Transcript Slide 1

100% Pass Rate by 2014 LECTURE WRITE QUESTION 1
PROGRESS
TO 100% IN
ILLINOIS
NCLB In your view, what are some of the consequences
of the rule for Adequate Yearly Progress that requires schools
to progress to a 100% pass rate of all students in grades 3-8 in math
and reading tests by the year 2014.
Professor Darling Hammond, Stanford University
• A CALL FOR HIGHER ACCOUNTABILITY
SHOULD MEAN “two way” accountability
• In exchange for being held accountable,
states should make sure that schools have
the resources to improve.
Race to the Top
From the Blueprint
Full bill yet to pass
Secretary Arne Duncan
Plans to “soften sanctions”
• Provide rewards
• Raise bar—everyone ready for college
• Link merit pay for teachers to test scores
• Give teachers more autonomy
• Drastic measures for bottom 1% of schools
Incentives and Flexibility
Promised by Race to the Top
• All schools will be aiming to do their part to
help us reach that ambitious goal, and for
most schools, leaders at the state, district,
and school level will enjoy broad flexibility
to determine how to get there. (Race to the
Top)
• http://vimeo.com/7905225
Incentives 2:28 seconds
Arne Duncan
Better assessments in R2T
“Race to the Top”
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
DUNCAN: Again, I think we need much better assessments.
We need to be assessing not just your ability to fill in a
bubble sheet but critical thinking skills. And I think we have
a huge chance now to change….have state leaders really
pushing very, very hard to have that next generation of
assessments.
We want to look at graduation rates -- how are students
doing each year in terms of -- not just completing high
school but are they truly college and career ready.
And so, there are many things that we need to take into
account. Test scores being one of them, but by no means the
only one.
How does Darling-Hammond view testing?
How can assessments be used to
improve student achievement?
“If we are to achieve the noble goal of NCLB, the law
must be amended so that states have flexibility and
encouragement to use thoughtful performance
assessments and that test are used diagnostically for
informing curriculum improvements rather than
punishing schools and students” (Darling-Hammond, 24)
How can assessments be used to improve
achievement according to Darling-Hammond?
• Value Added Assessments
– Give achievement tests on read and math levels at the
beginning of the year.
– Test at the end of the year.
– Assess advancement in grade levels.
• Diagnostic tests that match to curriculum to target
interventions for students.
– Assess specific skills
– Re-teach skills as needed.
What broader set of assessments should be
used to monitor student achievement?
Darling-Hammond
• Progress should be evaluated on multiple
measures—
– Attendance
– School progress (results on state tests, and results on
improving other measures of progress)
– Graduation rates
– Passing courses by students
– Classroom performance on tasks beyond multiple choice
tests.
Darling-Hammond agrees with
NCLB requirement:
“One of the most important aspects of
NCLB is that it requires all schools to
provide “highly qualified teachers” to all
students by 2006.
– Fully certified
– Show competency (states set standard of
competency—state tests in subject matter,
advanced training in subject matter,
classroom assessment of skills)
Darling-Hammond recommends we focus on ways
to keep more qualified teachers in the classroom.
Looks to Federal Government for Leadership
• Qualified teachers—
– Recruit more candidates in high-need fields (math,
science, special education) and locations (low
performing schools, provide incentives). Provide
scholarships and forgive loans to students who
commit time in high-needs fields and locations.
– Provide new teachers with mentors to reduce
attrition (1/3 new teachers leave the profession in
first five years)
Darling-Hammond recommends we focus on ways
to keep more qualified teachers in the classroom.
Looks to Federal Government for Leadership
• Qualified teachers—
– Schools should provide strong professional
development to teachers
– Increase teachers’ salaries
– Improve working conditions (more planning time,
encourage more teacher collaboration)
Duncan on qualified principals and teachers….
Great Teachers and Leaders in Every School
• Effective teachers and principals. We will elevate the
teaching profession to focus on recognizing, encouraging,
and rewarding excellence.
• We are calling on states and districts to develop and
implement systems of teacher and principal evaluation and
support, and to identify effective and highly effective
teachers and principals on the basis of student growth and
other factors.
• These systems will inform professional development and
help teachers and principals improve student learning.
Duncan on qualified principals and teachers….
