THE TEACHERS UNION IS THE LAST GREAT UNION!!

Please consider the following...

1. The Race to the Top grant application and impending regulations have not considered true input from educators across this state.
2. Improving student performance comes through mutual respect for the educators in the classrooms and their professional craft. The current reform has excluded educators from the conversation and is a top down approach to reform.

3. We lose sight of the fact that Maryland’s educational system has been ranked #1 for two years and many schools are succeeding and many students are performing at a high level. Reform should be focused on working with those in our most challenging schools and providing them the supports necessary to make improvement.

4. Linking teacher evaluations to student performance, especially at the 50% level, is a punitive hammer being pressed upon educators with no thought given to the many variables that impact our students.

5. A strong emphasis on testing takes away a student’s ability to develop a love for learning and a teacher’s ability to be creative and teach to the needs of the students instead of teaching to a test.

6. The numerous assessments and more emphasis on testing will continue to narrow the curriculum and not promote the education of the whole child.

7. This reform imposes a “one size fits all” evaluation and student performance criteria on a very diverse state and a diverse student population.

8. There are many great things working in Maryland’s schools and this new reform will eventually decimate what we’ve worked so hard through Thornton to gain.

9. Who will want to teach in our most challenging schools and be employed in a punitive environment?

10. When the dangling money from Race to the Top disappears, what will we be left with and what will be the unintended consequences of these ill formed reforms?

@ Liz

Unions are certainly a roadblock to reform, and unions have my full support in blocking the kind of reform Arne Duncan is calling for. He says he is interested in fundamentally changing public education in this country, but he has also expressed his support of what No Child Left Behind calls the full-inclusion model (i.e. throwing students of astonishingly varying attitudes and abilities into one classroom). Duncan wants to put tax money into monitoring teachers instead of hiring more teachers and/or paying current teachers more than they are getting. I'd love to read a story you write on what the teachers' unions have found somewhat objectionable about Race to the Top. Duncan claimed in the New York Times that there is "zero resistance from the public." Does he consider teachers' unions part of the public? It seems not.

If we do this, than we should base Dr compensation on the health of their patients! Nobody would want to be oncologists or surgeons! I would probably benefit from this since I teach GT- BUT who says the money is always going to be there? Funding is always an issue! This is a horrible idea that will lead to hundreds, if not thousands of good teachers fleeing the profession

If teachers had total control over the many factors that influence student achievement it would be a different situation. Great teachers can make a difference but determining a truly great teacher can’t be done by student test scores. Teachers who choose to work with the most challenging students could be rated “ineffective” because students don’t make what a bureaucrat far removed from the classroom considers adequate progress. The program suggested by the state could deem more than half of our teachers as “ineffective.” I will agree, there are teachers who should not be in the classroom. But there are doctors who shouldn’t be in the operating room, lawyers who shouldn’t be in the courtroom and politicians who shouldn’t be in government. Nevertheless, there is also currently a process for removing those teachers even if they have earned tenure. The process does take work and because of the amount of work is not used as frequently as it should be. To put things in simple turns: let’s punish the entire class because of the behavior of one student.
Look at these changes for what they are, a way to violate collective bargaining laws and break the unions. Banks didn’t have to compete for bailout money in the billions of dollars but schools are being pitted against each other in “competitions” for millions federal education dollars. What’s wrong with this administration?

Education reform? Equality of teaching? This brings to mind Mencken's quote that "there is always an easy solution to every problem-neat, plausible and wrong." Equality of teaching can be achieved if, and only if, we have an equality of students.
The Race To The Top program has allowed Nancy Grasmick and the local Superintendents to improve upon the Faustian bargain. Instead of selling their own souls to the Federal government, they are selling the souls of their teachers for money. As a parent with a child in the public schools, I have only experienced outstanding teachers to date. Please don't mess with success!

Perhaps I was asking Google the wrong questions, but I could not find any lists that placed Maryland at the top as claimed in several articles I've read this week. Can anyone assist me in my search?

Yes,I can help. Education Week publishes a report each year called Quality Counts which ranks states on a variety of subjects such as education policies and how well students do on tests. Maryland schools have been given the top rank for the past two years..
Liz Bowie

I don't know if teachers are a roadblock to reform, but right now they seem to be the last thing blocking stupid ideas. Hopefully parents will wake up soon when they understand that what all these reformers are pushing for entails lots more standardized tests.

