The Teacher Wars (49 page)
Authors: Dana Goldstein
62
A 2012 survey of ten thousand American teachers:
Primary Sources 2012: American Teachers on the Teaching Profession
(poll from Scholastic and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2012); and Terry M. Moe,
Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America's Public Schools
(Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2011), 404â5.
63
A national poll from Gallup:
Dinesh Ramde, “Wis. Poll: Walker Law Really About Hurting Unions,”
Boston Globe
/Associated Press, April 22, 2011; and Judy Keen and Dennis Cauchon, “Poll: Americans Favor Union Bargaining Rights,”
USA Today
, February 23, 2011.
64
But polls showed the majority of parents:
Whet Moser, “Poll Shows Substantial Parent, Racial Divide on Chicago Teachers Strike,”
Chicago
, September 17, 2012.
65
“a corporate attack”:
Jeffrey Brown, “Chicago Board of Education Plans to Shut Down 54 Schools, Move 30,000 Students” (transcript of
PBS NewsHour
interview with Karen Lewis, March 22, 2013).
66
Teach for America emerged as a flash point:
Lauren Fitzpatrick, “CPS Calls Teacher's Mom to Tell Him He's Getting Laid Off,”
Chicago SunTimes
, July 19, 2013; Eric Zorn, “Should Teach for America Pack Its Bags?”
Chicago Tribune
, July 30, 2013.
67
“There are still places in the United States”:
Author interview with Steve Zimmer, July 22, 2013.
68
Robert Schwartz:
Author interview with Robert Schwartz, July 19, 2013.
69
Research from the National Center on Performance Incentives:
Reports
on merit pay in New York, Nashville, and Austin can be found at
https://my.vanderbilt.edu/performanceincentives/research/
.
70
In New York City in 2012:
Al Baker, “Many New York City Teachers Denied Tenure in Policy Shift,”
The New York Times
, August 17, 2012.
71
the District of Columbia stuck with its plan:
Emma Brown, “98 Teachers Fired for Poor Performance,”
Washington Post
, August 1, 2012; Bill Turque, “Many Teachers Pass on IMPACT Bonuses,”
Washington Post
, January 28, 2011; Emma Brown, “D.C. Traditional Public School Teacher Pay Is Higher Than Charters,”
Washington Post
, August 19, 2013.
72
Was teaching improving in D.C.?:
For analysis of teacher evaluation and turnover in District public schools, see Thomas Dee and James Wyckoff, “Incentives, Selection, and Teacher Performance: Evidence from Impact” (working paper 19529, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA, October 2013); and
Keeping Irreplaceables in D.C. Public Schools
(The New Teachers Project report, 2012).
73
a series of exposés:
For the first piece on adult cheating in D.C. under Michelle Rhee, with links to follow-ups, see Jack Gillum and Marisol Bello, “When Standardized Test Scores Soared in D.C., Were the Gains Real?”
USA Today
, March 30, 2011.
74
Noyes was not an isolated case:
For investigations of adult cheating nationwide, see Greg Toppo et al., “When Test Scores Seem Too Good to Believe,”
USA Today
, March 17, 2011; and
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
staff reports, “From Scandal at APS to Suspicious Scores Nationwide,”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
, March 30, 2013.
75
On March 29, 2013:
For the Atlanta cheating scandal, see Michael Winerip, “Ex-Schools Chief in Atlanta Is Indicted in Testing Scandal,”
The New York Times
, March 29, 2013; and Olivia Blanchard, “I Quit Teach for America,”
The Atlantic
, September 23, 2013.
76
“The existence of cheating”:
Arne Duncan, “Despite Cheating Scandals, Testing and Teaching Are Not at Odds,”
Washington Post
, July 19, 2011.
77
a “tiny” rounding error:
Author interview with Bill Gates, January 30, 2013.
78
When New York City released:
Fernanda Santos and Robert Gebeloff, “Teacher Quality Widely Diffused, Ratings Indicate,”
The New York Times
, February 24, 2012.
79
Already there is some evidence:
Stephen Sawchuck, “Teachers' Ratings Still High Despite New Measures,”
Education Week
, February 5, 2013.
