An open letter to Governor Kasich

Dear Governor Kasich,

First let me say that I am an avid supporter. I remember when you visited my high school government class at Westerville South in the early 1980s during a run for Congress. I have attended speeches, rallies, and book signings through the years. I say those things to show that I am a long time follower of politics, of you, and one who pays attention to the issues. But one of the things that I most admire about you is that, even if I disagreed with you on everything and never voted for you, I know that you would still listen to me as a fellow Ohioan and fellow American.

I am concerned with your stance on holding teachers accountable for students'  test scores to the extent that teachers would lose their jobs. With the myriad of reasons for achievement and with children having differing abilities, making a high-stakes connection between students' outcomes and a teacher's career seems like firing the grocery clerk for selling me hot dogs and HoHos everyday--blaming the clerk for my obesity.

As a product of Westerville's excellent public schools, and with friends and family still working and living in the district, I would agree that schools need to show some accountability for student outcomes. But, as a former teacher and parent, I have experienced the social ills that impact education of a child far more than the textbook, the teacher, or the technology available. If children are torn from their neighborhood and bused across town so that society feels better about racial and socioeconomic balance, we need to study the impact of long bus rides and parents who cannot get to their child's building for a meeting or a conference. If parents cannot read or do not value a library, are we to hold teachers accountable that a child cannot read? Learning to read proficiently requires time, access to books, modeling by parents, and practice. How can we hold a teacher accountable for parental deficits in these areas? How many years do we need to teach 5th grade math? If we teach fractions in 5th grade, why do we continue to teach that same concept for years? Students graduate high school, go to college, and for thousands of dollars per class, we find that we have to teach them fractions again. But this time, a student attends Columbus State, and we pay an instructor, we subsidize the building, we give out financial aid (along with food stamps, WIC, daycare, housing allowances, and large tax refunds for nonwork) to just teach fractions again for the ninth or tenth year. At what point does the burden of learning shift to the student? We have safety-netted some people to the extent that it's a nightmare for all taxpayers.

We expect teachers today to solve societal problems, to act as social workers, to work long hours with meetings and answering emails, to intervene in fights and bullying, to monitor vegetables at lunch time, and then we want to say to these hard-working teachers, you are not good enough. I know several teachers who work with special populations-- students with deficits, disabilities, or impairments. What of these teachers in particular? They awake each morning and deal with the tough cases that would make most adults run for the exit sign. What becomes of their job when test scores are the singular measure of their success?

If the National Department of Education policymakers want to use a value-added model in education, they need to first study how it is implemented in an actual workplace. An analogy can be drawn with other professions. Should attorneys should not be allowed to practice law if they lose a case. Sometimes a case is lost because a client is guilty. Sometimes the loss can be attributed to the judge, the jury, a procedural error, or even a false witness. Should doctors be fired when a patient dies? When a patient arrives in the emergency room and is unconscious from years of untreated diabetes, do we hold that physician accountable for the death of the patient? Just as we would not consider disbarring an attorney for losing a case or firing a doctor for losing a patient, we should not fire teachers based on poor test scores as a result of factors that are out of their total control. Effective teachers are only one component of student success. Engaged students, stable and supportive families, innate intelligence, and even a hearty breakfast are all contributing factors to student success as well. Government leaders, policymakers, and the public should leave value-added assessment models in the business sector and look for another method of evaluating teacher effectiveness in our nation’s classrooms.

Let's fix the unconstitutional school funding formula. Let's build our public schools to be a self-sufficient from federal tax dollars with strings attached as possible. Federal mandates and the money that follows are contributors to the problem, not solutions. Let's teach a concept only a set umber of years beyond where it is introduced. If it is not learned, then intervention, tutoring, and other services will unburden a teacher from a classroom of 30 students, half of which may be three grades or more behind. Separate students by ability and/or deficit to meet their needs rather than mainstream to meet society's need to feel good about ourselves. Let's shore up the admissions for colleges. There should be a lower-cost option for a student to learn what they didn't learn aside from spending such high cost college dollars.

Kelli Bergheimer


References:

Anderman, E. M., Anderman, L. H., Yough, M. S., & Gimbert, B. G. (Apr-Jun 2010). Value-added models of assessment: Implications for motivation and accountability. Educational Psychologist, 45(2), 123-137.