My wife is a teacher and I feel that in order to make this crazy reform a little fair, the system should rotate teachers every year among the high performing schools and the low performing ones. As a result we will see very quickly that the teacher who was rated as highly effective probably the following year will be rated the total opposite. It is time to accept that in most of the cases the lack of learning is due to the students lack of family support and guidance and not due to "bad teachers"

Teachers and union representatives deserve praise for standing against proposed Race to the Top reforms. Once again, teacher accountability is tied to student performance. As teachers are on the frontlines it seems reasonable that they should be held most accountable for student success. However, far too often these teachers are not permitted to develop presentations and use instructional methods according to the class developmental level or learning styles. Instead teachers become almost robotic as they read from scripts, moving forward on schedules determined by administrators in the upper echelons of management . If they are bound and determined to use test scores to hold teachers accountable, then they need to actually let our teachers teach.

Diane Ravitch was in town yesterday and she is on a national tour refuting some of the main components of NCLB and RTTP.

Unions by there nature are too easy targets. The better question should be why does the state take half of the funding and what are their intentions

As teachers, we want education reform. We know what it will take to turn schools around and have a positive impact on student achievement. No one wants to hear what we have to say. Reform is being pushed down from the top and is being lead by people how haven't been in classrooms for 20 years or more, if ever. We want to be leaders in education reform. We're the troops on the front line. We know what is needed to make real change. Dictating change is not the best strategy for success. Ask us what we need that's all we're asking. WE WANT TO WORK TOGETHER FOR REAL POSITIVE CHANGE--LET US IN THE DISCUSSION.

Why they never listen to the teachers or ask them what it needs to be changed? We know what we need: more parent's involvement and student's accountability. Parents are the most influencial force in a child live. This it is the reason that important campaings like students against smoking or using drugs are targeted to Parents taking charge of their children. Why when it comes to education is always the teacher only responsability?

Many teachers feel that all the money the Federal goverment would grant if we make this type of reform is going to be spend it in creating more burocracy. Money would be spend in creating jobs for the state and the school administrators. The state will have to create all types of standarized test to keep track of student achievement. Schools will need more administrators to act like "The Inquisitors".
Is this the type of learning environment we need for the 21st century student? Test after test and no room for creativity in the classroom?

Let’s talk about student achievement. I gave an open book pop-test today in my foreign language class. The test was based on a unit that we have been covering in class for the past month. Homework was assigned on a regular basis and all of the students in my class were told to specifically study certain areas of the assigned text in preparation for an imminent test before the Memorial Day weekend. Almost 30% of the students taking my test today failed with less than a grade of 60%. Several students openly showed no effort in completing the open book test.
It is extremely scary to think now that my job is on the line and now jeopardized by students that refuse to take advantage of a quality free education.

I am not a member of the union; however, as a teacher and citizen who cares deeply about our education system, I am opposed to linking test scores to evaluation in the hurried, uninformed plan that is represented in Maryland's Race to the Top initiative. I am all for accountability but what is being proposed may not have the intended effects and may cause greater problems. Will this discourage even the most qualified and dedicated teachers from seeking to work with the neediest of our students? This plan seems to have been thrown together quite quickly without consideration of the likely negative consequences for the students we are supposed to be looking out for. Let's do the hard work and take the time to fix what needs to be fixed...let's not do further damage.

As a teacher of almost 40 years, I want to point out that teachers are facing (yet again) an obstacle that will make their jobs more difficult with this reform. Any test score, as objective as the powers that be may want you think, is still and always will be a measure of that one moment in time. Many factors affect human behavior. Think about it! I am for being rated according to my effectiveness, however, don't base it on one test, or one moment in time. Those of you not in education wouldn't want to be judged upon one day's performance regardless of all other days. THINK ABOUT IT!!!!!

Student achievement will improve when society shows it truly values education. This support must come from every level:
Parents must be sure their children get enough sleep, eat right, exercise, attend school everyday and read, read, read! Taxpayers, especially corporations, must be willing to pay taxes relative to their level of income. Finally, government reformers of education must listen to teachers. I dare each of our Senators and Congressional Representatives to spend a week as classroom teachers. Give all the students a test at the end of the week to see if students learned what was supposed to have been taught. Then, let them discuss reform!

