Delaware Gov. Markell’s teacher evaluation plans backfires!

Grade marks ‘erosion’ as teachers lose confidence in state evaulation process Changes urged in state evaluation process Written by Matthew Albright The News Journal

• Growing numbers of Delaware teachers are dissatisfied with the state assessment used to judge their performance, results from a statewide survey show.

• Respondents gave the system an average grade of “C,” the lowest rating since the assessment began.

• Three quarters of the surveyed teachers did not think the system should continue in its current form. More than 80 percent of administrators thought the same thing.

• But many teachers worry the measures don’t account for factors like a student’s family situation, disruptive classmates and other things they can’t control but which can drag down test scores.

There must be a method of weighing students attendance, behavior, ill-prepared for class and lack of parental engagement and certainly this Red Clay policy needs to be addressed, “Students in grades 1-8 must pass 50% of their instructional program each year (excluding physical education) to be promoted to the next grade level.” 

In a nutshell, the evaluation system is a mess because at a time when we are reforming academics standards and adding the Common Core Standards we are trying to add a punitive teacher evaluation system. Let’s put kids first and not the business round-table witch-hunt plan to crack the foundation of organized labor. To my conservative visitor, I didn’t use the word union because when we injected that all eyes look at DSEA. Every school district has their local unions and for the most part there is contentment between labor and management. Real reform in regards to teacher evaluation with meat must come from that local level. I’d say give a local school district a little autonomy to put something on the table.

What is insane about Delaware’s / Markell’s plan is The Smarter Balanced Assessment is on the way and score will drop and again our schools and teachers must work through the bugs of another standardized test. We need at best five years of assessment data beyond the pilot period and cut score adjustments to consider being serious about tying student testing scores to teacher punitive evaluations. However, the issue of social promotion must be addressed.

The billions of dollars in this country being funneled to a Wall Street ponzi scheme could be better served lowering class sizes in high poverty schools. By the third-grade or even earlier local school /district assessments identifies students with serious need in academic intervention! Use the state assessment to rank the schools and districts and allow the “local” parents and the community have greater say! But then again, parents need to organize and engage the issues! Let’s start putting some administrators jobs on the line including the supers! They write the game plan for all to follow! They control the $$$$. 

As for Governor Jack Markell, he has made a complete mess of Delaware’s public schools. Markell is the worst governor on public education in Delaware’s history. He is a capitalist not a realist. We have real problems within public education that have nothing to do with organized labor and those societal issues relevant to academic success of children needs to be addressed. Markell’s blueprint for education reform was stuffed in his back-pocket with campaign contributions from the likes of Rodel. Markell couldn’t formulate a classroom lesson plan let alone a plan to reform Delaware’s public education.