Arne Duncan And Dennis Van Roekel: Together On Teacher Preparation, But Not On Tests

When Secretary of Education Arne Duncan presented the Obama administration's reforms to teacher training programs before the D.C.-based think tank Education Sector last Friday, he was joined by an unlikely partner: Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association.

The National Education Association, the largest teacher's union in the country, has warred with the Obama administration in the past, going as far as adopting a resolution this summer that took on the title, "13 Things We Hate About Arne Duncan."

But Van Roekel appeared by Duncan's side on Friday, along with Teach for America President Wendy Kopp. "This plan is a useful tool in helping to ensure that candidates entering the profession from any pathway meet the same high and rigorous standards," Van Roekel said in a statement.

The Education Department's teacher preparation package seeks to alter the training process by basing the ratings of teachers' colleges on outcomes of graduates and their students, creating a new scholarship grant program and diverting funding toward minority-serving schools. Most controversially, the package would require the use of student tests, described by the DoE's report on teacher preparation as "multiple, valid measures of student achievement to reliably ascertain growth associated with graduates of preparation programs."

As Education Week notes, little in the proposal is new, as almost all of it is from the Education Department's fiscal year 2012 budget proposal. Friday's unified front, though, masked the fundamental difference in the approach that Duncan and Van Roekel take regarding the role of student tests in measuring teachers' performance. While Van Roekel would rather teachers be measured by exams that assess teaching practices, Duncan wants the exams to track how much teachers helps their students improve.

"They're making a very big assumption when they assume that a test that measures student learning also measures my contribution to that," Van Roekel, a former Arizona teacher, told The Huffington Post.

These two philosophies come to a head in a classroom like John Bierbaum's, who teaches social studies in Normal, Ill. "I feel really strongly that as a teacher, I should be judged based on a standard," Bierbaum said. "But people also have to understand that the students I have are extremely diverse, and that I can't move them all the same way. Those factors are working against me."

This summer, the NEA adapted new teacher evaluation guidelines that, for the first time, took student performance into account.

"We did not say to what extent [the tests should count in evaluations]," Van Roekel said. "They must be valid measures."

While data-driven reformers lauded the guidelines as a big step for the NEA, Van Roekel said he wouldn't want new teacher evaluations to use standardized exams that are already in place.

The ideal student exams for Van Roekel, he said, "are not based on an individual [student] test provided to an individual teacher." When asked for an example, he pointed to the National Board for Professional Teaching standards exam, which rates portfolios of student work and videos of teachers in action. "It's not like the tests we use in No Child Left Behind, that wouldn't be it," Van Roekel said.

When asked about current exams, Duncan conceded that they have flaws, but also highlighted their utility. "Are they measuring some things? Yes. Are they doing it perfectly? Of course not," Duncan said. While they are only one measure of teaching, he said, he still finds the information they provide to be useful.

Stanford University's Eric Hanushek, an expert on teacher quality, said the distinction between the two approaches is significant. "Once [like Van Roekel] you start trying to measure how they do it, it suggests that you know the technology of teaching," Hanushek said. "Most of the time, it would not allow for the fact that you and I do things differently."

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, does not support the plan. "We were surprised that a principal recommendation of the report was to judge the effectiveness of a teacher preparation program by, among other things, the test scores of students being taught by its graduates," Weingarten said in a statement. "At the same time that the validity of using standardized tests as the ultimate measure of performance is being widely questioned, the U.S. Department of Education appears to be putting its foot on the accelerator."

David Nungaray, a member of Teach for America in San Antonio, said he feels that tests as they currently exist are a somewhat accurate reading of his teaching skills. "It gives me a picture of where students grew," he said. "But doesn't give a full picture of what I did." Few advocate judging teachers solely based on test scores.

At the end of the day, Van Roekel and Duncan found common ground in upending teacher preparation programs, which currently leave three fifths of teachers feeling unprepared for the realities of the classroom, according to a recent survey cited in the Education Department report -- despite the fact that states have only identified 37 of 1,400 such programs nationwide as under-performing.

"I don't think those two approaches are necessarily mutually exclusive, which is why you see them standing together," said Tim Knowles, director of the University of Chicago's Urban Education Institute. "With the right assessments, not just an end-of-year standardized test, you could build a full picture of whether a teacher is effective or not."

Comments

[Progressive Badger]

06:42 PM on 12/02/2011

Bottom Line, since No Child Left Behind, the focus went from learning and critical thinking - to chugging thru pages to pass a test. Test taking is the focus -- and any educator knows that leads to test takers that learned little.

For our school, since NCLB, the Gifted and Talented program has been cut, and we're spending money on useless tests. Wasting the talent of many very gifted kids.