80
Colorado state senator Mike Johnston:
Dana Goldstein, “The Test Generation,”
American Prospect
, April 2011.
81
“The majority of [American] teachers”:
Eric A. Hanushek, “Teacher Deselection,” in
Creating a New Teaching Profession
(Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute, 2009), 177.
82
“We all know test scores”:
Author interview with Jonah Rockoff, October 8, 2013.
83
But as Arne Duncan has acknowledged:
Brill,
Class Warfare
, 422â23.
84
“I'd seen too many examples”:
Michelle Rhee,
Radical
(New York: HarperCollins, 2013), 154.
1
According to a 2013 poll:
Primary Sources: America's Teachers on Teaching in an Era of Change
(poll from Scholastic and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2013).
2
Polls of teachers who leave:
Laura Bornfreund, “Do Teachers Care About Pay? Yes, but Not As Much As You'd Think,”
Slate
, December 7, 2011.
3
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation began a massive study:
Kane and Staiger,
Gathering Feedback for Teaching
.
4
A 2011 observation:
Stephen B. Plank and Barbara Condliffe,
Pressures of the Season: A Descriptive Look at Classroom Quality in Second and Third Grade Classrooms
(Baltimore Education Research Consortium report, February 2011).
5
A 2009 review:
Pianta and Hamre, “Conceptualization, Measurement, and Improvement of Classroom Processes.”
6
But research shows:
See chapters 7, 9, and 10 in Hattie,
Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement
.
7
There is nothing new:
For the history of classroom observation, see Robert J. Marzano et al., “A Brief History of Supervision and Evaluation,” in
Effective Supervision
(Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2011).
8
Danielson wanted to watch teachers work:
Charlotte Danielson interview with author, December 30, 2013.
9
a district of more than nine thousand teachers:
E-mail correspondence between author and Marcia Vogel, supervisor of special projects, Office of Communications, Montgomery County Public Schools, October 4, 2013.
10
Journalist John Merrow ran the numbers in Toledo:
John Merrow, “Ohio School District Uses Unique Peer Evaluations to Grade Teachers,” PBS NewsHour transcript, December 14, 2010.
11
researcher Julia Koppich:
Julia Koppich,
Toward Improving Teacher Quality: An Evaluation of Peer Assistance and Review in Montgomery County Public Schools
(Montgomery County Public Schools report, June 8, 2004).
12
“Maybe the problem”:
Author interview with Kati Haycock, October 7, 2013.
13
few principals can offer struggling teachers:
For information on principal caseloads, author interview with Garth Harries, August 15, 2013; and Jesse Rothstein, “Effects of Value-Added Policies,”
Focus
29, no. 2 (2012). Consultant teacher caseloads in Susan Moore Johnson et al.,
Teacher to Teacher: Realizing the Potential of Peer Assistance and Review
(Center for American Progress report, 2010).
14
Replacing a teacher costs a district:
Johnson et al.,
Teacher to Teacher
.
15
“the powers that be in this country”:
Elisa Crouch, “National Teachers Union Leader Points to St. Louis as a Model,”
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
, August 14, 2013.
16
“If all you do is judge teachers by test results”:
Theodoric Meyer, “An Evaluation Architect Says Teaching Is Hard, but Assessing It Shouldn't Be,”
The New York Times
, February 15, 2012.
17
“Teaching reading is a science”:
Author interview with Caryn Henning, October 8, 2013.
18
An initial study of the program:
Results provided by the Children's Literacy Initiative to author via e-mail, February 25, 2014.
19
A 2010 randomized trial:
results available at
http://âwww.âcli.âorg/âsites/âdefault/âfiles/âOMG%â20Assessment%â20Summary%â201.â10%â20-%â20FINAL.âpdf
.
20
Raj Chetty, Jonah Rockoff, and John Friedman study:
Raj Chetty, John N. Friedman, and Jonah E. Rockoff, “The Long-Term Impacts of Teachers: Teacher Value-Added and Student Outcomes in Adulthood” (working paper 17699, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA, 2011), 4.