• In addition, a new program will support
ambitious efforts to recruit, place, reward,
retain, and promote effective teachers and
principals and enhance the profession of
teaching……
• “R2T” How will states implement?
• How will districts negotiate with unions?
Race to the Top--Qualified Teachers
How do you read this statement
about teachers? Your thoughts?
• Teachers are the single most important resource to a child’s
learning. President Obama will ensure that teachers are
supported as professionals in the classroom, while also holding
them more accountable.
• He will invest in innovative strategies to help teachers to
improve student outcomes, and use rewards and incentives to
keep talented teachers in the schools that need them the most.
President Obama will invest in a national effort to prepare and
reward outstanding teachers, while recruiting the best and
brightest to the field of teaching.
• And he will challenge State and school districts to remove
ineffective teachers from the classroom.
Race to the Top
Includes having states and districts adopt plans to
change the reward structures for teachers.
Pay for Performance of Teachers has many different
options. Pay increases:
1.Assess teachers’ instructional skills in the classroom.
2. Use test results
% of students to grade level,
% students with value added improvements
3. Combination
Race to the Top
Includes changing reward structures for teachers.
Pay for Performance of Teachers has many different options:
4. Bonus Pay Some teachers receive bonus pay based
on higher test results.
Recently Chicago Teachers’ Union agreed to a bonus
system, see Chicago Tribune Article by KEILMAN, J.
“School districts retooling how they evaluate teachers”
In recent study of this bonus pay system in Chicago
showed no difference between bonus teachers and
non-bonus teachers.
School Districts Retooling How They Evaluate
Teachers
Chicago Tribune, Nov. 2009 John Keilman
Teachers are rarely fired for poor performance, rarely
rewarded for excellence.
• Elgin School District is using observation of practice
– Clarity of lesson
– Classroom management
To provide feedback to improve teaching.
• PROCESS OF TEACHING, NOT SCORES
School Districts Retooling How
They Evaluate Teachers
Chicago Tribune, Nov. 2009 John Keilman
Evanston-Skokie School District—
– Highest increases in pay will depend on
classroom teaching style and student test
scores, compare test results in September and
again in May.
Evanston-Skokie School District—
teaching style plus test scores
Teachers earn excellent if:
• Move one low scoring child to grade level
• And most of the class shows one full year of growth
no matter where they start.
• Allows some scores to be excluded if child has
extended absences due to illness
Scores of tests are combined with traditional evaluation to
produce a final appraisal of excellent, satisfactory, or
unsatisfactory. Teachers must earn one excellent over several
years to earn the highest pay boost.
• In Chicago 30 schools are trying
incentives for higher test scores
– Bonus pay
• Unions will agree if scores are a small
piece of the evaluation of teachers.
Pay for performance
Many educational professionals see this
trend as “unstoppable.”
Work with teachers
• R2TT raising concerns that too many good
teachers are driven out of the profession
because they aren’t rewarded for the great
strides their students make.
• DUNCAN: Let me be clear. Teacher
compensation should never be based on just one
test score. That absolutely makes no sense
whatsoever.
Work with teachers
• Duncan has been careful to emphasize that
performance pay systems are complex, and
need to be developed in cooperation with
teachers, not imposed on them.
Research shows that “involving key
stakeholders in any pay-for-performance
effort is vital to future success,” says Susan
Freeman Burns, program manager at the
National Center on Performance Incentives
in Nashville, Tenn.
Would you work harder for a
$15,000 bonus if you raised your
students’ test scores?
Texas merit pay program did not
improve achievement
• A recent attempt at merit pay failed in Texas. In 2006, the
Texas Educator Excellence Grant was established with the
hope that it would produce academic improvement. However,
by Nov. 2009, the $300 million spent on merit pay for teachers
in 1,000 schools serving low-income students had not
achieved its goal, and was quietly retired.
• Supporters of TEEG maintained that bonuses were too small
and were awarded to groups of teachers at a particular school,
rather than to individual teachers. This strategy vitiated
competition between teachers that was deemed by supporters
to be indispensable to improved performance.
•
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/walt_gardners_reality_check/2010/04/skepticism_about_dc_merit
_pay_agreement.html
In the future, there is a chance that raises
and job security could be based largely
on some form of test scores.
All salary increases
Job termination