It's Time to Use Test Scores to Determine Teacher Pay

The annual exercise in paranoia known as the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) ended a few weeks ago and I do not have the slightest idea what was on the tests that will likely determine how my school and my teaching are perceived by the general public.

Our Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has strict rules for the administering of standardized tests, as do the departments that oversee these winner-take-all exams in the other 49 states.

During a mandatory meeting several days before the test, teachers were told they were not to do the following things:

• Take a look at the contents of any test booklet.
• Talk about the tests with any of our fellow teachers
• Ask our students any questions about the tests once they were finished taking them

We are not even allowed to make sure the students are actually doing the tests, even though their lack of effort could have an impact on our jobs.

A student can leave everything blank, flip a coin before answering, or just lean back and take a nap, and we can't do a thing about it. And this is what the so-called educational reformers want to use to determine how much we are paid?

In the Missouri House last week, a portion of HB 1526 calling for teacher pay to be determined by these very tests was removed, even though the end result was not much better. The part of the bill that passed and is now in the Senate eliminates the use of seniority in determining teacher layoffs, a move to designed to open the door to using standardized tests for pay decisions and, of course, eliminating tenure.

It will surprise those who have read my past blogs to know that I am willing to compromise on this issue.

Let's base 100 percent of teacher pay on the results of standardized tests. Make it all or nothing, but if we are to have true educational reform, a concept that seems to be lost when used by those who claim that mantle, I want the following conditions:

• After schools have given the tests and they have been graded, a complete copy of the tests and the answers must be posted online. End this ridiculous secrecy and let the public see just how bad these tests, which cost millions of dollars per year, really are.
• Place a complete ban on testing companies selling test prep materials. These are turning our schools into test-taking factories and eliminating learning. In fact, why don't we simply take one test at the beginning of the year and take a similar test at the end of the year to see what the students have learned?
• Require all state legislators to take the same tests and post their scores online. My guess is my eighth graders' scores would put the scores of legislators like Sen. Jane Cunningham, and Majority Leader and future Speaker of the House (and birther lawsuit plaintiff) Tim Jones to shame.
• Have legislative pay determined by a bunch of fools who know nothing about government. That would be similar to having education pay determined by a bunch of -- well, you get the idea.

And while we're at it, let's take this movement nationwide.

Arne Duncan -- take this test!

I am not going to hold my breath waiting for that to happen.

 

 

 

Follow Randy Turner on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rturner229

Comments

[perlin]

09:11 PM on 05/08/2012

I agree that these tests should be published online for everyone to see the age inappropriate, idiotic selection of reading materials and the ambiguous multiples choice answers. Definitely Mr. Duncan and Ms. Rhee should be tested but only under the condition that they both can not cheat. I would love to see their scores online.

[barbara jay]

04:11 PM on 05/08/2012

The state legislators should have a reading comprehension section on their test that starts out with something like, "A hare in a tree challenged a hanging pineapple to a race to the bottom . . . after a count of three, they would simultaneously drop to the ground . . ."

This version would be more easy to comprehend than the one the students in New York got, because in this one, at least the pineapple has a chance.

[MisterRog]

03:59 PM on 05/08/2012

Can I add one thing to your list?

Quit putting teachers through the "flavor of the month" professional development and just let us teach!

[thinkrationally]

01:25 PM on 05/08/2012

Merit based pay for teachers is nonsense, especially if it's based on standardized test scores. We have school accountability, and I hear people talking about teacher accountability, but where is the student/parent accountability? There is absolutely no accountability for students on the annual state testing. Schools are lauded or punished based solely on test scores, and increasingly I hear about schemes to reward/punish teaches based on these scores. The only problem is there is no repercussions for a student not taking it seriously, if they take it at all. Without it having any bearing on matriculation or on grade point average there is little, if any incentive for the students. Frankly, I am surprised that we don't get even more students just not taking them.

In my state, high stakes testing has led to increasingly segregated schools as those with the highest percentage of poor and immigrant students get pushed into program improvement and white flight leads to even lower test scores and a downward spiral of reduced enrollment and higher percentages of socioeconomic disadvantaged and English learners. So the teachers that work with the students that need the most help and the most creative/talented teachers will receive the least pay if follow a 'results based' pay system.

[acumenguy]

01:05 PM on 05/08/2012

Johnathan Swift would be proud of this article.