21
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced:
Details on how the philanthropic dollars were spent are available at
http://âfoundationâfornewarksâfuture.âorg/âgrants/
.
22
“Too much school reform is about blowing up systems”:
Author interview with Jen Weikert, October 8, 2013.
23
They urged Congress:
Sarah Almy et al.,
Preparing and Advancing Teachers and School Leaders: A New Approach for Federal Policy
(Education Trust report, September 2013).
24
major problems with teacher education in America:
Julie Greenberg, Laura Pomerance, and Kate Walsh,
Student Teaching in the United States
(National Council on Teacher Quality report, July 2011).
25
“Many in the field”:
Greenberg, McKee, and Walsh,
Teacher Prep Review
,
2013
.
26
An eight-year study:
Matthew Ronfeldt, Susanna Loeb, and James Wyckoff, “How Teacher Turnover Harms Student Achievement,”
American Educational Research Journal
50, no. 1 (2013): 4â36.
27
When Thomas Kane, Douglas Staiger, and Robert Gordon:
Gordon, Kane, and Staiger, “Identifying Effective Teachers Using Performance on the Job.”
28
a system developed by Martin Haberman:
Martin Haberman, “Selecting and Preparing Urban Teachers” (lecture, February 28, 2005, available on the Web site of National Center for Alternative Teacher Certification Information); and author interview with Christine Brennan Davis of Urban Teacher Residency United, September 25, 2013.
29
found a mixed record on student achievement:
See John R. Papay et al., “Does Practice-Based Teacher Preparation Increase Student Achievement? Early Evidence from the Boston Teacher Residency” (working paper 17646, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA,
December 2011). Also see
http://âmemphistr.âorg/â2013âresults/
and
http://âwww.âutrunited.âorg/âabout-âus/âresearch-âand-âpublications
.
30
“very problematic”:
Morgaen L. Donaldson and Susan Moore Johnson, “TFA Teachers: How Long Do They Teach? Why Do They Leave?”
Education Week
, October 4, 2011.
31
“A lot of UTRs”:
Author interview with Christine Brennan Davis.
32
At Kingsbury High School:
Author interview with David Montague of Memphis Teacher Residency, November 4, 2013, and author interview with Marcus Clark, October 9, 2013.
33
Alex Caputo-Pearl:
Author interviewed Caputo-Pearl on six occasions between 2010 and 2013. Author visited Crenshaw High School, where she observed teacher professional development, on May 20 and 21, 2011.
34
“leftist crazies”:
Erin Aubry Kaplan, “Reviving Education,”
LA Weekly
, May 12, 2005.
35
it was rooted in solid research:
John M. Bridgeland, John J. Dilulio, Jr., and Karen Burke Morison,
The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts
(Report by Civic Enterprises in association with Peter D. Hart Research Associations for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, March 2006).
36
Donald Boyd's 2010 study:
Donald Boyd et al., “The Role of Teacher Quality in Retention and Hiring: Using Applications-to-Transfer to Uncover Preferences of Teachers and Schools” (working paper 15966, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA, May 2010).
37
Nevertheless, at Crenshaw:
Statistics on race, classes taught, and years of experience of dismissed teachers collected by Alex Caputo-Pearl and Cathy Garcia, sent to author via e-mail on May 5, 2013.
38
“It is a fundamental right”:
Howard Blume and Stephen Caesar, “L.A. Unified to Overhaul Struggling Crenshaw High,”
Los Angeles Times
, January 16, 2013.
39
achievement data at Crenshaw:
See
http://âapi.âcde.âca.âgov/âAcnt2012/â2012GrowthSch.âaspx?âallcds=â1964733â1932128
. Graduation and suspension rates provided to author by Alex Caputo-Pearl.
40
At Central Falls High School:
See
http://âinfoworks.âride.âri.âgov/âschool/âcentral-âfalls-âhigh-âschool
; and Kate Nagle, “New Report: Central Falls Graduation Rate Increased 20% in 3 Years,” GoLocal Prov Web site, October 19, 2013.