Poor student performance on FCAT leads to teacher, principal removal

As the drumbeat for evaluating educators' performance based on student outcomes grows louder (L.A. Times), two Florida school districts have already gone there this week.

Orange has removed 38 teachers from low-performing schools, saying their students didn't see enough gains on this year's FCAT exam. They'll still have jobs, but they'll be replaced with teachers who get better results from their students, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

"Every teacher can't teach every student at every school," the principal of one of the schools told the Sentinel. "Teachers are not cut from cookie cutters."

Alachua, meanwhile, has dumped the principals of two F-rated schools in hopes of bringing in leaders who can help the schools to significant gains, the Gainesville Sun reports.

Of course we'll hear the refrain that if schools are going to hold teachers accountable for student results, then society needs to hold parents responsible for students, too. But the arguments are growing, even among traditionally pro-teacher groups, that education is about helping kids, not keeping adults employed. And if the kids aren't getting what they need to succeed, maybe some other adult can make it happen.

With money tight and raises unlikely for another year, we can't help but wonder whether this tension will lead to an exodus of educators, or a compromise of some sort. What do you think?

Jeff Solochek, Times Staff Writer

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Comments

[me]

Isn't all this chaos unnecessary in light of Figlio's study that florida's voucher students do no better in their new school than in their publlic school? Wouldn't this finding throw the whole school grades bologna into the trash? Think about it. Maybe an F school is not due to poor teacher quality but by proportion of low SES kids. Why wpould we grade a school by ots population rather than growth of students?

[educator]

Stop and think! Often those "better" teachers are located at schools which are not located in economically disadvantaged areas. Some have even left the Title One schools because they didn't want to deal with all the emotional, and physical problems associated with children from lower income homes. Before we judge teachers and administrators on the performance of their student population, let's take a close look at the background of these children. Also, lets give those that remain in those schools, and are willing to work with these children, some credit for their fortitude to continue working with these children year after year.

[proud to teach]

If you're going to reward teachers, do it based on PROGRESS not performance. Teachers who choose to work twice as hard with the toughest cases and still make progress should be rewarded. Teachers whose students are on level already because of family and other advantages but don't make ANY progress should not be rewarded for just coasting.

Traditional "Performance Pay" is just one more reason for great teachers to leave ESE and tough neighborhoods and it will only widen the achievement gap.

By the way, you all know that only POOR students' schools (Title 1) were checked and punished (sanctioned) for "not making adequate yearly progress" and so had their grades affected, right? If a school wasn't poor and didn't need federal dollars, no one sanctioned or "restructured" them because of their achievement gaps. Up til now, NO SANCTIONS UNLESS YOU'RE POOR... sounds fair, doesn't it?

[Teacher]

Thank You School Choice Mom for telling the truth. It is hard sometimes for parents to look in the mirror but honest to goodness that is what needs to start happening.

[SchoolChoiceMom]

Terminator,
As my English mother says, "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear."
As a volunteer in schools, I can see a clear difference between the kids whose parents are involved (not the volunteers at school but ALL the parents who make sure that homework is done, kids are ready to learn, kids are well-rested and fed a decent breakfast, kids are read to and especially kids who have self-discipline and manners), and those whose parents can't be bothered (kids who fall asleep in class, kids who won't learn, kids who constantly disrupt, kids who are parked in front of the TV). This cuts across class and color lines. There are poorer parents who make the effort, and rich parents who view kids as "accessories".
I have watched parents blame the teacher for their kids' failure when they have never taken the time to put any effort in themselves.
There has to be some way to hold parents accountable. I know it's harder for single parents and parents who are working to make ends meet, but many people do a heroic job in spite of this.

[terminator]

11:31
"only in education do you get rewarded for screwing up".
well not really, just look at our national, state, local political leadership, look at our business and industry, Wall Street, etc.
Look at school district administrations, school boards, school site administrators, teachers unions etc.
The peter principle has taken over.
As long as you've got some money in your pocket to get elected or know someone in power who can give you a job you can be whatever you want to be!

They don't call us FLORIDUH for nothing!

First in corruption, last in education!

