From the PG:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014314-298.stm
The amount offered is $40M but the district feels it needs $85M; it is not clear who will contribute the balance. A goal outlined in the proposal is to increase the percentage of teachers who produce gains significantly above the state average from 28% to 41%. (More information is needed on what a "significant" gain would be, given that the district has called gains of a few percentage points or less "significant"- do they mean gains that are measurable or "statistically significant"?). Another goal is to increase the HS graduation rate from 65% to 76% (since current graduation rates greater than 85% are often mentioned in district materials, the 76% must be under the "RAND method" which was used a few years back but never (publicly) updated).
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21 comments:
The real goal, from what I heard, was to get high school students to graduate and enter college without the need for any remedial help in college or trade schools.
Some of the kids graduate, for example, from a H.S. and need to go to CCAC and not take 'nursing classes' in the first year as they must sharpen the English and Math skills.
So, Gates Foundation folks desire not only to lower high school drop out rates, but to insure that the kids that do graduate are ready for the next step. (The next educational step could be college or another type of post secondary school.)
But, college (and beyond) success is what is really desired. Gates Foundation folks know that too few American students are getting the ultimate degree so as to be productive in today's society.
Hence, the money of Gates Foundation has a eye onto the long-term educational career of the students. Did they go to college? Did they need help at college? Did they finish college in 4 years? Long-term of HS + beyond.
With this focus, Pittsburgh was attractive with its Pgh Promise scholarship as some record and tracking has already begun.
Mark Roosevelt spoke about the Gates Foundation grant at a Parents Meeting -- with my camera running. Very insightful stuff.
See my blog. Search for 'Gates Refresher'.
I don't trust this and I don't trust our current PFT union leadership. I think the PFT union leadership is weak. I think Tarka is in cahoots with Roosevelt. He is NOT Al Fondy. I think we need new Union leadership! I am not impressed with the Union, but I think Unions are VERY important for workers in the trenches. We are not being represented adequately for the issues that are going on in the schools. All this money being offered is causing them to lose their senses. I am VERY worried.
Do we have any information on who will be doing the training to make teachers more effective? If the trainers are connected with a university program that offers teaching degrees- have they used this training at the university, and with what results? If the training methods are effective- why not use them as part of teachers' training before they graduate from teaching colleges?
I expect model, effective, experienced, classroom teachers will do the bulk of the teaching to other teachers.
There may or may not be a connection to a university. But, since those terms are often hard to get - even published as per the terms of the contract and scope of responsibility -- I'd expect no other university to be engaged fully. Was the U-Prep contract with Pitt ever revealed?
Teaching programs at the university are, perhaps, more global and not specific to this district at this grade level with these tests and resources/assets/liabilities, etc.
Furthermore a good deal of people who could be wonderful teachers do not come from teachers colleges. They could be later in life and beyond college years. They could be from other specializations. They could be proven coaches, music instructors, scientists who now wish to step into classrooms on a daily basis.
The grade levels and characteristics of students falling below proficient in Pittsburgh seem pretty similar to students below proficient in other cities; it seems like teaching these students would be covered by most teaching colleges. As for non-traditional teachers- does PPS hire them? If not, do we have any indication that PPS will start hiring these coaches, scientists, etc. once the teaching initiative is in place? It seems like something the union would resist.
There is a hint that the district's boss, Mark Roosevelt, isn't very happy with the typical hiring of its teachers.
I can't and won't speak for the PFT.
The best teachers are the ones who not only have come through various teacher programs at the university level but also have some idea as to what is going on in urban education.Communication and disposition alone will not fit the bill, although Mr.Roosevelt would like to think otherwise. Too often, urban education is lumped in with general educational practices at the university level and the result is that we have young teachers entering the urban school setting with little knowledge of what they are getting themselves into.
That said, what is interesting to me in all of this is and will continue to be ideas like "effectiveness" and "merit pay". One would hope that the idea of effectiveness entails a great array of items that can be discerned by administrators who are in tune with solid classroom instruction techniques. I suspect that many administrators who gave up teaching in favor of pushing paper and upping their pay by $20,000 or so know about as much about effective teaching as a parent who visits a classroom once, bases his commentary on hearsay or puts great stock in the comments of a son or daughter, who routinely blames a teacher for his or her own shortcomings.
Who will make the call? How will pay be arranged? It's going to be interesting to watch.
If teachers are routinely entering urban classrooms with little idea of what they are getting into- that seems to be something that should be remedied at the level of teaching colleges to benefit the country as a whole (rather than through teaching academies in certain cities on a hit or miss basis).
Agreed, Questioner and yet, it wasn't the case in my day and it largely isn't the case today. More than anything else, I think the idea is that it is difficult to describe to college students a great many of the things you will see in an urban school or classroom. And let's face it, description is one thing, but there is nothing like being there or being from there. I have the feeling that no amount of schooling will truly prepare a kid who comes from a different setting and is somewhat naive about the realities of the city.
