Nothing gets me testier than testing. As you might know, I served on the North Carolina Statewide Task Force for Summative Assessment. If you’ve ever proctored a high stakes EOG test, you’ll know what a dismal experience it is for students and teachers alike. My own sons refused the test (no official opt out in North Carolina). We put children as young as eight under duress and use the scores to punish the very teachers who nurture, support, and celebrate them. Testing has become a money making venture for companies and a punitive brandishing iron for legislators who seek to belittle the teaching profession.
As part of the Race to the Top program, the U.S. Department of Education pressured states to adopt a teacher evaluation system that had numerous shortcomings and no track record of success. North Carolina has spent significant amounts of time, money, and energy trying to make this problematic system work, all at the expense of our schools, the very institutions we should be bolstering. Now that more power over educational policy has been returned to the states, it is time for our state leaders to start undoing the damage.
This week, the North Carolina State Board of Education can take the first step toward reducing the state-required testing that burdens our students, teachers, and schools.
I urge you to please take a few minutes early this week to encourage board members to take this important step. There’s a sample letter from Mecklenburg Acts and list of email addresses below so I’ve made it very easy for you. Your voices have a made a difference so far. Let’s not lose momentum now!
The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) has recommended that the Board eliminate Standard 6 from state teacher evaluations. This standard requires that every teacher in the state be given a ranking based on student standardized test results.
The addition of Standard 6, under pressure from the federal government, led to a massive expansion of standardized testing in our state. That expansion included the North Carolina Final Exams given in many high school courses, and many other exams in earlier grades. Read to Achieve adds hours of testing and immeasurable stress to our state’s third graders.
NCDPI has not yet decided to eliminate any state tests, but eliminating Standard 6 will make it far more possible to reduce testing down the road. It is an extremely important step on the path we are forging.
The Board will take up the issue on Thursday, February 4. Please email all the state board members (email addresses below). Also have a look at this list of members and their biographies and make a second contact with those board members who live in your area.
More detailed information on the problems with test-based teacher evaluation is available here. The text of the NCDPI recommendation is available here.
Sample Letter
Subject: Remove Standard 6 from state teacher evaluations
Dear Board of Education member,
At the NC Board of Education meeting this week, please support the NCDPI recommendation to eliminate Standard 6 from state teacher evaluations. Trying to give every teacher in the state a ranking based on student test scores has produced multiple technical and logistical problems. It has also required a massive expansion of high-stakes testing that has had profoundly negative effects on our North Carolina students.
[If possible include some brief details about your own experiences with the problems of over-testing. Personal stories always make the greatest impact.]
In our state and across the nation, excessive testing has led to increased stress, a narrowed curriculum, and widespread teaching to the test. It has caused students to lose interest in school and learning, driven excellent teachers from the profession, discouraged young people from pursuing teaching careers, and diverted time, energy and resources from other educational goals.
Now that the federal government has returned more power over education to the states, you have the chance to fix this problem. Please take the first step by eliminating Standard 6.
Thank you.
Board Member Email Addresses (Comma separated):
william.cobey@dpi.nc.gov, Al.Collins@dpi.nc.gov, dan.forest@dpi.nc.gov, janet.cowell@dpi.nc.gov, becky.taylor@dpi.nc.gov, reginald.kenan@dpi.nc.gov, kevin.howell@dpi.nc.gov, gregory.alcorn@dpi.nc.gov, wayne.mcdevitt@dpi.nc.gov, patricia.willoughby@dpi.nc.gov, ericc.davis@cms.k12.nc.us, june.atkinson@dpi.nc.gov, rshotwell@rock.k12.nc.us, drclfedd@yahoo.com, lassits@pitt.k12.nc.us, jamesefordnctoy@gmail.com, keanatriplettnctoy@gmail.com
Semicolon separated:
william.cobey@dpi.nc.gov; Al.Collins@dpi.nc.gov; dan.forest@dpi.nc.gov; janet.cowell@dpi.nc.gov; becky.taylor@dpi.nc.gov; reginald.kenan@dpi.nc.gov; kevin.howell@dpi.nc.gov; gregory.alcorn@dpi.nc.gov; wayne.mcdevitt@dpi.nc.gov; patricia.willoughby@dpi.nc.gov; ericc.davis@cms.k12.nc.us; june.atkinson@dpi.nc.gov; rshotwell@rock.k12.nc.us; drclfedd@yahoo.com; lassits@pitt.k12.nc.us; jamesefordnctoy@gmail.com; keanatriplettnctoy@gmail.com
The links for the teacher evaluation and NCDPI recommendations in the paragraph directly above the sample letter are missing? You might want to fix this…
Please, consider the absurdity of standard 6 by trying to transfer its principal into other professional fields. It has no logic.
I retired a few years ago, at about the time the state began evaluating each teacher by the student’s grades. I had a hard time understanding how the student’s progress the next year in a totally different subject with a different teacher could enable an objective evaluation of previous teachers. Even if the teacher’s present student’s test scores were used, it is extremely difficult if not impossible to truly assess the teacher’s efforts. Some teachers have twice as many students and the more in a class the more discipline issues occur. Teachers that teach honors or college prep classes often have fewer students as well as those that are highly self-motivated with a lot of parental encouragement. Teachers with these students are going to have higher scores.
Then you should consider that some teachers have multiple class preps. The time they spend preparing for each class is far more than the teacher who teaches one subject for an entire career. I am not against some kind of evaluation, but not the way it is presently set up.