Yesterday was, evidently, Teachers’ Union Freak Out Day.
One bout of hysteria occurred on a local level and was completely warranted —namely when UTLA Prez. A. J. Duffy refused to leave the microphone at the LAUSD board meeting in order to stage a bit of protest theater to keep the board from voting to issue 5,500 provisional pink slips to teachers, in anticipation of future layoffs.
They voted anyway, of course. But good for Duffy (of whom I’m not always a fan) for not going down without some news sound bites.
The list of who will be getting the pink slips is discouragingly heavy with elementary school teachers. This will likely threaten the class size reduction that many believe has allowed the district’s elementary schools to make real and measurable improvements while LAUSD’s middle and high schools continue to lag behind.
The day’s other teacher’s union freak out occurred on a national level after Obama’s very smart education speech, which talked about teacher merit pay (gasp) and support for charter schools (double gasp).
Howard Blume and Seema Mehta have the story for the LA Times. And here’s a rundown from the AP.
By the way, the unions may be jittery, but my favorite education wonk, Andy Rotherham, liked Obama’s speech just fine.
I completely agree on both counts. Obama’s speech was smart and reasonable specific. There was a great deal more in it than just merit pay. I wonder though if he can’t start to be more specific about why “charter schools” are a solution. It’s not just the fact that they are operating independently. Is it that they are smaller schools?
I wrote a detailed response to the speech at http://tinyurl.com/S-TonBarryO.
My understanding is that Pres. Obama did NOT put forward “merit pay” – didn’t use the word – in his address but laid out the foundation for “performance pay” which is, in eduwonk circles, understood differently – i.e. not linked to student test scores but to upgrading qualifications.
Eduwonk Dana Goldstein at The American Prospect explains it thus on the TAPPED blog: Obama promised a federal investment in developing “performance pay” plans in 150 school districts. The language here is key. “Performance pay” is supported by teachers’ unions, and awards salary bonuses to teachers based on a variety of factors, including classroom observations, teaching in hard-to-staff subjects and schools, and improving student achievement. “Merit pay,” on the other hand, is understood as directly aligning teacher salaries to student test scores.
Also both the AFT and the NEA heads responded to the speech very positively. I’m sure there will be devils in details, but I didn’t see any freaking out over this speech, other than the usual rightwing garbage taking issue with his making the speech to Hispanics (Dobbs) or more of the jackass Scarborough&Co line that assumes Obama is as intellectually challenged as the very blithering idiots who claim he’s putting too much reform on the table and should spend 90% of his time holding hands on Wall Street until their portfolios are back on track.
Note – I’m not a big fan of the AFT but I was impressed that Obama was able to put broad education reform on the table without demonizing teachers unions and keeping them as part of his reform coalition. This is essential or the effort won’t be viable.
Also, on charter schools – I’m not sure anyone believes they are the “solution”, but rather an essential option in districts that are failing, both to provide some alternatives for diverse student populations and to foster experimentation. Charter schools can be total disasters and need to be supervised and held to standards, but my own belief – and the reason they’re not across-the-board solutions – is that the successful ones succeed primarily because they are intentional educational communities. So, like private schools, there is an element of self-selection. But unlike private schools, they are – within the limits of their capacity – open to all interested students and parents.
reg: My understanding is that Pres. Obama did NOT put forward “merit pay†– didn’t use the word – in his address but laid out the foundation for “performance pay†which is, in eduwonk circles, understood differently – i.e. not linked to student test scores but to upgrading qualifications.
Merit pay…performance pay? What the difference?
Well, one rewards results while the one that Obama proposes rewards efforts. Efforts and good intentions don’t help kids if they don’t produce good results. So, it’s easy to assume that this is just another handout to teachers rather than basing it on something that proves to help the kids…uh, I mean “the childrennnn.”
Obama sure chooses words carefully to imply one thing and mean another. It’s easy to see why so many people who voted for him didn’t see him as the socialist and radical that he is.
Private businesses are more productive than government schools because they REQUIRE results–as “trying” isn’t the same as “doing”.
To anyone interested in serious discourse as opposed to blowing smoke out of their tired, ignorant ass, please refer to the Goldstein quote, not my clumsy shorthand, for the distinction on the “merit” and “performance” implications as it’s understood by folks who have some combination of interest and expertise in the issue.
reg: Charter schools can be total disasters and need to be supervised and held to standards, but my own belief – and the reason they’re not across-the-board solutions – is that the successful ones succeed primarily because they are intentional educational communities.