Armenakis, A. A.,  Bernerth, J. B.,  Pitts, J. P., & Walker, H. J. (December 2007). Organizational change recipients' beliefs scale development of an assessment instrument. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 43(4), 481-505. doi: 10.1177/0021886307303654

Darling-Hammond, L., Amrein-Beardsley, A., Haertel, E. & Rothstein, J. (March 2012). Evaluating teacher evaluation. Phi Delta Kappan, 93(6), 8-15.

David, J. L. (May 2010). Using value-added measures to evaluate teachers. Educational Leadership, 67(8), 81-82.

Eckert, J. M. & Dabrowski, J. (May 2010). Should value-added measures be used for performance pay? Phi Delta Kappan, 91(8), 88-92.

Hanushek, E. A. & Rivkin, S. G. (May 2010). Generalizations about using value-added measures of teacher quality. The American Economic Review, 100(2), 267-271.

Hill, H. C., Kapitula, L., & Umland, K. (November 11, 2010). A validity argument approach to evaluating teacher value-added scores. American Educational Research Journal, 48(3), 794-831. doi: 10.3102/0002831210387916

Lefkowitz, J. (2012). Rating teachers illegally? Society for Industrial & Organizational Psychology. Retrieved from: http://www.siop.org/tip/april11/07lefkowitz.aspx

Papay, J. P. (April 19, 2010). Different tests, different answers: The stability of teacher value-added estimates across outcome measures. American Educational Research Journal, 48(1), 163-193. doi: 10.3102/0002831210362589

Race to the Top. (2012). Race to the top fund. Retrieved from: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html

Rothstein, J. (February 2010). Teacher quality in educational production: Tracking, decay, and student achievement. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 125(1), 175-214.

Schwochau, S. & Delaney, J. (Summer 1997). Employee participation and assessments of support for organizational policy changes.  Journal of Labor Research, 18(3), 379-401.

Spank!

Who watched the first presidential debate of 2012? I am hoping that many people did. It was fantastic for Mitt Romney and surprisingly dull and defeating for President Obama. It seemed to me like Obama was a disillusioned college kid working his first job... just now realizing it's not as fun to be a grown-up as he thought it would be.

As someone interested in politics and someone who reads dozens of news sources daily, I love the debates. I love the conventions. I love the posturing and the body language and the "Newt-Gingrich-type zingers." I enjoy reading about what each side says about the performance of the other side. But reading what the Left says about Obama this morning is not what I expected. I expected the liberal media to prop him up and cover him. But they didn't. Why would the liberal media throw Obama under the bus?

My guess is that the media thinks that their guy lost the election last night. So, the only thing left to do is blame Obama for losing the election to draw attention away from the fact that Obama's policies are really what will cost him the election. If the loss can be Obama's fault, then the liberals can continue on as if their policies were not the issue. Then Romney comes in, saves the day, and liberals will say... the recovery is due to Obama after all and resurrect his reputation again.

Obama's first real "job evaluation" didn't go so well. He looked like he had never had a job evaluation in his entire life... because he hasn't. He looked like he had never had anyone stand up to him and tell him he's wrong... because he hasn't. He kept looking to the moderator to pull him out, change the topic, or rescue him because the American media has been doing that for years. Once again, Mr. President, you forgot the number one rule of your leftest friends... when they worship you, they worship you, and when they turn, they will eat you alive and move on. The only loyalty is to the agenda and the mission, not to you. You have learned the disappointing adult lesson of what it feels like to be used.

Mr. Newt

Every since the 1990s, I have had an infatuation with Mr. Newt. He is a writer, historian, and generally brilliant man. He was able to implement the Contract with America and balance the federal budget. He and my fave, John Kasich, worked to turn around some of the wrongs of Washington. When I heard Mr. Newt speak, he was decisive. I enjoy his sport of slamming reporters. He and Dick Cheney must have studied that tactic somewhere. Those two men are my two favorite "debate brains".

When Mr. Newt decided to run for the Republican nomination for president, I had mixed feelings. Is it possible to have higher "negatives" than even Hillary Clinton? How can someone so polarizing unite a party. I have to set aside my enjoyment of "the slam" that he serves and really evaluate what type of president he would be. My concern... the most massive ego of all time!

A successful president surrounds himself with wise counsel. I cannot imagine Mr. Newt surrounding himself with any one who is strong, perhaps even smarter than he is in some area. His ego doesn't seem to allow for that possibility. One man trying to run a country surrounded by weaker voices and subsurviant points of view is a recipe for more of the same that we have had with presidents who think they are the smartest in the room.