[flateacher]

My principal has decided to punish the rest of the school this year because the ESE kids didn't make AYP (therefore we didn't.) This year the self-contained kids, including the soon-to-be 5th grader who reads on a 1st grade level and still wets his pants on a regular basis, will be required to be in our on-level classrooms for the majority of the day doing on-level work (how????) These children are self-contained for legitimate reasons: continuity, smaller adult/student ratio, ability to be taught at their level without embarrassment. While they learn a lot each year, they will NEVER be on grade level because these kids have SEVERE learning disabilities. The kids can't help it. But punishing us teachers (and the on-level kids in our classes) is somehow publicly acceptable and considered a positive solution by district officials.

I do not deserve to be punished for being effective. I wonder how much longer I'll continue to teach. Don't even get me started on parents and their lack of responsibility in all of this.

[John]

How about looking at the kids and the parents. Maybe if the kid doesn't make learning gains, but the majority of others do, you remove the kid from their parents.

[DUH]

Oh yes...do a good job and you get a D/F school assigned to you...NICE reward for hard work.....

You screw up and are a horrible teacher and you get REWARDED by being moved to another school, possibly replacing the better teacher who came from the A/B school......

Only in education do employees get rewarded by screwing up and get more work by doing well.....SOUNDS backwards to me...

Time to tell my kids to avoid this occupation for sure.

[Concerned Parent]

Look at the big story in the St Pete Times today from an educational view. The toddler being killed by the python.

The toddler had 2 other children living in the house, ages 12 and 7. The paper said the parents sold meth, cocaine and pot from their home. The toddler was properly bathed.

If you send a kid age 12 and 7 to school like this, it is almost impossible for these type of kids to keep up on grade level. Now imagine you have 10-25% of your class in this situation. Some kids are just trying to survive.

[terminator]

Jeffrey and readers:
DUH! Shouldn't we have been doing this years ago (getting rid of bad teachers and bad administrators)?
School districts are very parochial. Many D/F schools have functionally illiterate teachers and administrators who got their jobs because they were friends of a friend (most notably a certain board member or top district administrator).
This takes place primarily in the inner city schools populated with large numbers of African-Americans or poor Hispanics.
These schools usually have the least proficient teachers because the good veteran teachers don't want to work with that kind of trash and who can blame them?
Who would want to work at schools with ghetto thugs running wild, administrators afraid of doing their jobs, teachers who just show movies everyday because most of the students could care less about learning and don't want to do any work (not to mention the animalistic behavior exhibited by many of these so called "students").
The least prepared teachers (newbies just hired) or the old castoffs are sent to these schools because no one else wants to teach there.
There are some good committed professional teachers at these schools and God bless them but 99% of the teaching population would never accept working at D/F inner city schools.
Let the Teach For America kids work there. They're going to save the planet. Assign the alternative certification folks there (retired military, second career folks, etc.). Let them earn their spurs working with the most disadvantaged and challenged then they can come talk to us about how to do it.
The bottom line is, it's all about DISCIPLINE. Kick the losers out. Establish strict discipline with meaningful consequences and the others will begin toeing the line.
For some reason, school districts in FloriDUH just can't seem to grasp the concept as they are too ingrained with PC. Well you see where PC's gotten us haven't you?
Yes, education schools need to start doing a better job and yes there needs to be some sort of accountability (not just FCAT) but a lot of what drives good people out of the profession is poor working conditions usually stemming from poor discipline, non-support of teachers in discipline matters, low salaries, low levels of respect, diminishing benefits and increased accountability measures.

Funny how the article said "the teachers would NOT lose their jobs, they would be reassigned to other schools". Most folks would consider that a first class ticket out of hell!

[Teacher]

Until we can dump the parents and the piss poor job they do shaping their childrens lives and attitudes there isn't much the poor teachers and administrators (yes, even the admin) can do. You work with what you are given. No offense but if I am given a room full of level 1 readers they will not be level 5 by March no matter how hard I try. Why not, it happens in the movies you might ask? Well...because in real life my students go home to parents who regularly appear on the mugshot portion of the SPT for various infractions, work other jobs to keep the light bill paid, and often the last thing they can do is homework at night as they are babysitting siblings etc. etc. as the parents are working jobs until all hours of the night, if they have one. Reality stinks. Stop blaming the teachers and look at the societal issues surrounding those schools that need help. There is a reason why HIGH schools have a hard time getting "A" grades, the students are often too busy being parents themselves to continue to make big advances in their learning.