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Michigan's Proposed Teacher Rating Plan; Detroit News Editorial
Topic Started: Oct 23 2007, 07:50 AM (470 Views)
Vanna White
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http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic...14/1007/OPINION

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Editorial
Teacher rating plan would raise quality

The Detroit News
Imagine a boss who never considers your work performance for job promotions or licensing. That would be a joke in most fields -- and it's shocking that it isn't in the teaching profession.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan is trying to change that with his new effort to improve Michigan's teacher licensing system.

The bold reforms, rolled out this month, were developed by a committee of parents, higher education experts, K-12 educators and policymakers during the past year. They want to make state teacher licensing and license renewals based more on teachers' actual impact on students' learning and less on credentials such as advanced degrees, improvement courses and time on the job -- the basis of Michigan's current system.

Under the Flanagan-led plan, Michigan's licensing process would become a three-tiered, performance-based system. Teachers' performance would be evaluated repeatedly to ensure high standards throughout teachers' careers -- and better teaching for students.

At tier one, young teachers' performance and teacher preparation training will be considered. At tier two, the state will continue to assess performance before renewing teachers' licenses.

At tier three, teachers who want to become "senior teachers" would voluntarily meet even higher standards. Seasoned teachers like the idea because it gives them an opportunity to advance without becoming administrators.

This also provides an objective mechanism for administrators to reward teachers who continue to strive for excellence. And it's a smart way to retain experienced, high-quality teachers, which Michigan needs as it ramps up its standards and high school curriculum.

Flanagan's ideas make so much common sense, they will be surely attacked by teachers' unions and their advocates. The public and political leaders need to make sure these reforms are not gutted to become meaningless.

Expect a fight about who will design the teacher evaluation assessments and how assessments will be done. It will be easy to water down such evaluations.

So any state committee charged with developing the assessment must not be over-weighted with representatives of the Michigan Education Association and AFT Michigan.

Another caveat: If Michigan's student achievement tests and passing standards continue to be lowered -- as the state has done twice in recent years -- then tying teacher performance evaluations to their students' test scores would help make these reforms meaningless.

"We have some schools where students can practically pass themselves on tests, they're so easy," says State Board of Education member Marianne McGuire, a Democrat.

To address this pitfall, Flanagan is proposing Michigan use what is called the growth model, an objective, technology-based method of tracking teachers' impact on individual student learning compared with students' previous ability. This system takes into consideration schools' socioeconomic challenges -- one of the MEA's major criticisms -- and allows for districts to pinpoint the teachers whose students consistently fall behind.

That tool would make it increasingly difficult for the worst teachers to hide in their classrooms and keep up their licenses.

"We want to be in the top 10, not only for football, but for education," Flanagan says.

Teacher quality is one of the most important influences on student achievement. For students' sake, state policymakers need to make sure special interests do not curtail the implementation of these courageous improvements.
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Al Beabak
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Another caveat: If Michigan's student achievement tests and passing standards continue to be lowered -- as the state has done twice in recent years -- then tying teacher performance evaluations to their students' test scores would help make these reforms meaningless.


This in itself is disgraceful. We have what amounts to some of the lowest requirements in the country for what is deemed "proficient". If these standards are so low, the "proficiency rating" for teachers is also incredibly low.

To succeed in Michigan we need to raise both the proficiency level of students and enact considerable reforms in how we evaluate our educators, students, schools, districts, and ultimately our state against the top rated states in this country.

Michigan is waaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy behind the rest of this country, and lowering the state bar just so districts like LPS can say "The Livonia Schools’ MEAP scores are above state averages" is nothing to brag about when the same student testing to another state's requirements fails dismally and is considered "at risk" and "below standards".
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Nikki
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"We have some schools where students can practically pass themselves on tests, they're so easy," says State Board of Education member Marianne McGuire, a Democrat.

So.....what are you doing about it?
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Nikki
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"LPS can say "The Livonia Schools MEAP scores are above state averages" is nothing to brag about when the same student testing to another state's requirements fails dismally and is considered "at risk" and "below standards".

And the sad part is LPS is aligning their curriculum to these low standards. What does that say about the LPS curriculum? Michigan standards are one of the lowest in the country.
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IlikeLIvonia
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This is amazing, take a look at what "proficiency" means from one state to another.

Math Exhibit 5-Grade 4 math item with difficulty equivalent to Massachusett's proficiency cut score (scale score 220- 77th percentile)

The rocket car was already going 190 miles per hour when the timer started his watch. How fast, in miles per hour, was the rocket car going seven minutes later if it increased its speed by 15 miles per hour every minute?

A. 205
B. 295
C. 900
D. 1330
E. 2850


Math Exhibit 1-Grade 4 math item with difficulty equivalent to Colorado's proficiency cut score (scale score 191- 8th percentile rank) Michigan sets it's bar just a bit above this at the 13th percentile for 4th grade

Tina had some marbles. David gave her 5 more marbles. Now Tina has 15 marbles. How many marbles were in Tina's bag at first?
What is this problem asking?

A. How many marbles does Tina have now?
B. How many marbles did David give to Tina?
C. Where did Tina get the marbles?
D. How many marbles was Tina holding before David came along?
E. How many marbles do Tina and David have together?

http://www.edexcellence.net/doc/Proficiency_National.pdf
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BoaterDan
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I would like to wonder out loud how much we're cheating students that are somewhat smarter than a bag of marbles themselves by asking simply if "How many marbles were in Tina's bag at first?" means the same thing as "How many marbles was Tina holding before David came along?"

At the risk of sounding like I'm bragging about my specific kids, I'll report they all reported last week the MEAP was "easy".

Ok, I'll answer. Yes, "aligning" to these pathetic standards is definitely cheating my kids and countless others out of the education they deserve.

Sorry, I guess this belongs in the other thread.
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Nikki
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BoaterDan
Oct 23 2007, 12:08 PM
I would like to wonder out loud how much we're cheating students that are somewhat smarter than a bag of marbles themselves by asking simply if "How many marbles were in Tina's bag at first?" means the same thing as "How many marbles was Tina holding before David came along?"

Not bragging about my specific kids, but they all reported last week the MEAP was "easy" last week.

Ok, I'll answer. Yes, "aligning" to these pathetic standards is definitely cheating my kids and countless others out of the education they deserve.

Sorry, I guess this belongs in the other thread.

The LPS curriculum is based on the "easy" test. Very sad.
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IlikeLIvonia
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Take a look at the "Reading Exhibits" They are just as disappointing. "Proficiency" does not equal educational quality. A student that scores well, or is proficient, by MA or CA standards has reached a much higher level of expectation in terms of complexity of the material than a student who meets the MI standard.
"We found that Michigan's definitions for proficiency in reading and mathematics are less difficult than the standards set by most of the other 25 other states in this study," the report said.

"In other words, Michigan's tests are well below average in terms of difficulty."
http://www.edexcellence.net/doc/Proficiency_National.pdf
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