From newsadvance.com in Lynchburg:
Teacher contracts and uranium mining will get Gov. Bob McDonnell’s attention during this General Assembly session.
McDonnell said he will ask legislators to require all teachers undergo performance reviews every year, and “remove the continuing contract status from teachers and principals.”
Instead, annual contracts would be offered to teachers, McDonnell said.
“This will allow us to implement an improved evaluation system that really works, and give principals a new tool” for managing schools, McDonnell said during his State of the Commonwealth speech to the Senate and House of Delegates.
Del. Ben Cline, R-Rockbridge County, said he expects to support many of the governor’s education-reform proposals, but the continuing-contract idea was a new one.
I don’t see doing away with continuing contracts as “teacher reform.” In the first place, principals aren’t on continuing contracts as principals. They are on continuing contract as teachers. Why does McDonnell think that yearly evaluation will make better teachers? A full evaluation, usually done triennially for continuing contract teachers is very time consuming on the part of the teacher and the evaluator. Why would taking away the aspect of a continuing contract make for better teachers? I say it would not.
The danger with removing the continuing contract component is that it leaves older teachers more vulnerable because they make the most money. An educational evaluation would be easy to manipulate for purposes of saving money.
Currently, new teachers are observed often during the first and second years and undergo a full evaluation each of those years. These probationary teachers do not have to be offered a contract and no reason needs to be given. This is the time to weed out those who should not be in the profession. It is also time to help those who fall short but who, with help in the rough areas, will make good teachers. The weeding often isn’t done and this is where the weeding is easy.
Many people think that continuing contract is ‘tenure’ and that the continuing contract teacher cannot be fired. This isn’t true. Continuing contract teachers can be fired. It is just more difficult and must be documented thoroughly. Again, many principals are just too lazy to do what needs to be done. Making it happen more often won’t improve teacher performance. It will just require more administrators to get the job done and administrators cost more money.
Once again, there are great plans made without knowing the full story. Does anyone remember the 150 minutes of phys ed a week that was proposed by the GA a year or 2 ago? What no one calculated was WHERE this PE was going to take place or how it would fit in to the existing school day. Many schools do not have inside play areas or gymnasiums. The GA had to drop this ridiculous plan like a hot potato. I expect this year’s teacher reforms proposal will also be dropped. It hasn’t been thought through with all ramifications considered.
The VEA will fight this one fiercely.
And how does one define “performance” for a teacher?
Passing students?
High SOL scores?
Do we want the teachers to dumb down the course to enable more to pass? Will they be even more restricted in toeing a politically correct line, dependent upon who is judging them?
Of course, if we really wanted to “improve” teaching, we would not be passing children that don’t know the subject matter. But, then, we would have thousands left behind, parents wailing and gnashing their teeth, and schools wondering where they are going to fit those extra kids that they thought would be moving on.
There are poor teachers. But, its the parents’ responsibility to ensure that their kids learn. If a kid can’t read, the PARENTS need to insist the the child be held back, get help, or teach them themselves. And if the kid can’t read, do math, etc, and the parents aren’t aware of that fact……why the hell aren’t they?
@Cargo
I think you ask the most basic of questions. What is outstanding performance?
The course work and standards are set. They cannot be dumbed down. They are what they are.
Cargo, I am not sure what you are considering politically correct. That might be an interesting discussion. Let’s define what you consider the bad politically correct that you think exists in education. I think there always has been politically correct in education. Hell, you grew up in the south. Now you tell me who won the Civil War…pardon me, the War of Northern Aggression.
Ultimately it should be the parents responsibility. Some of them can’t. Some don’t have the education themselves, some don’t have the time and some just don’t give a rat’s ass.
That’s why I said it the way I did. What is politically correct at one time, will not be so later.
“Will they be even more restricted in toeing a politically correct line, dependent upon who is judging them?”
My statement covers everybody.
As for the Recent Unpleasantness, I have to correct you. I grew up in New Orleans. New Orleans is only “technically” the South, with a capital S, in this matter. We didn’t really care who won. ALL of my civil war history concerns Virginia. As for who won…. Apparently NASCAR did.
I like to call it the Second War of Secession, since the “Revolutionary War” was actually the first. Drives my history teacher crazy.
Cargo, I would not want you in class. Too much time in the naughty chair. 😈
Seriously, I got a double dose of civil war. I lived in Atlanta. Then I got round 2 back in Virginia. Anyway, I really wasn’t too sure who won the civil war there for a while. The book never quite told us and those old ladies who taught it weren’t going to admit defeat. However, that was just an example that I excountered as far as political correctness goes. In the pre-segregation south…well….Post segregation south —little different. Now the kids come home and tell you that Beethoven was African American. Go figure.