I've had just about everything you can imagine happen in my classroom over almost 3 decades. I like to think that nothing has truly shocked me and that no kid could sense surprise or fear, for that matter. In this regard, I have to agree with PPS and the PFT in thinking a teacher academy may make sense.
Yet on a personal note, I've seen my share of tragedies during my time and have been to too many funerals for children. I'm not sure anything can prepare a prospective teacher for these instances, either. I've found teaching in the district to be quite rewarding and believe that I've been a positive to a great many kids. I've truly paid my dues and would also believe that my kids--the voices that count--would call me "effective." Again, it will be interesting to see just who will determine effectiveness.
My question is, has anyone asked teachers what would make them more effective? What type of training or other efforts would most help them when they walk into the classroom on Monday morning? And looking back to their earliest days in the classroom, what would have helped them to be more effective from the start?
Wow, anon 10:18, what a great suggestion!
And sadly, I bet it's hardly been asked -- my guess is that what most needs to be addressed is how much information and planning a new teacher has to gather and perform -- how do you plan, prepare, deal with papers, grade well and quickly, deal with parents, know who to ask which questions or go to for advice for different topics, how do you figure out what's most important and what can slide.
It's another problem with merit pay that I see -- if teachers are set up as in competition with each other, where's the incentive for teachers to help new teachers or others? In fact, it may be a perverse incentive to NOT share good ideas.
Wow, anon 10:18, what a great suggestion!
And sadly, I bet it's hardly been asked -- my guess is that what most needs to be addressed is how much information and planning a new teacher has to gather and perform -- how do you plan, prepare, deal with papers, grade well and quickly, deal with parents, know who to ask which questions or go to for advice for different topics, how do you figure out what's most important and what can slide.
It's another problem with merit pay that I see -- if teachers are set up as in competition with each other, where's the incentive for teachers to help new teachers or others? In fact, it may be a perverse incentive to NOT share good ideas.
Unfortunately the focus of the grant does not seem to be training on planning, preparation and presentation. A NYT article describes the grant as an effort to "transform teacher management policies in four cities" and "to forge breakthroughs in how school systems recruit, retain and compensate teachers and how they assign them to schools."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/education/20educ.html?_r=1
So, more a management thing than a training thing. The approach and what has been revealed about the techniques so far seems more "PC" than "Mac." What do we want for our school system?
PG editorial:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09327/1015594-192.stm
It is amazing to me that so many fail to understand what life is like in comprehensive middle and high schools. In many regards, this blog continues to be a microcosm of life. The individual who cares posts here, just as he sends his kids to a CAPA, or IB. You'll see no individual here posting comments such as "who cares". The apathetic won't come near. And his kids will go to comprehensive middle and high schools and all too often, grow up just like him.
So let me repeat: who determines teacher effectiveness, especially at such schools? What can possible be the criteria? When the community you teach in largely looks at the immediate world as being hopeless, and along with that, the idea that education can aid young people, it follows that most of your kids in the school go through the motions. So is the idea that if I reach one kid effective enough? How about if I am a Peabody teacher and raise those PSSA scores from 26% up to 30%. Golly, I must have been effective, right? Conversely, if I am at CAPA and my kids have a drop from 94.8% to 90%, I am a monumental flop, right?
I try hard to read through what can only be looked at as anti-teacher banter, or blame game vitriol. I try to understand the person that applauds this grant. No concern is paid to the idea that an additional $45 million has to come from somewhere. Heck, it's like cheering for the Steelers. Hooray for Pittsburgh!
Problem is, the idea that sits behind this effort truly smells rotten. We've become adept at comparing our school system and students to children overseas and ignore the greatest factor: in Europe and Asia, going to school is a great gift to be appreciated. Education is valued. Behavioral issues--few and far between--are generally met with expulsion than anything else. Parents are the disciplinarians who have passed the need for academics down to their kids. No debate exists.
Yet here in America, our collective psyche is such that we would rather scapegoat and point fingers at the easiest targets, teacher. How cowardly. When will someone have the courage to state that parents failed the education system. No, not parents like the ones here, as they are a minority in this district, but parents across the country. They have envisioned education as a place to put little Johnny for 7 hours a day, and nothing more.
I marvel at the individuals who laud the idea of simply throwing more money at the problem, and misidentifying the problem as teachers. As stated here many, many times---please walk a mile in my shoes before you point that finger...if you can.
I will teach what and how my employers wish, but I certainly will not take the blame--nor should any teacher--for why test scores aren't higher or why there are achievement gaps. Accusers need only look in the mirror for those answers.
