Thursday, March 29, 2012

Danielson/ Gates

On another post Anonymous wrote:

"For a New Posr-

Danielson and Gates together in collaboration-great read


Charlotte Danielson Enhances Framework for Teaching with New Evaluation Instrument

MarketWatch (press release)

In addition to statewide usage, the Framework has been adopted by hundreds of districts in other states including Los Angeles Unified School District, Pittsburgh Public Schools and Hillsborough County Public Schools. "The widespread adoption of the ...


http://www.marketwatch.com/story/charlotte-danielson-enhances-framework-for-teaching-with-new-evaluation-instrument-2012-03-29 "

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

An article worth reading with these comments in mind:

The Danielson Framework is not new! It has been on the Education scene for more than 10 to 20 years in its original form and has been extensively used at Schools of Education for Teacher Training and Certification and in School Districts across the country for ongoing Professional Development.

The newer enhanced Danielson model is now being used for Teacher Evaluation Projects such as the MET project and the partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

As the article states: “The Framework has been implemented in more than 15 states and is an approved teacher practice rubric in New York State, New Jersey, Ohio, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Washington and many other states. In addition to statewide usage, the Framework has been adopted by hundreds of districts in other states including Los Angeles Unified School District, Pittsburgh Public Schools and Hillsborough County Public Schools.“

What is disturbing about the documentation noted in this article is that again we find Pittsburgh Public Schools claiming, repeatedly in meetings and publications, original leadership for a new Teacher Evaluation System (EET) that has previously been adopted by 15 states, including Pennsylvania. Danielson is the leader here, not the Gates Foundation or Pittsburgh Public Schools.

We need to continually remind PPS that “honesty is the best policy” as lack of honesty is an egregious and pervasive symptom of how business in conducted at Pittsburgh Public Schools

Anonymous said...

Having listened to Charlotte Danielson, the words "out of touch with the classroom and needs of students" are certainly appropriate.
I can see the connection between the Danielson and Gates. Beyond their bookworm/nerd appearances, here are two individuals who are convinced that the root of all evil in education is in the teaching force. The latter has provided the former with the funding to push forth a program so rife with problems in rating teachers that truly, it's funny. What else can I say other than it is a laugh riot?
Of course, the problem is that teachers are losing their jobs because of Gates millions.
Neither of these two charlatans have the courage to say that education success begins in the home. Neither has the courage to say that behind every inspired student is a parent that values education.
RISE champions are cowards.
PPS administration is full of cowards. Danielson is their poster queen.

Anonymous said...

Having gone to a couple of RISE meetings with Dr.Bevan and the PFT's van Horn in attendance, I just want to ask again...

how exactly is any PPS teacher being empowered by this "RISE" program?

Please explain it to me, true believers. Please tell me how this has been a good deal for teachers, and do so after looking at the board minutes for this school year and making note of the huge number of "resignations" and terminations that appear in the personnel section each month.

Empowered?

Watching Bevan as the Danielson segments are aired, you would think it is akin to a schoolgirl seeing some teen idol on the screen. Good Lord. And Van Horn?

Someone please tell me how her unconditional support of RISE is in keeping with what a PFT top dog should be.

Empowered?

Certainly, PFT types who continue to back this outrageous garbage can only be called traitors....cowards who sold out their rank and file.

Anonymous said...

Where is start a new post?

This deserves one: Students and parents from New York to Seattle are fighting corporate reform agenda.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/04/04/1080679/-Students-and-parents-from-New-York-to-Seattle-are-fighting-corporate-education-reform-agenda

Anonymous said...

Uh, obviously you don't know Pittsburgh very well. Parents here would never stage such a fight, not unless perhaps Steelers football was somehow taken away from them...or maybe a tax increase of a dollar was threatened.
This town likes to think it is progressive in its thinking but is neanderthal in that its priorities are screwed up. In Pittsburgh, we deserve what we get, and we deserve what Roosevelt and complicit school directors have pushed.

Anonymous said...

NEW POST:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/education/s_789921.html

Pittsburgh (PPS) NOT YET CLEARED of CHEATING on the PSSA . . .

How can PPS be among the 25-30 LOWEST achieving districts out of 500 in PA and still be reviewed for cheating???

Anonymous said...

No one cheated. Period. What drivel. This political witch hunt ought to be investigated itself.
Take a look at what education has become. You have people with no knowledge of children and their needs continually pointing fingers at teachers.
My Easter wish is that these types of people--at the national, state and local levels--all get theirs for the amount of stress they have put on teachers.

Anonymous said...

Let's take it to another level. Let the Easter wish, for all who care about children, to proceed with educating our children in ways that are positive, productive, and in ways that allow them to be better than today's prevailing models at national, state and local levels. Let's teach them to think intellectually, creatively, and peacefully.

Anonymous said...

What's left of us do that each and every day, dear friend, despite a curriculum in all areas that pushes kids into thinking as "they" wish. and not for themselves. And we do this, friend, without a word of protest...not even a whimper...from the taxpaying public.
The problem is not the teachers, nor had it ever been. How long can this blame game go on until some intellectual out there jumps up and says that despite efforts to regulate teachers, our kids still aren't moving forward? How long before some leader with courage tells it like it is:
What we currently have in education, from the national level right down to Podunk, is a shell game which is making many, many people who aren't working with children incredibly rich. Good education begins with supportive, caring and proactive parents. It always has been that way and always will be. Conversely, the great majority of low achieving students and behavior problems begin with parents who just don't give a damn.
Tell it like it is, friend. My "Easter wish" is for parents to be given a wonderful whiff of the napalm that IS reality from some "entrepreneur" who understands what is going on and who the carpetbaggers are.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the word "friend" in this entry. There is agreement with the thoughts that you are expressing.

