluations to provide evidence for dismissal or as a way for teachers to challenge their firings.

The findings could also affect the debate in Boston on merit pay for outstanding teachers. Without regular evaluations, Boston leaders could face accusations of favoritism when determining which teachers should be rewarded.
.......
Increasing the scrutiny of the nation's teachers is a key component of President Obama's education overhaul agenda, which would link teacher performance to students' standardized test scores. Massachusetts education officials have promised the Obama administration that they would develop more data-driven teacher reviews.

Last night, the Boston Teachers Union panned the report as ``antiteacher.'' ....... ``The overall premise of much of the draft report is faulty, essentially: Teachers need to be `fixed' and the `fixing' needs to be done to them, not with them,'' wrote Richard Stutman, the union's president. ``And principals, though flawed and often inexperienced, need to have full flexibility to do what they need to do.''

In an interview, Stutman said the teacher-quality group that conducted the report had analyzed other urban cities, such as Seattle and Hartford, drawing similar conclusions. He said the National Council on Teacher Quality is on a crusade against teachers.
......

Langley School District in deficit!

Back in the fall it came to light that the Langley SD had amassed an 8.3 million dollar deficit.

Here is an update!
(submitted)

The new Langley deficit is $14.2 million and growing!! The Board chair announced she would be recommending they create a ‘needs based budget’ to submit along with their ‘balanced budget’.
"Instead of living within their budget this year, they overspent by 5.3 million more dollars, so a balanced budget will be out of the question. "

Standardized tests and job security

All teachers, principals fired at poor-performing R.I. high school

A Rhode Island school board has voted to clean house at Central Falls High School by firing the entire staff of 93, including all teachers, guidance counselors, p.e. instructors and the principal, The Providence Journal reports.

The move makes Rhode Island one of the first states to meet a federal mandate to identify and overhaul poor performing schools.

Central Falls High School was singled out because of very low test scores and a graduation rate of 48%, the newspaper says. Five other schools have been put on notice.

The 5-2 decision by the Central Falls School Board touched off an uproar in Rhode Island's smallest and poorest city as organized labor showed up to support the teachers while state and local education officials stood their ground, the newspaper says.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan also weighed in, saying he "applauded" the officials for "showing courage and doing the right thing for kids."

The Journal says the 93 people fired included 74 classroom teachers, plus reading specialists, guidance counselors, p.e. teachers, the school psychologist, the principal and three assistant principals. Their names were all read aloud in the school auditorium.

(source: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/02/school-board-fires-principal-and-every-teacher-at-poor-performing-high-school/1)

Current list of school districts announcing deficits for next year....

Which means program cuts, school closures, and STAFFING CUTS! ($ amounts in brackets if known)
Burnaby (8 million), Boundary, Kamloops (closures), Lake Cowichan, Maple Ridge (closures), Nanaimo-Ladysmith (lay-offs), Fraser-Cascade (150,000), Port Alberni (closures), Coast Mountain, Cariboo-Chilcotin (3 million), Kootenay Lake (closures), Rossland/Trail, Peace River South, Prince Rupert, Chilliwack, Vancouver Island North, New Westminister, Abbotsford (8 million)....

This is not likely a complete list..... not a good time to be a teacher - or a student.

(list subject to errors and changes)

Gordon Campbell on merit pay

(with thanks to Kip Wood in Nanaimo) Recall that Gordon Campbell talked about merit pay when he was interviewed for Teacher Magazine in 2001 before he was elected. Here's what he said:

"Our goal should be to encourage innovation and excellence among teachers because the quality of our teachers has a direct effect on student success. Generally I like the idea of merit pay, it would be dishonest for me to say I don’t. I don’t know how it works in the public education system right now. It’s not something I’m rushing around saying 'I’ve figured out how to handle merit pay.'”

Here's the link to the April 2001 Special Election Edition that included David Chudnovsky's interview with Campbell:

http://www.bctf.ca/uploadedFiles/Publications/Teacher_newsmag/archive/2000-2001/2001-04-SE/index.pdf

From the Dallas Morning News:
(the same state where much of the testing paraphanalia is produced.)

Study: Texas' teacher merit pay program hasn't boosted student performance.

Nov. 4--AUSTIN -- For the $300 million spent on merit pay for teachers over the last three years, Texas was hoping for a big boost in student achievement. But it didn't happen with the now-defunct program, according to experts hired by the state.
The Texas Educator Excellence Grant, or TEEG, plan did not produce the academic improvements that proponents -- including Gov. Rick Perry -- hoped for when the program was launched with much fanfare in 2006, a new report from the National Center on Performance Incentives said. "There is no systematic evidence that TEEG had an impact on student achievement gains," said researchers for Texas A&M University, Vanderbilt University and the University of Missouri.
The researchers examined reading scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) for more than 140,000 students at schools participating in the program.
The TEEG plan, which provided incentive pay for teachers at about 1,000 campuses a year in lower-income neighbourhoods, was discontinued by the Legislature after the 2008-09 school year because of design problems.
Until the national center report, however, there had been no analysis of whether the merit pay plan was working to improve student achievement -- as shown by TAKS scores.
The researchers also found little impact on another aim of the program: reducing teacher turnover. Researchers note that in the first year of the program, teachers who received larger-than-average bonuses were less likely to leave their school. But most teachers received payments that were far less than what the state recommended.
"We're not surprised by the findings," said Richard Kouri of the Texas State Teachers Association. "We predicted the program would be a flop, and that's what it turned out to be."
Although lawmakers discontinued TEEG, they provided nearly $200 million a year for another merit pay plan that began last year -- the District Awards for Teacher Excellence, or DATE. Several North Texas districts, including Dallas, are participating in what is one of the largest merit pay plans in the nation.
But teacher groups remain skeptical of the new plan, particularly its heavy reliance on student test scores -- also a key feature of the TEEG plan. "The problem is that these tests aren't designed for this purpose," said Jennifer Canaday of the Association of Texas Professional Educators. "You can't take a snapshot of students' performance on one day and extrapolate from that whether their teacher is highly effective over the entire school year."

