Save Our Schools March on Washington

Join us in Washington, D.C. for a little bus ride to Washington, D.c. There on July 30, up to a million teacher and teach supporters will gather to voice their feelings about the state of education today. Diane Ravitch, author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System will be the keynote speaker. There will be music and other speakers. Your professional colleagues from all across the USA will be there. Join us! We'll leave early in the morning and return in the evening.

Click on the link to get our flyer.

Rally Bus

Regarding Teacher Evaluation

Tim Summers, RCEA vice president, recently delivered important comments to the Roanoke County School Board during the public comment section of their regular meeting on May 26, 2011. Summers told the stark truth about the rush to implement nonsensical evaluation measures.

Regarding Teacher Evaluation

May 26, 2011

Roanoke County School Board Meeting

Tim Summers, RCEA Vice President

Good evening members of the school board, Dr. Lange. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. As Vice President of the RCEA, it falls to me to address you as our school year draws to a close.

This year has been a trying one by any measure. With so many obstacles before you, the RCEA wishes to congratulate both the board and administration on shepherding our school system through the most difficult times in the memory of most.

The RCEA would like to express our appreciation for being included as council and confidante in dealing with many of the issues faced by us all in the 2010 – 11 school year. Through our joint lobbying efforts and our several mutual showings of support for our schools and students at rallies, media events and in Richmond, many of the negative outcomes we faced as an educational system were averted.

However, we are speaking tonight to an issue which still needs work.

We have concerns that the decision to modify the evaluation process for teaching staff in Roanoke County was done hastily and failed to take into consideration a variety of factors which render the new policy unwieldy to administer and uneven in its application to the variety of staff involved.

It was decided that the new evaluation process should be implemented for this year’s teacher evaluations based upon incomplete advance information from the state department of education and finally a 200 page document which was released by the Virginia Board of Education on April 28. The rush to implement changes and to formulate new policy hardly seems necessary when you consider the state’s mandated implementation date of July 2012. In other words, the change in localities’ evaluation of teachers at this time remains optional as far as the state Board of Education is concerned. Alleghany and Washington Counties as well as Covington and others around the state have chosen to wait until a future date to consider making these changes. Incidentally, by all accounts, VA board of education officials have failed to be able to provide guidance or to answer questions posed by the VEA and by representatives of various localities regarding the requirements of the 200 page document itself. With the state board lacking sufficient understanding of its own document or, in our estimation, of the basic inner workings of a school setting, perhaps holding off on new evaluations would have been more prudent. In fact on page 68 of the aforementioned document the state board writes “it is critical that teachers understand the requirements before the evaluation cycle begins.” End quote.

Since I am limited in my time for making this presentation, I would like to briefly outline some of the more prescient concerns over this new policy.

First, how is the issue of those teachers who do not teach SOL related subjects to be handled since 40% of the evaluation is to be based on student progress with emphasis on SOL test scores. Yes, teacher evaluations should be reflective of student learning. SOL test scores, however, as often as not, do not equate to student learning. As any teacher knows, student progress is measured in many ways, often quite subjective, but no less valid by having not been given a quantitative assignation.

How will federal government action affect the evaluation process? With NCLB up for renewal and probable modification, will the state modify its stance on evaluations? Common sense indicates that the state of Virginia will be forced to adopt the National Core Curriculum. Will that not necessitate further changes to the evaluation process?

RCEA is particularly concerned with morale issues and teacher effectiveness. The new evaluation process, among other new initiatives, has already begun to stifle collegiality among staff and begun to pit teachers against each other. What incentive is there to teach challenged students when teacher effectiveness is judged by student performance on standardized tests and when teachers are judged against each other as grounds for increased compensation for some.

What we would suggest is that you please review the evaluation process, roll back the new plan and that a committee be formed including RCEA representatives so that together we can develop a more thoughtful system which will address the issues at hand and can still be implemented timely.

Thank you again for the opportunity to speak. RCEA would like to present each board member and ranking central office personnel members with a gift which we hope you will find useful in understanding the RCEA’s position regarding teacher evaluation and the general state of education today. [Each official received a copy of Diane Ravitch’s amazing book, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System.”]

We would like to announce the Million Teacher March in support of free public education and the nation’s teachers which is to be held July 30^th in Washington DC. We have chartered a bus for our members who plan to go. We hope you will attend with us in support of the teachers who work so hard and care so much for the children of this community.

[Please contact your school representative immediately if you plan to join us in Washington. We already have a bus reserved, but we'll get as many as we need. This IS YOUR OPPORTUNITY to make a difference.]