Some of us do as you say and live with the consequences as opposed to the rewards or fruition of the what is put forth.

It seems that there is not a single force or voice that can remedy the situation.

It is going to take a greater effort and teachers should not allow themselves to made powerless. It will take a rallying of other teachers, students, their parents and those in education who see the reality of the situation.

Exception is taken, as always, to your third paragraph. Placing blame on the parents of low-achieving parents will not solve the problem; BUT caring, committed, creative teachers CAN do just that!

Anonymous said...

I'm a little taken aback by your thoughts on parents. We are an excuse-ridden society that would rather attribute blame to other forces than look within. With that in mind, how can a solution ever be found? In being so politically correct over the past two decades, we have continually sought to place blame on teachers, on short-sighted curricula that fails to change with the times.
You see where that has gotten us.
Only when some degree of responsibility is placed upon parents will the fortunes of our educational system improve.
In Pittsburgh, we've done everything we can to address the absentee parent. We've decided that no kid should take a zero, so let's start them at 50%. We've decided that a curricula that has kids virtually teaching each other in continuous group or pair situations--and hence, has the stronger student often helping out the weaker or lazier student--is the way to go.
What does that say to you?
Where is the courage to tell it like it is? Where is the chutzpah to tell parents that raising a child is their first responsibility, and that education can open doors to better lives? Where is the strength and confidence to say that adults must quit thinking about themselves and about their children?
On the contrary, friend, parents have been given a free pass for too long, and teachers have born the brunt of the blame.
Tell it like it is....beyond color and economic factors, behind every low achieving or poorly behaved student is an adult who just doesn't care.

Anonymous said...

Error correction for 4:45: No "blame on parents of low-achieving STUDENTS" . . .

Anonymous said...

9:44 - There is total agreement with your statement:

"We are an excuse-ridden society that would rather attribute blame to other forces than look within. With that in mind, how can a solution ever be found? "

Yet, YOU go on to blame "curricula" and "parents" for the "fortunes of our educational system" when, in fact. it is the responsibility of teachers in classrooms to provide the "education [that] can open doors to better lives" NOT parents or peers.

Teachers who feel that the job is impossible to do in the classroom with the children need to move on to a more positive and productive life's work. (And just to be clear, the Easter wish post response never mentioned teachers. The poster does that as he/she has been done many times previously.

Schools are here to educate children. If that cannot be done without parents, it would seem that we do not need schools for children but rather for parents.



Let’s not expand the “excuse-ridden society” that you reference. Rather, let’s, as you say, “look within” and find a solution.

Questioner said...

Schools for parents who could benefit from training on how to help and support their children with their studies is a great idea. Even a short course could make a big difference probably more of a difference than a shirt couse fir the student's teacher.

Anonymous said...

Are you saying that it is the responsibility of students to educate their children and should take courses in how to do that? Why do schools need to provide training to parents on how to educate their children?

Why is it not the responsibility of schools to do the educating?

And, why would teachers need a short course, if they have been certified to educate and "support" the education of children?

Why is there a need to shift the responsibility to parents in even the shortest course possible?

Do we train parents to do the jobs of other service providers? If not doctors, nurses, lawyers, law enforcement, shop keeepers, store owners, clerks, soldiers, truck drivers, postmen, etc., etc., etc., then why do we need courses to "support" the work of teachers?

Are teachers less competent than other service providers? What are you saying or implying?

Anonymous said...

"Teachers who feel that the job is impossible to do in the classroom with the children need to move on to a more positive and productive life's work. (And just to be clear, the Easter wish post response never mentioned teachers. The poster does that as he/she has been done many times previously."

One, I don't apologize for saying previously that behind every low performing or poorly behaved student is an adult who just doesn't care. That's a fact that all teachers know.

As far as my "life's work", friend, I have forgotten more about children and how to inspire than you will ever know. It's individuals like you that empower the Roosevelts of the world. instead of looking for cause and trying to get to the root of the problem, you would rather find a way to exist within the illness itself.

Perhaps the insidiousness of your proposition escapes you, so let me re-state it for you:
instead of putting together a plan that attacks the cause of a problem, you would rather have people in the trenches put together a plan that placates those in charge who continually misidentify the cause (either on purpose or through their own intellectual inabilities.)

How pathetic. "Life's work"? I'd rather you thank me for my years of service within a sick system and be on your politically correct way.

Questioner said...

Re: "Do we train parents to do the jobs of other service providers? If not doctors, nurses, lawyers, law enforcement, shop keeepers, store owners, clerks, soldiers, truck drivers, postmen, etc., etc., etc., then why do we need courses to "support" the work of teachers?"

- Children do not seem to have any problem receiving their mail, so no training for parents to support the work of postal carriers is needed; similarly children do not seem to be having a problem making purchases, so no training in support of the work of store owners is needed, and few children retain the services of lawyers or soldiers, etc. In contrast, there are a good number of children who would benefit from more parental support when it comes to education.

Questioner said...

The closest analogy of the positions given would be doctors and nurses; if a child has a medical condition such as diabetes or an allergy to a particular food such as peanuts, there certainly is extensive training for parents in support of the work of the child's medical providers.