NCLB needs to be completely scrapped. We were doing better before it.

It just seems appropriate that the dumbest president in history, introduced the dumbest education program in U.S. history.

[Lilyqueen]

08:32 AM on 10/26/2011

Educators are standing up for the strength of their public schools in Bennington, VT. It takes courage and a real commitment to take this type of stand for their system.

[Marx Twain]

12:23 PM on 10/06/2011

I can't believe what a bunch of sellouts the NEA are for supporting this garbage. Did you learn nothing by watching Obama compromise all summer? You are alienating your base, and encourging your enemies.

Obama is on the ropes and needs teacher support to win. Now is the time to demand concessions from the admin, not to wave the white flag. No wonder teachers get no respect, our largest organization is acting like an abused spouse and keeps returning to their abuser, rather than walking away.

Kudos to AFT, for refusing to sleep with the enemy. NEA, you lie down with dogs, and you're going to wake up with fleas.

[broui]

07:53 PM on 10/05/2011

The short answer is simple: NO standardized test should be a measurement of teacher performance.

Take the case of Washington State. Last year, they switched from a general math test to an end of course exam. The general math test measured state standards, but assumed all students were learning the same level of math at the time they took the test. The results were understandably poor. After switching to the end of course exam, Washington State suddenly ranks #9 in the nation in math.

Did we suddenly get really good at teaching math? Uh, no. We wrote a better test.

But here's a little secret. Up until just a day or two before the release of the results, educators and politicians and administrators were still defining what "success" or "passing" meant.

Further, we're still asking teachers to do the following:

1. Teach to a test.
2. Fill gaps that students lack from previous years of teaching - meaning, a math teacher of a 10th grader is being judged not on his or her performance but on the performance of the previous 9 teachers as well because we care if the students pass or fail, NOT about progress.
3. We're assuming that the tests can be written in such a way that all students, regardless of income, culture, religion, and home life can encounter the same test in the same way. Ridiculous.

Therefore, measuring a teacher's performance based on standardized tests is an invalid form of teacher evaluation.

[taylor5]

01:14 PM on 10/05/2011

This so incredibly easy. Most workers are given bonuses based upon numbers. Simply pay the teachers a base and then at the end of the year they get a bonus. Simply test the kids at the beginning of the school year and then test them at the end. The hardest working and economically driven teachers will flock to the schools with the lowest performing students because that is where they can get the biggest bonus.

[lcr999]

10:56 AM on 10/05/2011

I will go for quantitative teacher evaluations when we start evaluating administrators and politicians the same way.

Yes, teachers need to be evaluated and promoted based on their quality and performance, the same way other professionals (engineers, etc) are. And that is not by taking a test, or by the performance of others on tests. Ask any manager at Microsoft, Intel, IBM, or wherever, who his/her best employees are and he/she will be able to tell you and rank them.....without a test.

Now, if I was to rank politicians, school boards, and school administrators I would be hard pressed to find people who deserved to be called best. (it is funny how best seems to imply good, but that may not be the case)

[sinocensio]

04:20 AM on 10/05/2011

What I did on a daily, at times minute to minute, is not something one could evaluate through a year-end, multiple choice, culturally biased, test, that measures all that was taught in the whole school year, through one or two items per subject, impossible to test all that was taught through teaching moments, conversation, activities, group learning, computer research, daily reading, problem solving, collaboration, and mastered despite different learning abilities levels, and different types of learners. No...what I did, from what I see years later was and is something that is something so real but intangible, like love or respect. I see students that did not do well on the test in sixth grade, is now University grad. Many are successful in careers not needing a degree, or are in the military, many with happy families, children enjoying their lives. I needed their support as I was being falsely accused of misbehavior, and needed letters of support from them and connected with over 600 of them all with glowing accounts of how I influenced their success and lives. Teachers are much more and much more valuable to the students they connected with and influenced. \

[taylor5]

01:16 PM on 10/05/2011

No disrespect, but if this can work in medicine, law and business, it can work in education.

[broui]

07:55 PM on 10/05/2011

Just because you had teachers doesn't mean you understand the profession or what goes into the job.

No. It can't be done.

[Marx Twain]

10:25 PM on 10/04/2011

I have a proposal for you Mr. Duncan:

I see two problems you face so far. First, teachers don't take you seriously because you never went to public school or ever taught or administered one. Second, since the Republicans have decided to do everything possible to shut down Washington, you will have a tough time getting anything done anyway. Time for a sabbatical.