The same could be said about all government schools…especially non-charter schools.
Here’s good news about charter schools in L.A. and rewards for results.
– – –
reg: But unlike private schools, (charter schools) are – within the limits of their capacity – open to all interested students and parents.
One word…Vouchers.
reg: distinction on the “merit†and “performance†implicationsselected guidelines for evaluations that sound good, doesn’t set standards for students but says that they do better, which can be forced with grade inflation, and expresses no independent review to determine who gets raises. When teachers are evaluating each other, they ALL get raises. It’s just another handout.
Also, paying more for a teacher because he has a Master’s doesn’t make sense if that degree doesn’t translate into real, measurable, and major gains by students. There are so many correspondence and sorry colleges handing out Master’s degrees that suit the government rules, results in paying more to the teachers, and do nothing to help “the childrennn.”
Don’t try to blow one by us by pretending that “performance” is the same as honest, measurable results.
Nuts, one slip on the coding and the comment gets messed up. Here’s a re-do.
– – –
reg: distinction on the “merit†and “performance†implications
reg, the distinction that Goldstein provided is horribly incomplete and probably misleading–just as your information often is. It just gives selected guidelines for evaluations that sound good, doesn’t set standards for students but says that they do better, which can be forced with grade inflation, and expresses no independent review to determine who gets raises. When teachers are evaluating each other, they ALL get raises. It’s just another handout.
Also, paying more for a teacher because he has a Master’s doesn’t make sense if that degree doesn’t translate into real, measurable, and major gains by students. There are so many correspondence and sorry colleges handing out Master’s degrees that suit the government rules, results in paying more to the teachers, and do nothing to help “the childrennn.”
Don’t try to blow one by us by pretending that “performance” is the same as honest, measurable results.
Celeste: 5,500 provisional pink slips to teachers
Don’t think of it as firings…think of it as 5,500 people who received pay for years but who weren’t necessary.
No decent person in 2009 cares what idiot racist homophobes think…get it through your head. You puke endless drivel on this blog and make it difficult for sane people to even bother to comment.
Reg, good point about “merit” versus “performance.” Thanks for the correction.
This is, as Rotherham’s links note, a point of discussion and debate, not a settled distinction apparently – it seems academic or semantical initially, but within education reform circles it appears to be the context of substantive discussions. I think what’s important and probably preferable about the “performance” version is that it isn’t linked solely to test scores, which as any educator involved in NCLB knows, is not a definitive metric of actual learning – primarily because it fosters teaching-to-test.
reg, did you beat your child when he was growing up? You know, it’s a cultural thing.
If I want education rules and standards about “merit vs. vaguely worded ‘performance'”, I sure don’t want the teacher unions and their lackeys writing them, as they want to blur the distinction so as to protect the teachers–never the students.
P.S. Who is a racist homophobe? I just call ’em as I see ’em, not as political correctness tries to force. You hate old white men.
Should old white umpires not call strikes on black batters to make up for past discrimination? Should white players make up a larger percentage of the NBA? We HAVE to make things equal, or as liberals demand–equal results…not equal opportunity. Here comes your socialist government. (I know that you love sports analogies.)
I feel sorry for the teachers being laid off, but it’s going around (my company cut about 10% yesterday). How about now setting up a program where non-education-credentialed volunteers with expertise in real world fields provide education in those schools.
However, we put way too much money into our incredibly poor educational system. Just as there was a bubble in real estate, there is a ongoing bubble in educational expense – caused by our government mismanaged schools, Ed Schools populated by idiots and charlatans, and companies and other institutions that require college degrees of any sort for jobs that don’t require them.
John, you’re right that people with non-education creditials should be allowed teach. I know case-after-case of people who are very competent in their fields who are not allowed to teach because they haven’t taken some silly education courses where everyone sits in a circle on the floor pretending to learn something about teachiing. If I want to learn a skill, I’d rather learn it somewhat as an apprentice from someone who knows the nuts and bolts.
Teaching requirements are not designed to get better teachers. They are designed to protect schools of education and to limit access to the market. BTW, at my university, the majors in the school of education had the lowest average SAT scores–even worse than journalism and psychology!
