On August 30, 2012, a two-year effort to restructure teacher performance evaluation fell silent.\u00a0 Assembly Bill 5 called for the use of student test scores to be considered when rating teacher effectiveness.\u00a0 This is not a new concept and it is sure to be resurrected, as the author of the bill urges a future review of the amendments attached to the proposed bill.<\/p>\n
While district\u2019s and the nation propose possible quantifiable measures to assess teacher effectiveness, classroom teachers are experiencing a proverbial stoning for their current teaching practices.\u00a0 Educators stand accused for their inability to consistently improve test scores- scores that are moving targets due to a system that readjusts annual measurable objectives.\u00a0 With bubbled scantron forms and number 2 pencils as evidence, the public is prompted to arrive at the conclusion that public school teachers are ineffective and overpaid.\u00a0 Teachers are simultaneously seen as the problem and the answer.\u00a0 The public places learning in teachers\u2019 hands but ties those hands with strict pacing guides and scripted lessons; the craft of teaching has largely been placed in the hands of those who write textbooks and standardized tests.<\/p>\n
If we are to enter into a meaningful conversation regarding the evaluation of teachers, we must consider a way to reframe our present thinking.\u00a0 To achieve this, we are obliged to revisit the overall purpose of education.\u00a0 Inextricably linked are the ways in which we perceive student learning.\u00a0 Moving to an educational ideology that \u201chelps young people embrace their role as the change agents and humanitarians of their generation\u201d move us away from what to learn or how to learn and causes refocusing in order to contemplate why we should learn (Langness, 2010).<\/p>\n
It is this promotion of critical consciousness within our schools that will need to be revisited with all stakeholder groups at the table. (Yes, students and parents must also be seated at the table.)\u00a0 As Becker and Couto (1996) point out, \u201cTeachers are unchallenged in the schools as long as they don\u2019t challenge the theory and\/or practices of the modern American political economy.\u201d\u00a0 This perception has a long tradition, but maybe the current attack on teachers will serve to fuel some action.\u00a0 While teachers are the public scapegoat, administrators and students are also experiencing the weight of the corporatization of education.\u00a0 Sitting at a table with a common goal is a beginning, but what will transpire at that table?<\/p>\n
This gathering of stakeholders promises transformation.\u00a0 In the end (or more accurately as a beginning), it is an experiment.\u00a0 Dewey\u2019s (1916) experimental mode where we stop talking and theorizing, and start doing<\/em>.\u00a0 The opportunity to imagine a better way to improve the current state of education is in our hands.\u00a0 We must cast away old ways of thinking in order to visualize the possibilities.\u00a0 We have to begin again, with our minds unblemished.\u00a0 Achieving this we are able to see opportunities.<\/p>\n As Zen Buddhist Suzuki (1980) explains, \u201cIn the beginner\u2019s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert\u2019s mind there are few\u201d (as cited in Burke, 2007, p. 21).\u00a0 Becker and Couto (1996) explain that the transformation will take time.\u00a0 \u201cIt can only proceed step-by-step, classroom-by-classroom\u201d (p. 16).<\/p>\n By Marisol Rexach, Ph.D. in Education Student<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" AB5 dies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":6753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"custom_author_name":"","chapman_pin_hero_slider":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[253],"tags":[248],"class_list":["post-1400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-voices","tag-marisol-rexach"],"yoast_head":"\n