I propose that you take the rest of this school year to teach at a struggling school for the rest of the year, one where 90% or more are on free and reduced lunch, and at least 50% English Language Learners. Heck, you live in D.C., that shouldn't be hard to find. Furthermore, this will be a perfect time for you to pilot your evaluation plan - by being evaluated by it yourself, and publicizing the reports. Your the Secretary right, who's more knowledgeable about teaching than you, so this should be easy money!

At the end of this of couse, you'll need to go along with the results. If you do good, then welcome back to the big league, and you'll have earned mad respect from every teacher out there, and I will wholeheartedly support your reform. Of course, if you aren't satisfactory, you'll need to step down, but as you keep saying, we need to get rid of the bad teachers.

[EmmaNYC]

12:03 AM on 10/05/2011

It's much harder to get rid of a bad public official than a bad teacher. Arne Duncan, the anti-teacher, anti-public education Secretary of Education, is proof of that.

[Jenn May]

01:39 AM on 10/05/2011

Brilliant...

[Chembug602]

06:41 PM on 10/04/2011

Standardized tests are cheap, cheap, cheap. I wrote questions for ours. I know how they are designed, as watered-down, rote memorization, low level achievement detectors. Where are the administrators (bosses) who are supposed to make sure we are doing a quality job? Why aren't Universities partnering with every ISD to provide relevant research on pedagogy in each discipline? I know it's out there. I stumbled on 30 years worth of research in mine at a conference. Boo to all the "consultants" making a buck writing books on band-aids they know won't work. REAL RESEARCH - if you are a teacher you better find it yourself because no one is going to find it for you. They will design a crappy test and when you try to shove all that content into your students' short term memories and they can't remember it - we loose.

[pgutpgut]

06:09 PM on 10/04/2011

Please stop wasting space printing what Arne has to say...we already know he is full of hot air just like the basketballs he manipulates on and off the court...

[traceydouglas]

04:50 AM on 10/05/2011

You are far more polite than I am.I would have said Arne's full of something else.

[Validusername]

01:26 PM on 10/04/2011

How do we improve public education? We were well on the road before NCLB. In fact, I once announced to my teachers that public education was far superior at that moment then it had been when I was child. The perception is that 60 years ago our schools did a better job. If they did, it was only because they weren't expected to do much. The standards were very low compared to what they are now. NCLB stopped that progress in its tracks by making the state tests the most important thing that happened all year. The standards are higher, but students of varied abilities and knowledge levels are subjected to a continuous drill and kill, and even some schools that don't need to do it engage in this practice. Inevitably the more able students don't learn all they could and the less able children aren't remediated as well as they should be because we are constantly going over the same grade level objectives. How do we improve schools? We start by teaching the child - not the test. We find out where that child is academically and we devise and implement a plan to move him forward no matter if he is above or below grade level. We move him ever forward. Schools need the ability to plan how they do that without interference from well-meaning policy makers. I remember my school being allowed to do that before high stake testing became the order of the day. It worked!

[Tikiman]

03:16 PM on 10/04/2011

Wow, can I work at your school?

[Ghoulish]

06:47 PM on 10/04/2011

Awesome post! I would consider going back into teaching if these things were implemented (again).

[wayne the pain]

11:14 AM on 10/04/2011

Any thing Wendy Kopp and Arne Duncan propse more than likely is worthless. Neither have any real world experience in public education. They are educational philosophers with no idea of what they are talking about. Van Roekel. Taught a few years in jR high many years ago in a non bargaining state. The thought that these three have control of American educational policy is frighting!

[DanInLA]

10:37 AM on 10/04/2011

I know a lot of students who performed well on standardized tests, graduated from college and are now unemployed. Is there any data out there that confirms that these tests predict future success? Just because someone performs well on a test doesn't mean they will be good at anything else.

[Allthosewhowander]

11:18 AM on 10/04/2011

Exactly. Standardized testing and teachers being forced to teach to such tests are doing students a huge disservice to students, families, and society as a whole. because they are not assessed on any authentic applicable skills that they might be able to use later in life. They are tested and tested during their school life, and once they have served the purpose of test companies, and bureaurcratic school districts, they are left on their own to make their way in the world, often, without any life skills to help themselves or contribute to the world around them.

[Dede Eagleburger]

11:38 AM on 10/04/2011

Exactly. The tests don't serve any purpose other than to line the pockets of the testing companies and give clueless politicians something to parrot about.

