Our view: Can Maryland win federal school dollars with one arm tied behind its back?
...That's because the greatest resistance to the reforms needed to compete in the Race to the Top — and to make our education system stronger — is coming from the state's wealthiest suburban jurisdiction, Montgomery County, where the school system has been reluctant to sign on to the reforms, and the teachers union has strongly questioned them. The county already has one of the most successful school systems in the state and nation, and its teachers union may well feel it can afford to forgo making the kinds of changes that would make the state as a whole more competitive for the federal award — which would disproportionately benefit poorer counties with the greatest educational needs, such as Baltimore City and Prince George's County. But it seems grossly unfair for the state's wealthiest school district to be allowed to wield what amounts to a veto over other jurisdictions' chances of winning badly needed aid.
Montgomery County's teachers union isn't the only one that has resisted Ms. Grasmick's efforts at reform, but there is something truly perverse about that jurisdiction, for all its vaunted successes, failing to embrace ideas that would directly benefit many of its own students. Though the federal resources would be concentrated in the districts that need them most, it is not as if the achievement gaps the state is trying to erase don't exist in Montgomery County as well. There may be fewer poor students there to drag down the district's high average test scores, but the gaps are just as destructive for those left behind. Don't they deserve a quality education too?...
It is my understanding that the issue with the Race to the Top proposal is the mandate that teacher salaries be attached to student test scores. Currently, Maryland state law prohibits this, the concern being that student test scores depend on a variety of variables, many of which are not under a teachers control.
We have a very good idea which teacher gets the raise and which gets free training the next summer to boost his or her skills.
This oversimplifies matters, but assuming a random distribution of kids (not necessarily a fair assumption) the variables should also be distributed fairly randomly, including financial conditions, family composition, parental education attainment and so on.
To not include such metrics at all in determining teacher effectiveness hampers the mission of schools, I strongly suspect.
It is my understanding that the issue with the Race to the Top proposal is the mandate that teacher salaries be attached to student test scores. Currently, Maryland state law prohibits this, the concern being that student test scores depend on a variety of variables, many of which are not under a teachers control.
ReplyDeleteI've been curious about the resistance by teachers to be judged based on student performance.
ReplyDeleteStandard testing at the start and end of a school year could offer largely variable-free measurement
If two teachers have 50 students and their scores at the beginning of the year rank them:
Teacher 1: 1,3,5,7...45,47,49.
Teacher 2: 2,4,6,8...46,48,50.
at the end of the year, the kids get ranked:
Teacher 1: 1,2,3...23,24,25.
Teacher 2: 26,27,28...48,49,50.
We have a very good idea which teacher gets the raise and which gets free training the next summer to boost his or her skills.
This oversimplifies matters, but assuming a random distribution of kids (not necessarily a fair assumption) the variables should also be distributed fairly randomly, including financial conditions, family composition, parental education attainment and so on.
To not include such metrics at all in determining teacher effectiveness hampers the mission of schools, I strongly suspect.