Mention of education in the throne speech...

In this year’s Speech from the Throne there is quite a bit of attention given to education (Compared to past years). However, most of the statements are vague and make no mention of any monetary commitment.

There are some items that we will need to pay close attention to:

· “New partnerships with the private sector and parents will enable the establishment of neighbourhood preschools for four year olds and three year olds within communities over the next five years.”

· “New emphasis will be placed on parental involvement and on tailoring our education system to each child’s individual needs, interests and passions.”

· “New forms of schooling will be developed to provide greater choice and diversity, centered on students’ special interests and talents.”

· “Smarter approaches will allow more resources to be focused on students’ learning needs while less is spent on administrative costs.”

· “A new Master Teacher program will be developed.”

In addition to private preschools, there is also a reference to public-private partnerships around “education support services.”

Educator-driven blog that is well worthwhile

This is out of Golden, and it is run by a colleague. This blog has lots of links to sites that cntain things you can use in your classroom.

http://www.gsstech.blogspot.com/

Alberta wage increase this year!

Wage ruling costs school boards $30 million; Arbitrator hands teachers 5.99% salary increase
Calgary Herald, Thu Feb 4 2010, Section: City & Region, Byline: Sarah McGinnis [excerpts for space]

..... an arbitrator ruled Alberta teachers are owed more under a five-year agreement with the province.

.... it's unclear when the province will reimburse districts for the $23-million expense.

"I don't have the $23 million in my budget this year," Alberta Education Minister Dave Hancock said Wednesday. "We went back to school boards in August to ask for some help from them. This is something I am going to have to go to Treasury Board with."

Alberta's 43,000 teachers and the province have been battling over salaries for almost a year.

According to the agreement, annual wage increases for teachers were to be tied to Alberta's average weekly earnings index. But in the spring of 2009, Statistics Canada revised how it calculates the index -- moving the figure from 4.82 to 5.99 per cent.

The difference translates into an additional $23 million in salaries this fiscal year -- or $30 million more over the 2009-10 school year.
...... the extra wages, which are retroactive to Sept. 1.
......This figure doesn't include higher teacher salaries for the remainder of this school year.

Nor does it include contracts for the CBE's non-teaching staff, which are also tied to the average weekly earnings index.
...... [Calgary] Board chairwoman Marge Belcourt said the arbitrator's decision will leave very little to cover future financial surprises, especially after the province clawed back $40 million from school boards earlier this year.
......arbitrator Andrew Sims ruled teachers were entitled to more.

"This is not a situation where the agreed upon index has ceased to exist, or has changed in a way where it purports to report on something different," Sims said in his 36-page ruling.

"I have no discretion to alter what the parties, by contract, have agreed upon," Sims added.
.......

Ministry of Education class size reports are out.

(with thanks to the BCTF for the source of this article)

Administrative overview: 17% of classes have 4 ort more chldren with Special needs in them (12,000 classes). Last year there were "only" 11,000 classes with 4 or more, and the year before? 10,000 classes. You can make your own judgment over these numbers.

Click here for the report.

2009-10 CLASS SIZE REPORT (excerpts)

VICTORIA – The fifth annual report on class size and composition.... When the first class size report was released in 2005-06, there were 9,253 classes with more than 30 students. Today, that number has decreased by more than 65 per cent to 3,229.
.... For the fourth consecutive year, more than 95 per cent of classes in school districts throughout B.C. have 30 or fewer students and 99 per cent of classes have 32 or fewer students.
Other findings from the 2009-10 class size report include:
· There are 67,473 classes in B.C. public schools this year.
· As a result of 3,350 fewer students this year, there are 884 fewer classes.
· B.C. now has one of the lowest student-teacher ratios ever – 16.7 students per teacher.
· There are 541,917 FTE students in provincial public schools.
· 18 school districts had reductions in their average Grade 8-12 class size over last year.
· There are no Kindergarten classes with more than 22 students and no classes from grades 1-3 with more than 24 students.
· There are 62 more education assistants this year, bringing the total to 8,877 – up by 1,221 or almost 16 per cent since 2005-06.
· There are 16,630 classes with assigned education assistants – an increase of 279 over last year.
· 17 per cent, or 11,959 classes have four or more students entitled to an Individual Education Program.

..... The act also requires the school principal to confirm the learning situation is appropriate for all students.
....
The class size report is available online: click here

New website - finally on line!

Check it out at www.elkvalley.net/fdta - Remember that a website is never truly finished - they're always a work in progress.

Let us know what you think.