Posted on February 19, 2012 by kilroysdelaware (had to recycle this post)
Accountability penalties for Delaware teachers and not for SES providers
2010-11 Supplemental Educational Services (SES) Provider Performance Report Read this report and see for yourself.
Before DSEA signs on the dotted line on teacher accountability perhaps they should demand same accountability for SES providers or have those students testing scores failed by the SES factor out of the classroom teachers evaluation or give so credit back. SES are being sold as the save-all picking up the pieces where the classroom teacher failed (not really). Put it this way, it’s like one dentist sending his patient to a specialist and that specialist pulled the wrong tooth. SES are failing in Delaware and not being held accountable and keep operating under the protection of the United States Department of Education. Arne Duncan and Jack Markell turns a blind-eye to the failures of SES providers.
Also look at Red Clay’s SES scores! Tell me this, how in the hell can a school district be their own SES provider for student that they “apparently” failed”? Do you see other Delaware school districts listed as an SES provider? Who knows perhaps it was part of the Race to The Top Limo Deal !
Kilroy’s additional comments 05/15/2012; Don’t you think all tutors being paid with NCLB SES dollars should be state certified teachers and highly qualified in subject matter they teach?
DSEA and all union and non-union teachers need to take a stand and demand SES providers be held accountable to the same standards as they are. Honestly, just go to the above link and look at Delaware’s SES performance report. Delaware classroom teachers will be held accountable to even the failures of the SES providers.
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This rings just “too true!” Gotta love Judge Judy~!
There has to be something wrong with that report (not that I would very impressed with the results if they were accurate). But look at the math results – they are identical in fall and spring. That couldn’t be true. Could it? SES couldn’t be that bad.
But there should, and must be, accountability. It seems like all we do is throw money at things, and apply blame, in education. And neither very well.
And for the life of me, I can’t figure out why we compare Fall to Spring DCAS scores. It’s entirely stupid, for lack of a better word. When you compare Fall to Spring scores, you are comparing how a student does on grade-level material BEFORE he/she has been instructed on that material, with how he does AFTER he/she has been instructed on that material.
Of COURSE, the Fall score should be lower. It is nearly impossible for a student who comes to class every day, pays attention, does his homework, completes his classwork, asks questions, doesn’t disrupt….to have a lower Spring score than a Fall score. Go ahead and do something for the first time…and then practice it for 8 monthts and try it again. I dare you.
What we should be comparing, in order to find true effectiveness of a program (or a teacher) is the student’s Spring score in one year, to his/her Spring score the next year. If a student is below the standard at the end of the 8th grade, but is above the standard at the end of the 9th grade, clearly he/she has an effective teacher (and/or SES tutor). If not, then there is a problem.
Let me put it this way…if a student takes a test in September and then takes a similar test on the same material in April and DOESN’T show growth…after 7..8..months of instruction, that student is either so far below grade level or needs to be evaluated for special education. After 7 or 8 months of instruction, there is no excuse for no growth. That is, the student doesn’t have an excuse. I don’t expect my students in September to know the curriculum. But I’m certain they’ll know it well enough to show growth by Spring. And if they haven’t, the obstacles they face in life are far, far more than any mortal teacher can overcome in 50 minutes a day with 29 other students in the classroom.
I’m so sick of these tests, and the uselessness of the analysis of their data.
Data can tell you anything you want, if you look hard enough and present it in a way that please you, and influences others.
Joe, you answered your own question, about taking the test in fall and then in spring, it better show growth. I think the winter one can give a red flag, maybe identify a kid who might need tutoring. I think they should be used as just one tool, just ONE piece of a puzzle of how a student is progressing and where they are. They shouldn’t be used for much more than that… my kid got a “2″ on one of the tests last week, was allowed to retake it yesterday and got a ”4″ go figure!!
…which is why they are administering it twice in the spring. At least somebody understands that 2.5 hours of testing doesn’t a year make.
And yes, it better show growth, or there is a problem. And the problem simply cannot be with the teacher. I refuse to believe it. Absolutely refuse.
Let me put it in these terms…if a principal is aware of what is going on within his/her classrooms (through DPAS observations and pop-ins), and has no problem with what is happening, there should be no surprises in the spring. He/she should know exactly what to expect in the spring – growth. I wonder how an observer would be rated if he gave a success in sections I-IV of the DPAS II to a teacher, only to find that that teacher was not really a good teacher because of a test in April. I guess that might mean that the observations were a crock, or done by someone who really doesn’t know what is going on in the classroom….or maybe it has more to do with poverty and upbringing than anything in classroom.
Yes, I’ll keep preaching it. Fix poverty or change the why we teach children in poverty. And I really don’t see a fix for poverty any time soon.
“the way..”
“Fix poverty or change the why we teach children in poverty”- I think a good idea is start with extremely low student to teacher ratio, like 10:1 or close to it! With reading specialists all over the place!!
Truthout just published a good article on new Schott and Brookings reports that show without a doubt that it is the child’s backround and not the school or teacher that will determine gap in achievement.
Link on my blog this morning.
I agree on SES providers WHERE IS THE ACCOUNTABILITY. A few years ago, an African American woman I know who is extremely bright and well spoken told me that when she applied for tutoring position with Norman Oliver’s SES, she was told no, that she is too well qualified. Who is Norman hiring then and are they evaluated?
Also, this on tests and reformer buy-in from the most recent Schools Matter post:
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2012/05/not-quite-what-i-was-trying-to-say.html
“There’s no reason on earth for common core standards and these tests that we’re wasting billions of dollars on,” said Stephen Krashen, an emeritus education professor at the University of Southern California. “The rationale for the standards and national tests is the belief that our schools are broken. The only evidence for this is our mediocre scores on international tests. But middle-class children who go to well-funded schools do very well on international tests, scoring at the top of the world. Our overall scores are unimpressive because we have so many children living in poverty, about 22%, the highest percentage of all industrialized countries. This shows that the problem in American education is poverty, not a lack of standards and tests and not teaching quality. Poverty means food deprivation, lack of health care, and little access to books. The best tests and the most inspiring teachers will have little impact when children are hungry, sick, and have little access to books.
@Pencadermom–In the first 9 months of this fiscal year, the Red Clay School Board approved spending/encumbering $602,829.72 for overtime. During the same period they expended/encumbered $562.00 for Reading Specialist and $9.12 for Reading Resource Teachers.
State and federal money earned by the children should go directly to our schools. Local funds should be prohibited from being used above the school level, and district level employees should be funded 100% from state funds with the state determining the number of district level employees required.
If the district level employees what to change the allocation of funding recommended by the teachers, princiapal, other school employees and the parents, require the district level employees to provide detail justifiacation to the school board, and require this justification be included in the budget.
$562 for reading specialists?? that doesn’t even make sense. Reading comp. (in my opinion) is the number 1 most important skill in school. I wonder what percentage of drop-outs read below a 6th grade level. I bet it’s high.
I agree spending on reading specialists makes no sense, but those are the figures reported in the Red Clay Districts Reports. The lack of information on how and where K-12 is spending over $2 billion every year is alarming, unfortunately how and where this money is being used is never an issue.