I am curious what you find to be politically correct in schools now. Come on, humor me.
Gov. McDonnell proposes $58 Million more to go to education in Virginia over the next 2 years.
Here’s the problem:
The additional funds, combined with his previously announced proposal amount to more than a $497 million increase in public education over the duration of the two-year budget, McDonnell said.
Much of that increase, however — roughly $342 million — is targeted for teacher pensions as part of the governor’s plan to reimburse the Virginia Retirement System for deferring payments to the fund in recent years to balance the state budget
(from Richmond Times Dispatch)
That money was to be paid back. It was a legal debt. McDonnell should not make it sound like new money to education. It is paying back a debt.
Virginia will apply to be exempt from the most onerous aspects of NCLB.
http://www2.newsvirginian.com/news/wnv-news/2012/jan/14/virginia-seeks-federal-waivers-no-child-requiremen-ar-1610273/
@Moon-howler
Actually, I haven’t encountered it in my daughter’s class too much. She had to work with an English paper that is apparently in wide use and downloaded from the internet. It was about the North Pole melting and polar bears dying out. But the teacher assured me that she told them that this was just a theory.
Henrico is a pretty conservative place. My main complaint is that there seems to be no cohesiveness to the history curriculum. She’s just now learning about the Colonies. In 3rd grade they covered Greece, Rome, and …..Mali. Mali? 4th grade was China and American Indians.
Really…what did she learn?
Her science class hasn’t covered “climate” yet, that I know of.
@Cargo, why did she tell you that she said it was just a theory? How can bears dying be a theory? They either die or they don’t die.
I don’t think they study climate in science. They study weather in 4th or 5th and climate in social studies as in …how did the climate affect the south agriculturally.
The social studies program is pretty much out of Henrico’s hands. It is all state curriculum. Not sure how China and American Indians fit together. My gson studied Virginia in 4th grade. Maybe Henrico got a waiver? I think much of the social studies curriculum is crap. I am one of those people who believe in more map use. We hear of all these places on the news and have no earthly idea where they are or how to find them on a map. A hundred years ago all sorts of people could find exotic places on the map. Now they can’t even though they often have nightly exposure to these places.
Hell half the kids don’t know that the earth is green and the water is blue.
If I were doing the curriculum, I would start with local govt. Meet firefighters, librarians, police men and women. I would have a good influsion of map reading. blue/green, east west north south, continents, oceans. Somewhere in there I would make sure kids knew something about their own continuent. Odd, having to locate and name the countries of North America.
4th grade-totally dedicated to Virginia-land formations, regions, indigenous people, the history, etc. 5th grade-the states.
you get the drift. World history….throw in a couple of years of that. American history couple of years. couple of govt.
I think it should be taught every year.
@Cargo, I am now trying to decide if there is more or less political correctness in schools now or when I was in school. (or lack thereof)
I don’t think nailing kids for calling each other faggots is political correctness.
I heard something at a staff meeting earlier this year about a new evaluation process for the 2012-2013 school year. A big portion of that evaluation will hinge on student progress. However, since we assess the bejesus out of students at the elementary level, teacers will have plenty of data to use to show the growth of their students from Sept to June: PALS, DRA, WIDA (for ESOL), MAP, SOL, PEPs, and formative and summative classroom assessments for each unit of study. Show student growth = keep job. A student entering 3rd grade reading below grade level may or may not pass the reading SOL, however they most likely will show growth in their reading ability during the course of the school year and the DRA or other specialized reading tests will be able to show that growth. I shudder to think of SOLs as the only form of student assessment looked at with regard to as a measure of student progress. SOLs are not standardized (nor is there a pre and post test), and each school year the questions change. Even within one classroom, students can have varying forms of the test as some students get the test with field questions, and some do not. There are better tests to measure progress, and authentic work samples (portfolios) give a better view as to the progression of learning for each student. NCLB only focuses on math and reading scores. Science and social studies scores are not looked at. I’m not sure which areas the new evaluation process for teachers will examine.
Thanks for that bit of information, DB. Where on earth have you been?
I would think each jurisdiction would make up its own evaluation tool.
PWC people go screaming off into the sunset if you even mention the word ‘portfolio.’
Hey MH…I’ve been living in the land of divorce and chapter 7 for the past couple of months. Missed this place! It’s such a calm place compared to where I’ve been lately..LOL.
I am very sorry to hear that. Do I still use the same email address to reach you? Email me to make sure I have it.
I am glad you have resurfaced.