How Not to Define Good Teaching

The latest draft of how to determine whether or not a teacher is any good. Here, too, is an example of suggested contractual language to implement the new evaluation system:

"7. When a final criterion score includes a fractional number (for example 2.3), all scores with fractionals below .5 will be rounded down and all fractionals .5 or above will be rounded up, for example, a score of 2.33 would receive a final criterion score of 2 and a score of 2.5 would receive a final criterion score of 3."

This is not my definition of good teaching.

WEA Should be a Professional, Non-partisan Organization

One of the reasons I am running to be WEA president is to re-position the WEA as a professional, non-partisan organization. We should not be a wing of the Democratic Party. Many of our members are either Republicans, not Democrats, or unaffiliated. We should hold elected officials accountable to our agenda and our core values, regardless of party and not be a sycophant to any politician or political group.

Too often, we demonize those with whom we disagree and lionize those with whom we agree.  I frequently receive communications from my UniServ council, WEA and NEA using cartoonish characterizations of usually non-Democratic officials.  And occasionally from WEA and often from NEA I am confronted with my state and national organizations taking stands on issues that have nothing to do with public education (such as abortion or immigration policies in other states or solar energy or Geronimo Pratt).  This divisive approach needlessly alienates members who, in the unified dues structure, are forced to belong to the regional, state, and national organizations if they want to belong to their local association.

As one example, President Obama was prematurely endorsed before he announced his reelection bid.  Last July, he was less than one mile from the Washington, D.C. convention center and chose not to address the NEA-RA--the nation's largest democratic deliberative body and most significant public education organization.  NEA president Dennis van Roekel was giddy when he accepted a phone call from the president.  van Roekel should instead have held the president accountable for his competitive grant approach (Race to the Top) to funding public education and his continuance of Arne Duncan as education secretary.  Had Obama actually shown up to the RA, I would have lustily booed him.  Some of his education policies need a good booing.

Our organizations should advance our agendas in serious, consistent, non-lick-spittle and non-partisan ways.  We should debate and disagree, organize and engage with all officials who would affect public education.

Lipstick on a Pig

This is a worksheet that I created to help my HR director and lead bargainer as the three of us try to write contractual language to implement the new evaluation system. According to the legislature and to prevailing views throughout the country, this is what good teaching looks like.

WEA's legislative priority this session is to secure full funding and full implementation of this view of teaching.

Yes, WEA has succeeded in (perhaps) blunting the worst of this odious and onerous approach, but putting lipstick on a pig and calling it Beyoncé doesn't change the fact one iota that it's still a pig.

OurVoice WEA

WEA is a doing a good job tracking, communicating, and organizing in response to legislative efforts that might affect public education if enacted into law. Whereas the House is working on pro-public education bills (such as reducing class size and state assessments while increasing funding), the Senate is employing an opposite approach. Yesterday, I was happy to once again utilize my local association’s communication tools in response to WEA President Mary Lindquist’s call for member participation on two Senate bills which would weaken teacher retirement and due process.

Since two Democrat Senators have chosen to caucus with the Republicans, the Senate has a Republican majority. Republican priorities in public education are now being given greater consideration. In addition to those on substituting a 401(k)-style savings account for our state pension plans and making it easier to fire teachers, the Senate is debating bills that would

•require that 50% of teacher evaluations be based on test scores

•require 3rd graders to pass a high stakes test in order to be promoted to the 4th grade

•provide differentiated pay for math, science and special education teachers

•move towards requiring a Common Core Standards assessment as a graduation requirement

It’s in everyone’s self-interest and the interest of his or her school community to pay attention to what our legislators are introducing, debating, and voting on in Olympia. WEA maintains an excellent web portal by which anyone can get more information and to lobby in easy ways on behalf of those causes that are most important to each of us.

OurVoice WEA

Current Classroom Teacher as WEA President

While we were discussing the new evaluation system, I recently asked my superintendent when was the last time he actually taught. He answered, "1978." I find it interesting that many people who taught sometime in their careers refer to themselves permanently as teachers, as sort of a lifetime honorific.

Public education has changed markedly from even a few years ago--and those in the trenches, day in and day out, experience and cope with many changes imposed by those who are no longer or have never been in the classroom.

I think it's time that WEA is led by a classroom teacher, whose direct and substantive experience is the classroom--and not another political operative or bureaucrat whose turn it is simply because he or she has occupied every position, checked every box, and supported the line staff or the party line.

Stop Blaming Teachers

Less Testing, More Learning

There is an event to support teachers who are facing disciplinary consequences for refusing to administer a test they feel is unworthy of their students and their craft this Thursday, February 28 at the University of Washington. I appreciate the invitation that was given me, but I have a previously-scheduled appointment on behalf of my local members that I am unable to reschedule.

My view on assessments in general is that they have taken the focus from rich learning experiences, a varied curriculum, and students themselves to arbitrary numbers signifying meaningless achievement on narrow measures. Not everything that has value is measurable. All good teachers know this. In my building, those subjects that are tested are emphasized, funded, scheduled, and imbued with worth; those that are not are neglected, un- or under-funded, not included in master schedules, and tacitly or overtly diminished. No child anywhere should ever be presented only with reading, math, and science--as if the arts and social studies and physical education and foreign language and CTE classes are without worth or secondary. In my building, too, almost one-third of our school year witnesses all three of our computer labs shut down, reserved exclusively for testing, testing, testing--not learning, learning, learning.

The reform movement has damaged public education. Thank goodness that courageous teachers--without leadership from the WEA--are standing up and simply saying, "No."

Scrap the MAP Event at the University of Washington, 2/28/13