The vote was not even close. But that's because the WTU and Chancellor Rhee rigged it, right? Which brings me to my next point...
I will be moderating blog comments from here on out. There's too much crazy going on and too much misinformation for me to handle. Stating incorrect information will get you marked down on your IMPACT evaluation and prevent your comment from being posted here.
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I am a RIFFed teacher and am wondering whether I am eligible for the backpay and where I can see a copy of the actual contract.
Sphere: Related ContentThis was posted last night over at Valerie Strauss's blog on washingtonpost online
Sphere: Related ContentI participated in the PG pay for performance program called FIRST last year. I am not doing it this year for several reasons:
1. I teach newcomer ESOL, the lowest of the low English speakers. Most of my students are exempt from the MSA reading. Therefore, I did not get money in the category of "classroom test scores." However, my students take the LAS which is the test for measuring how much English a student knows. That was not used for evaluation.
2. Emphasis is made on teacher "growth." Because I scored so highly in the first evaluation I had very little room to "grow" and so did not get the money in that category.
3. We had to participate in mandatory professional development. I have 2 Master's degrees and am certified in ESOL, SpEd and social studies. These professional developments were a waste of time. Most of them focused on the evaluation process itself as if we could not read the book we were given about it.
4. Even though I have taught for many years in other counties (and countries), I was new to PG so as a "new teacher" I was not allowed to pick the 4 areas I wanted to be evaluated in (where I actually wanted to try to grow like communicating with parents).
Overall, what I learned was how to game the system if this excuse for an evaluation ever is mandated. Sit at my desk and let the kids do a worksheet for the first evaluation then teach like I regularly do the second.
Finally, my biggest beef with tying teacher evaluations to standardized assessments is that they measure a snapshot. If they measured how much individual students grew I might be more interested.
With the current system, I can bring a student from the 3rd grade to the 6th grade reading level, but she still isn't proficient if she is in 8th grade. All the teacher = test programs out there say that I have failed. What do you believe?
Posted by: Bramblerose | June 2, 2010 8:05 PM
There was also a clip from The Examiner about pay for performance from the late 1980's in Fairfax County.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/research/analysis-of-chicagos-teacher-p.html#comments
I think this is a good rationale for not participating in PG's p-for-p plan. How much of it applies to DCPS, though, remains to be seen.
Sphere: Related ContentI voted for the contract, and I am very excited for -- if nothing esle -- the raise, the retroactive pay, and the extra startup money at the beginning of the year (the extra 75$ will go a long way for me).
Sphere: Related ContentI have one big question though, which I am very anxiously waiting to learn more information about: Since I teach Spanish, students' scores are not counted in my IMPACT score. I would really like to know what the criteria will be for me if I qualified for the pay for performance bonus and i opted to go for it.
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