Using student performance as part of a evaluation is ridiculous for numerous reasons.
1. No one can explain how it will actually work.
2. And how can it ever be fair? Some teachers teach G/T students while others teach all standard and special ed. The G/T kids will perform better on the test despite the teacher (that is why they are in G/T). Students in standard classes by nature have an "I don't care attitude", so how can you relate their test scores to the teachers ability to teach?
3. What about teachers that teach non-tested areas? How will they be evaluated?
4. Teachers are better educated now than ever before in the history of education. Maybe it isn't the teacher fault. Maybe parents, society, lack of respect, etc. have a part in the students failure to pass the tests. Teachers cannot make a student learn if he/she does not want to.

As a teacher, we have our students for 6 hours a day, 180 days a year. That means the other 18 hours a day, 185 days a year, they are in someone else's care yet teachers are supposed to be held accountable for 100% of a student's progress? What is going on in the student's life for the other 18 hours a day for 185 days? From my own experience growing up in a family where education was highly valued and from my experience as a teacher, a child will only be successful in school if there is an equal partnership between home and school. If a child is not taught to value their education, always do their best, and respect adults at home, why on Earth would they do those things in school? Children learn from example. As a teacher, I had to complete four years of school and I have to maintain my certification throughout the years. What about parents? Why not make parenting classes mandatory for low performing children, especially in low performing areas? The students that I have come across while teaching that are on grade level or above grade level have a very involved parent or family member almost 100% of the time. For my students that are below grade level, I can only work with these children for 6 hours a day. I can't always give them the 1 on 1 attention that they so desperately need when I have a class of 25. I think it's time to stop looking to blame the school systems and the teachers and start looking at the parents. The bottom line is this; let the teachers teach and make the parents parent!

Back around the turn of the 20th century, horse droppings were creating a health and logistical problem. There were literally tons of the stuff in the major cities. Then someone saw a solution, the gas powered engine. No more horses needed and therefore no more droppings etc. The Federal government poured millions into constructing roads and Henry Ford made the automobile easy to obtain. Problem solved-except! We now have other, more serious issues: air pollution, political upheaval over petroleum, faster pace of life with social ramifications. This is an example of the rule of unintended consequences.

The No Child Left Behind Act and the other reforms in education have had the unintended consequence of lower student performance, loss of real learning, and diminishing ownership for education by both parents and students.

NCLBA has created less opportunities for students, more conformity and an increasing sense of something being wrong. No kidding! Most educators would agree that the newest ideas will do nothing to actually have higher performing students. And sorry folks, we really are the experts and not those suited, neo-politicos called superintendents, secretaries of education, and talk show hosts.

@Katie

I have some questions about your post that I'm hoping you can clear up. You suggest making parenting classes "mandatory." What does that mean? What would the punishments be for not attending these classes? Where is the accountability? Who funds it? Who monitors it? Can you provide more details of your vision? Would anybody else like to expand on this proposal if you think it's a good idea?

I ask these questions to you and everyone else because I think you express a sentiment that is very common on this blog: don't blame schools and teachers for what is essentially a lapse in parenting. However, (with limited exceptions) schools don't get to choose their students and students certainly don't get to choose their parents. I don't disagree with you that failures at home have a huge contribution to failures in the classroom; however, we can't use this as a crutch or an excuse for underperforming schools and teachers. (I'm not trying to imply you are, I'm just saying that some people may use it that way.) When I hear people complain about parents, my thoughts are always, "Yeah, so...?" and I think it's an important question we need to address with tangible ideas rather than flippant dismissals.

First, I want to thank Cheryl Bost and all members of TABCO for bringing so many issues to the forefront and all of their hard work and dedication. People really do not know what the life of a teacher is like unless they ARE one or they LIVE with one. I just finished my 10th year and looking forward to continuing my work this summer. It was a tough year – the toughest in my 10 years. So much has changed in so little time. The focus is not on instruction and student learning. It is ALL about testing, data collection, MSA, and paper work (and that's WITHOUT AIM or RTTT grants!) I LOVE teaching and the best part of my day IS the instruction and interaction with my students. If I’m the variable – let teachers be part of the process and stop making decisions without consulting those who are actually in the classroom every day. What happened to those biannual meetings with the Board of Ed and Tabco???? I say stop living in your Board of Ed bubble on the hill! You will lose highly qualified, certified, tenured teachers, like me, because of these issues. I’m already looking for a career change. . . “If you lose me, you lose a good thing, and that’s one thing I know for sure.”

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