Is Unrest Brewing? Is it just me?

This past week's faculty meeting / EES (educator evaluation system ) training may have been the straw that broke the camel's back, or the spark needed to light the bonfire, or the tax on tea. I hope you get the idea. It's been piling on and piling on. And we are now feeling the weight of it. It's not that everything is so bad, it's that there is so much of it. And, like a box of chocolates, if you eat it all at once, you will be sick to your stomach. 

          So, though I am no longer on the Board of Directors of the state teachers union, I  find myself drawn into teacher advocacy, not from a union point of view, but from a teacher point of view. 

The latest training had to do with the Tripod Student Survey, which I had written about earlier on this blog. This past week, we were given a schedule in which we were assigned to "proctor" the survey for other teachers' students, for each other's students. There were many concerns brought up, having to do with special education students, and English Language Learner students, losing instructional time for this, and confidentiality concerns. 

My biggest concern is that we are being asked to do this, to play a part in carrying out this survey, that no one who I know really wants.  When we ratified, we agreed to the Joint Committee of HSTA and DOE, who finalized the parameters of this new evaluation system in the summer. That was a total leap of faith. I am not sure that the current form of the system really was an equal collaboration, or if it was a sell-out, a result of being bullied into it, a result of them getting their way, after all, as laid out by the Race to the Top application. 

I want to believe the Joint Committee did fight and will fight for us. I have written to several people I know are on the Joint Committee, and one staff person has graciously responded to me. I expressed to him my concern about the fact that we are being asked to proctor each other's students. One of our members, a counselor, was even asked to make the schedule. I asked if the Joint Committee had agreed to proctor each other's surveys. He said no. I suggested that there should be a cease and desist order to stop the employer from requiring us to do this. He did not respond to that. I told him that unrest was brewing and he asked me to explain what I meant by that.

Here's what I mean: the heavy lift of this new system is causing a lot of anxiety and stress. It will soon turn to anger if they believe that the union is either party to this mess, or not fighting for them. The Tripod survey is not the only thing that is feeding the fire, it is one of many incendiaries.      Those of us who are in tested grades will have 25% of our evaluation based on student test scores. But because it's growth rather than a cut score, it's supposed to be fair. I know my students grow in the time I have them, but now I find out student growth is in comparison to other students "like them," whatever that means. If they found a way to compare students who are not fluent in English, who live in a 2 bedroom apartment with 3 families, whose parents work 2 jobs, who are cared for by grandparents, whose parents have rough marriages and eventual divorces, then wow, what a tool they have. But if you are comparing us to Asian/Pacific islanders in other more stable communities, then it's definitely not fair. 

We also have new standards (Common Core - CC) and a new curriculum, so there is the stress and learning curve associated with that. I will keep writing about my experiences with the common core. I have only touched the surface. For now, suffice it to say, I am skeptical that it is going to "transform" education; it has not been field-tested, and there are a lot of inconsistencies, not to mention departures from common sense and tested, professional practices. A lot of spin is circulating, disappointingly from our parent union, the National Education Association, who got big bucks from the Gates Foundation to promote it. 

Then there's the Student Learning Objectives, which gives a way for all teachers to be evaluated, not just the teachers of the tested grades. And is it simple, like IEPs for Special Education teachers, or basic goals, p like ability to do multi-digit multiplication and division. No, it has to have Big Ideas, and Higher Order Thinking, and all kinds of bells and whistles that will take time to develop and document. I am a big lover of Big Ideas and Higher Order Thinking. I think big and high all the time. Like I said, what we are going through is not all bad, it's just too much.

Then there's the issue of equity, why is it fair that my evaluation has a test score component and a kindergarten or computer teacher doesn't? I don't want them to, but I want what they have. I want to set my own goals, to work on my own portfolio, include things in it that are evidences of my professionalism, that I have control over. I don't think it's fair that we are weighted differently. 

Then there is the PDE3. Again, not a bad tool, but more on our plate to learn to navigate this online portfolio to which we are responsible to input all this data regarding our evaluation. 

Oh, and the there's the observation, which I haven't done yet, but is coming up shortly. I have seen my colleagues, who are good teachers, agonize before and after the observation, trying to fill out those online forms. The main complaint is the "paper" work (online forms). Teachers are not afraid of being observed if the observer is fair and trustworthy. So the observation itself is not a problem, but the unintended consequences, like agonizing over the questions for the pre-conference, and the lost instructional time when out of the classroom for the pre and post observation conferences, which are now to be done twice a year. 

The main effect of all of this is what is lost to our students. There is lost instructional time for tests, for the surveys, for observation conferences. There is lost planning time in the amount of documentation that we will have to keep up with. There is stress and anxiety over the weight of this that does not make us better teachers but feeds the bureaucracy.  

I am not afraid of evaluation. I love chocolate, but I can't eat the whole box in one sitting. What I am voicing is a human dilemma. There comes a point, like on a hot Friday afternoon, that you know you can not try to teach a lesson on solving story problems and instead you have to sing. Even brain research teaches us about the need for time to consolidate learning. Too much is too much. 

The teachers at my school want to do a petition drive and letter-writing campaign. They want their voices heard and want to know if the union is going to help. I sent a few letters, but if I'm the only one speaking, they will not listen to me. We need thousands of voices, thousands of emails. Is it just me? Is it just my school? I don't think so. Please give your input when asked and even when not asked. Sign petitions. Write letters. Share your thoughts and feelings. Send them to Rhanda Vickery, a teacher at Waikoloa School and on the Educator Effectiveness System Advisory Committee (lotus), your Uniserv directors, your chapter presidents, and Wil Okabe (wokabe@hsta.org). The focus for now is making sure HSTA hears us.