If we seriously looked at the competency, or lack thereof, of all teachers, there would be more than 5,000 who deserved pink slips.
A comment from reg’s link to an article pretending to make a distinction between merit pay and performance pay, which in itself is not a very authoritative writing:
And the NYT once again bangs the “merit pay” drum on the website frontpage: “President Obama issued a challenge to states and renewed his support for a merit-based system of pay.”
Apparently, Obama even has the NYT confused with his similar and ill-defined words. I guess it depends upon what the meaning of “is” is.
Isn’t it funny that “performance” is meant to apply to the teachers in some funny, unspecified way while ignoring “performance” of students, which is measurable.
Do you know why the NEA opposes “merit pay?” Because it holds teachers accountable for results. However, using the term “performance pay” misleads people into thinking that it’s the same and something good and shuts them up.
Naturally, if it’s misleading, backed by the union, and spoken by Obama, then reg is for it. What a crock!
Moore – you’re reinventing the wheel. Such programs of volunteers tutoriing, mentoring and providing additional instruction in fields of their expertixe exist – I’m involved in one.
It’s amazing how wingnuts call everyone else “elitist” and then dispense half-baked wisdom as though they think they have the answer to everything. The Georgia accountant is particularly bufoonish in this regard. Incoherence (see his Comment #8 and try to make some sense of it) and bigoted, shitty attitude dispensed as “wisdom.” It’s a damned shame this good blog is polluted constantly by this utterly predictable, nonsensical crap.
It’s a damned shame this good blog is polluted constantly by this utterly predictable, nonsensical crap. – Readers, please reference comment #’s 2, 7, 12, 14, and 19.
reg, if Celeste doesn’t like it, all she has to do is to tell me, and I’ll be gone. However, to keep your socialist double-speak illogic in check, someone like me has to be around.
You peruse liberal magazines and post quotes from them rather than being able to reason on your own and try to pass that off as some kind of wisdom. Phony wisdom, if anything. Oh, let me add elitist. And, many times, you don’t even get it right, as you admitted in #7. Excuse me if I and others don’t appreciate your eloquent nonsense.
– – –
Have you ever wondered why teachers evaluate students on their test scores but then say that those test scores are not a good way to evaluate themselves? Oh, maybe because it’s objective and measurable rather than subjective with a lot of wiggle room so as to make many teachers look good when they’re not.
– – –
reg: instruction in fields of their expertixe exist – I’m involved in one
Those poor kids…learning that they can play with words to deceive, that capitalizm is evil, that cussing out opponents makes for better arguments, and that being irrational will get you through life. No wonder that you’re a volunteer. Who would want to pay for anything that you have to share with the kids? And, oh yes, you have to have a college degree for a paid teaching job. I guess that puts you out of a large market.
Nobody gives a shit what you think. And I use the term “think” very, very loosely.
Nobody, reg? Since when do you speak for everyone or did you take a secret poll or are you lying or are you just stupid?
I notice that you answered my comments, so you were interested in reading them, but I also noticed that you couldn’t counter them, so they must be right.
reg, have you considered that your uncontrolled use of foul language might be a unique written extension of Tourettes syndrome? Surely, you have qualified yourself for some government medical handout.
You are so pathetic.
Woody, don’t feed the troll. It only encourages it.
Moore, you fascist twit – Woody’s complusive blather defines “trolling” in this thread. The two of you are absurd.
reg, I simply express my views, and your response is to not counter them with facts or logic but to explode into rage with foul language directed against me personally, which is disruptive to discussion and better fits the definition of the actions of a “troll.”
In regards to the “wisdom” of you and other socialists, this statement is appropriate: “What seems reasonable while talking to other true believers turns out to be bat-s**t crazy when normal people hear it.”
“Don’t think of it as firings…think of it as 5,500 people who received pay for years but who weren’t necessary.” (Woody)
Go to hell, Woody.
This is a civil rights issue. Most of the layoffs are of new teachers- not people sitting around for years “collecting” paychecks. Where are the new teachers? In struggling urban schools. Like mine. We are going to lose 25 % of our folks. These are the most passionate and exciting teachers on campus.
This is an outrage. I am willing to strike for these jobs.