There is a practical panic evident among teachers in Florida over the support of President Obama and Arne Duncan the Education Secretary for using the test scores of students to determine and evaluate teacher capability and performance.
According to them, this gives enough licenses for legislators to take drastic and extreme measures. This has started happening in the State where the Senate Bill 6 legislation is all set to be passed and to destroy the profession of teaching in Florida.
The Senate Ways and Means committee has already approved this bill which is scheduled to go to chamber floor soon. Sponsored by the Florida Republican Party’s new head Sen. John Thrasher, this bill, if approved by the Florida House will require evaluation of school teachers on the basis of test scores of students.
It will no more matter if the teacher in question is professionally qualified with advanced degrees and is certified by the National Board Certification for which they have to undergo stringent testing methods. The saddest part of this is experience of teachers will not be taken into account either and teachers will be targeted during layoffs based entirely on their student’s test scores.
According to Thrasher, this bill is a hammer that will force the teacher’s union in Florida that has been protesting merit pay for teachers. According to teachers, no research has gone into determining if tests like this will be of any use in evaluation.
The bill includes assessments in various subjects at the end of the course which will not take into account any other test or state assessments like the International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement.
Other alarming aspects of the bill, according to the teachers include offering five year probation for newly hired teachers and asking them to work for their remaining years on annual contracts. According to the teacher’s union, basing teacher performance on test scores that are standardized is not fair to the teachers as well as not the exact indication of their teaching and student learning.
The reason for this is these tests are not really sophisticated enough to act as a single means of evaluation of performance. For instance, if students fail a test because they are tired, hungry, sick or depressed, teachers cannot be held responsible for that. Student scores cannot be expected to be consistent on all days.
They reiterated their concern saying legislators must think twice before assessing high stake performances based on standardized tests. According to a report released by the Centre on Education Policy, schools did not show sufficient yearly progress for the academic year 2008-09. In Florida, at least 77% of public schools fell back on requirements specified in the No Child Left Behind program. Here the evaluation is based on standardized test scores.
This goes to question strongly the authenticity of testing methods as by no means can 77% of public schools perform poorly every year. Obama and Duncan must review their intention of supporting this idea if teachers have to be saved and play an important role in the development of teaching quality and ultimately in the progress of our country.