Right on! Too bad your union won't stand up for the teachers. The teachers are being sold down the river. Just wait until the new contract comes out. You have no support from your own union. Why don't union members pay your dues straight to the BOE or to the new teachers' academy? The dues just go to waste at the PFT.
Observer -- I'm never quite sure why you're so angry with posters here, unless I'm misreading what you just wrote. I don't see anyone here doing backflips over this grant. I see skepticism, primarily. My own skepticism reflects many of your concerns -- that comparing the results of vastly different populations is not the way to see how anyone is doing, students or teachers.
So why the cracks about where parents send their kids? Do you not recall that this blog was started, I believe, from Schenley parents who *wanted* their kids in a comprehensive high school AND a good program. A good program that was available to others at the school, for one thing and that offered kids in the IB track the option to opt out or try different things.
I promise you that parents are well aware of the problems you are talking about. I'm not sure what you are suggesting we should do differently though?
And yes, in your example, a 4% gain at a troubled school with difficult, far behind students is FAR more meaningful, especially if it occurs when scores at high scoring schools fail.
Honestly, CAPA should never be used as a comparison. Not when they get to pick and choose their students on not only grades, but talent and motivation -- and have enough demand that they can replace kids they boot out. Many of the kids that get in to CAPA would do just as well on the 11th grade PSSAs if they'd stayed home for three years watching Nickelodeon.
Anonymous, you did read me wrong. On the contrary, I am happy to have found a group of people who care. You need to understand that my "anger" is directed to the "parents" who view education as a place they can dump their kids to go and live their lives.
While the back flips you describe are certainly not being done here, one gets the feeling that the publicity which has come via the Promise and now Gates has given the Roosevelt free reign to do as they please in this town. And you see, that's the problem.You see, you and I may be skeptical but too often, the glee which comes with parochial cheerleading for our town overshadows the issues as hands.
You know what comprehensive schools are like. You understand the type of curricula which is being written. You understand what the administration is pushing in making teachers walk the line. I am aware of how the administration operates. The Schenley story cannot be lost upon me in that regard. The idea was to allow the small group to whine. They'll go away. Well, perhaps you get my point.
There are one or two people here that I sense enjoy pointing fingers at teachers, to be sure. But my comments are more aimed as a shot at those who do nothing, who don't care.
Forgive what amounts to an exercise in futility.
To anon at 6:03....union? What union??? These people should be the first to be made to return to the classroom.
No one is pointing any fingers at any one entity. Student, parents, teachers, administrators, school board members, economics, all contribute to the problems (and solutions!) in our public school. The shortcomings of all of the above-mentioned groups have been explored in great detail on this blog.
To deny that there is a problem with some teachers (I say some, many are good to great) being burnt out, unmotivated and plain incompetent by stating that everyone just wants to "blame the teachers" is just plain wrong and a distraction. I have seen first hand teachers that contributed nothing to my children's education. There has to be some accountability for teachers (and administrators and parents and students and school board members...)
That doesn't mean that I don't agree that defining effectiveness is not that easy. I do believe that better evaluations of teachers before they are tenured would be helpful. I remain skeptical of this district's plans, but to refuse to define inadequate teachers as an issue is silly.
What's silly is making knee-jerk reactions based upon hearsay or what kids say. A few years ago, principals largely erased the idea of non-performing principals when they were given control of their budgets under the guise of "site based management". Salaries of non performing teachers hit the pavement pretty quickly. And where the types of teachers you describe are concerned, I am not offering any defense. They should go.
But go the extra mile in telling it like it is. For every parent here, there are 10 who don't give a damn. That's the problem. Like a cancer, that way of thinking extends to the children and what we have are comprehensive schools where a great deal of apathy rules the day.
Lastly, about administrators....
Let's try to be adult in discussing problems. This is a district which has becoming exceedingly top-heavy in a salary sense with individuals who don't directly teach kids. How can that be? Why do we have so many administrators who essentially hide in offices but live off of the public trough? Why are so many individuals within the district's PELA program---current principals and those in training---individuals who had less than 5 years in the classroom? Why are principals making in excess of $100K a year...with many some $20,000 above that?
Please explain accountability to me in this regard. Administration will likely have the say so about teacher effectiveness and yet, weren't in the classroom long enough themselves to have been called effective or to recognize what effective even is. As such, they are going to rely upon a textbook definition provided by university types who themselves don't know what it means to be effective in an urban setting. Perhaps the superintendent can make the decision. After all, he's teaching now and perhaps has learned something about being in front of a classroom, even if that classroom is full of the upper crust of collegiate students. (I wonder if he takes security with him to his college gig).
I'm just wondering. You construe questions as being angry and you talk about misgivings regarding ineffective teachers. How about an ineffective system that rewards individuals who ran from the classroom? And in a tragicomedy sense, these same people will be the ones to make distinctions about effectiveness.
You don't know whether to laugh or cry.
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