Test Results and Teacher Performance

Do you feel you are evaluated appropriately when you rely on how your students perform on their end of the year tests?

I have not seen where the student's last year test result is compared with the year you taught them.  That would be a little more appropriate to evaluate each student on their growth from the year before.

But what happens if a divorce is affection your student?  What happens if your student is not homeless?  How will their test be if they had a parent die, or loose a job?

Motoko Rich wrote in the New York Times, on 8/22/14, in an article called, "States Given a Reprieve on Ratings of Teachers that states could delay the use of test results on teacher-performance ratings for another year.

Secretary of Education, Mr. Duncan wrote, "I believe testing issues today are sucking the oxygen out of the room in a lot of schools."

For over fours years, 40 states have adopted test scores affect teacher evaluations.  This is scary to me.

If I could test my classroom at the beginning of the year and then give them a similar test at the end of the year, you could base that performance on my evaluation.   But if you give my students the fifth year test and I have increased their personal performance from second grade to fourth grade knowledge, I would only be seen as a failure because the student does performs very below basic for 5th grade material.

I don't mind the common core and these evaluations, but they need to be focused just on my students and how much they have improved over the year.  Their environments also need to be documented at the time of the test.

Unless there is careful analysis of the data, test results might not show how great a teacher really performs.

Help Students Learn Like the Cleveland Browns Football Team

Sometimes a teachers has students that believe they will be the next sports superstar.  And sometimes they don't like school or doing the work in school very much.  Now there is a new motivator tool available for teachers.

From the Wall Street Journal, August 12, 2014 "The Browns'Strategy: Write This Down" written by Kevin Clark explains to a teacher why students need to write down their notes.  If pros have to write down information to remember it, then it proves that students need to write things down to remember them.

"I would talk to teachers all the time and they would say, 'To write is to learn,' Pettine", 1st year Brown's coach.  "When you write stuff down, you have a much higher chance of it getting imprinted on your brain."

Two university professors discovered in a study " that, because the hand con't possibly keep up wight he speaker's words, the writer must rephrase what was said in his or her own words, which in turn processes the information at a deeper level."

I especially like the phrase "if you make it too easy for students to learn something, they won't remember it".  Wow, teachers need to make it touch.

Because I work with special education students I spend most of the year demonstrating how to take notes and summarize.  I lecture and turn to the smart board and make notes of the important things.  Later I can change that into a pdf and post it on my web page.

The next step is to lecture and then stop and have the students' summarize the important things.  I lead a guided discussion about what is important.  Again I put their words on the smart board.  Each students has a spiral notebook to take notes and I grade it.  Five points for each day's lecture.  Many students won't copy the board.  So I still need help in motivating students who don't want to learn.

One way that I help my students after they have had written their notes is to type them.  To review for a test, I want them to say the words they see from their notes and type them in the computer.  This helps for all learning styles.  They hear the words (Audio learner) they see the words (Visual  learner) and they touch the letters (Kinetic learner)

See, you can learn educational ideas from the Sports page.

Proverbs 12:1

Somewhere I found this translated as "To learn, you must want to be taught."  I just love this.  When I tutor students who don't really want to learn I feel like I am talking to a brick wall.

So I need suggestions on how to help someone want to learn.

So I looked up the verse in New International Version and found, "Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid."  That does sound a little rough.

The title of chapter 12 in the Message translation is,  "If You Love Learning".  That is a nice title.  Verse one reads, "If you love learning, you love the discipline that goes with it--how shortsighted to refuse correction!"

When I am around pre-schoolers or kindergarten students, they all seem to want to learn.  They go to school excited and full of joy.

When I enter a middle school classroom, most of that is gone.  What happened?  I still enjoy everyday and try to learn something new every day.

Can we blame it on negative teachers?  Can we blame it on boring curriculum?  Do most students in private schools still have joy and excitement about learning?

I would love to hear opinions on this issue!  Please send feedback!