There are no facts in observations, said the NY State Supreme Court in Elentuck v Green. Read these posts!!! How do peer validators and field supervisors know what is going on in the classroom if they observe you three times over the course of a year and do not know anything about the students or your background?
Absurd.
Betsy Combier
 |
| New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo |
VAM is Dead: New York State Political
Leadership Wheels and Deals to Claim Credit and Avert Blame
“Rarely do we find men
who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal
quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more
than having to think.”
– Martin Luther King Jr.
– Martin Luther King Jr.
A year
ago Andrew Cuomo was rolling….
The
governor shoved aside a pesky Fordham law professor in the Democratic primary
and defeated Rob Astorino, the Westchester County Executive in November.
Not the landslide that might have pushed him into the national limelight;
however, a victory is a victory. The worm in the apple was
education; teachers were hostile, the state poured endless billions into
schools, and the new Common Core tests scores were appalling: an opportunity to
blame the poor scores on teachers (and their union) and satisfy his charter
school buddies.
On December 18th Jim Malatras, the Cuomo Chief of Operations
sent a blazing letter to Chancellor Merryl Tisch, an accusatory letter demanding
responses to a list of questions.
Think Martin Luther nailing the 95 Theses on
the church door at Wittenberg Castle or Emile Zola’s J’Accuse letter …
excuse the references, I’m a history teacher.
The
Malatras letter lists twelve questions, demands answers, and implies that
since we have no confidence in the ability of the Board of Regents to resolve
any of these questions/concerns we will use the budgetary process to impose our
solutions. And, to rub salt in the wounds one of the questions asks the
chancellor to choose her method of execution.
“As you know, the
appointment and selection of the Board of Regents is unique in that unlike
other agencies selection and appointments are made by the Legislature. Would
you make changes to the selection and appointment process, and, if so, what are
they?”
On December 31 the chancellor responded with a 20-page letter ,
humble, respectful, and, meaningless.
True to
his threats the governor packed the budget bill with education initiatives, the
same that were included in his December 18th letter.
The
teacher probationary period was increased from three to four years, struggling
schools could be placed in receivership, an idea borrowed from Massachusetts, a
complex plan backed by $75 million in state dollars: turn the schools over to
outside “receivers,” who run the school independent of the school district,
with powers to amend the teacher contract, and yet another teacher evaluation
plan, again, borrowed from Massachusetts, usually referred to as the “matrix,”
that embeds student growth scores (Value Added Modeling, aka, VAM) in a teacher
rating.
The May
to September romance did not end well.
The
Legislature had no intention of giving away the power to appoint members of the
Board of Regents; in fact, they filled the four vacancies with independents who
immediately challenged the governor.
Over
200,000 parents, one in five, opted out of the state tests, and, the movement
was growing. Grassroots parents, not tied to a political party, were sprouting
all over the state, and, the culprit, the governor.
On the
national scene the once ballyhooed Common Core was under attack.
The
signature 2002 No Child Left Behind law that required annual testing and
granted sweeping authority to the feds, was being reauthorized, with sharply
reduced federal authority, and, teacher assessment was nowhere to be seen.
The
governor scrambled to respond, at arm’s length; he resuscitated the 2012 Cuomo
Commission, reduced and streamlined the membership, renamed the Task Force,
with a new agenda.
The
Task Force set up “listening sessions” around the state, not webcast.
The
agenda was simple, how the hell do we mollify these opt out parents and stop
the teachers union from pummeling us across the state.
In a
quiet move the governor selected yet another education adviser; instead of
someone from the reform-y side the guv actually selected a state
superintendent, one who has been a sharp critic of the state testing agenda.
The
Task Force report is due the first week in December and the spin masters are
bobbing and weaving.
In a New York Times article, titled, “Cuomo, in Shift, Is Said to
Back Reducing Test Scores’ Role in Teacher Reviews,” Kate
Taylor, recounts the “politics,”
And according to two
people involved in making state education policy, Mr. Cuomo has been quietly
pushing for a reduction, even to zero. That would represent an about-face from
January, when the governor called for test scores to determine 50 percent of a
teacher’s evaluation.
With a straight face, Jim Malatras said, “There is no position of this administration with respect to this
issue.”
The
position of the administration is to distance themselves from any negative
fallout and at the same time defuse a ticking time bomb.
Commissioner
Elia proposed reducing the impact of VAM to 20%, and withdrew the proposal when
the Cuomo side pushed back, perhaps a moratorium on the impact of students test
scores until 2019, by pure chance, the year after the next gubernatorial
election.
Should
the governor take credit for the changes? If so, he risks the ire of his
new-found charter school, deep-pocketed allies. The Long Island Republicans
would love to take credit for changes and win over the opt-outs, and the
Democrats, who appoint the Board members also want a slice of the pie. The
Regents and the commissioner could be tasked with making the changes; they can
be blamed for failures.
The use
of student growth scores, VAM, is dead; the assassins are haggling over who
stands over the warm corpse holding the still beating VAM heart over their head
screaming victory.