[Ariel Bonzai]

07:53 AM on 10/04/2011

These tests are are a scam. Millions are earned by companies like Scholastic which prints out a sloppy standardized one size fits all exam and has never attempted to address issues that include cultural bias, the 40% +margin of error it has in evaluating teachers, who are not all evaluated, btw, and those who are often pay the price for children who are special education, English Learners, in need of remediation and ultimately indifferent to a day long ordeal they have no reason to care about since teachers are the only one impacted. There has been a securit problem from day one and 3 years after Atlant's scandal broke, Arne Duncan shrugs it off like it is no big deal. Every test is null and void because the previous exams are unreliable. Atlanta is one of thousands as tests become the unreasonable means by witch teachers are judged. Of course this is no accident with privitization closing in on public schools. Teachers cost too much, according to insidous propoganda, yet no one is evaluating the people who run our schools, much less test makers, which claim they cannot be dismantled without creating economic blows to our economy. Dsmissing thousands of teachers is preferable-- they have so much less to lose--mortgaged homes, student loans, children to feed. These tests are a billion dollar industry w/ scripted lesson plans on the way. Soon everyone will jump through the bubble sheet hoops. And teachers will be obsolete...

[Dahveed1]

08:38 AM on 10/04/2011

So is it you do not like measuring the efficacy of teachers and schools, or the fact that private companies are making money providing this test?

The exam came about because many schools, districts, and teachers were thought to be failing miserably to actually teach the kids anything. So a test was developed in an attempt to measure this and improve education.

However, this test has taken on a life of its own. The test where I live is given in early April. That pretty much means the real school year ends then. Apparently the pro-testers were right that without a method to measure teaching effectiveness, some teachers really do not teach much. Unfortunately, now its whole schools and districts essentially do nothing but take field trips the last 6 - 7 weeks of school.

I feel we need something to ensure our schools are doing more than providing child care for 7 hours a day, but I'm not sure what the solution is. Do you have any ideas?

[Live4literacy]

09:50 AM on 10/04/2011

Teachers need to be evaluated on curriculum development, actual lesson instruction, and student growth which means assessing where kids are at the beginning of the year and where they end up which USED to be measured by chapter tests and finals. However, basing a teacher's pay or a university's teacher training program on ONE TEST on ONE DAY of a child's life (said child could be sick, tired, hungry, dealing with divorce, poverty, or could just not give a crap) is ABSOLUTELY ridiculous and invalid. SO...do we start tracking every adult in every profession to see how their university medical, law, business, etc. program work? THis is absolute insanity. AND YES, large corporations are making tremendous amounts of money that could be spent in schools to train teachers, improve technology, have smaller classes, add the arts back etc. THAT"S why these tests wrong. We know which schools are failing and it has to do with poverty which is something we don't address. You will not find one "failing" public school in an upper or middle class neighborhood. If you have no children in public school, you have no idea what's going on and in ours, our teachers are fabulous..but for how much longer will they take the abuse and quite frankly, I am tired of my children taking these bs tests. FACEBOOK OPT OUT.

[eceresa]

07:35 PM on 10/04/2011

Judging teachers and schools based on student test scores doesn't measure the efficacy of teachers and schools. It measures largely parental factors and then rewards or punishes the school those parents' kids happen to attend.

You want to evaluate teachers? You have to watch them teach. You have to evaluate them on what THEY do. I haven't heard a single teacher complain that they shouldn't be evaluated. I've heard a lot complain, very justifiably, that they shouldn't be blamed for standardized test scores that they have little control over.

[Gregory Gull]

07:34 AM on 10/04/2011

The process of learning, particularly in primary and secondary education, is a collaborative process involving student and teacher. The paraphrased Buddhist proverb ‘when the student is ready the teacher will appear’ succinctly expresses this fact. Hence placing all responsibility on the teacher for what is learned reflects a lack of understanding. Such misunderstanding places supreme importance accountability for results.

Of course improving the education and preparation of teachers is an important component, but so too is the preparation of students. This latter issue lies squarely in the lap of both parents and community.

To get education right requires that we cease using the same level of thinking that created the problem we now face and begin to think anew.

The very things that would help—systems thinking, statistical thinking, theory of human development and learning theory—are disregarded. Instead, reformers continue to apply the same level of thinking–reductionism and competitive context setting—that supports poor quality. Throwing money at a problem, absent of understanding, no matter the amount is never a sound approach.

In short those in authority must re-think and thus re-design the system, and not merely manipulate the parts in pursuit of better results.

http://forprogressnotgrowth.com/2010/12/18/the-accountability-problem/

http://forprogressnotgrowth.com/2010/11/30/a-matter-of-results/

http://forprogressnotgrowth.com/2010/11/23/getting-education-right/

[Grouchland]

08:45 PM on 10/04/2011

great Ideas... are they practical or do they get lost in theory to practice? Personally, I would rather my child learn to read with Dick and jane than test your theories out.