• Athletics
  • Big Ed
  • Ed Tech
  • Educators
  • Elections
  • Federal Policy
  • Parents
  • Students
  • The Testing Industry

K-12 News Network's The Wire

K-12 News Network: People-Powered Public Education News

  • Budgets
  • Charter Schools
  • Federal Policy
  • School Districts
  • State Education Law
  • School Boards
You are here: Home / Educators / “NY’s New Teacher Rating System is a Farce,” And Experienced Corporate Managers Agree

“NY’s New Teacher Rating System is a Farce,” And Experienced Corporate Managers Agree

April 11, 2015 by K12NN Site Admin

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

Damon Buffum is a school board member in NY state and a supporter of a strong public education system. This post is republished with his permission.

Full disclosure: I’m a Corporate Guy. For the past 26 years I’ve worked for large, multinational, corporations. I’ve worked for my current corporation for the past 19 years and I drink, sleep, and live a corporate (professional) life. I use data extensively. It shows me the current status of my business, the trends over time, the strengths and the gaps. I can then apply resources to improve areas that show the need for improvement.

As a leader of a professional team, I use multiple measures for my evaluations (as I’m also evaluated). These measures include business metrics and stakeholder feedback, but primarily come from direct observation. I spend time with my team, we discuss goals and objectives, I watch them execute, and then I give them feedback on what I saw and provide a couple of comments on things that could be considered. I always say, “you can’t be a hitting coach in baseball and never watch your players swing the bat.”

So I’ve been on the school board for 2 years now (5 total but in different districts). I can firmly say, there’s is almost nothing similar between the education and corporate world. Children are not binary, families are not a controlled environment and educational “output” is not easily or fully quantified in the short term (and may not manifest itself until years later).

However… Leadership, development and evaluation principals are consistent across any profession. Effective leadership involves creating a shared vision, common and clear goals, trust, regular communication and feedback, coaching for improvement, professional enablement and direct observation of every individual. There’s mutual buy-in and accountability to this relationship. As a “Manager,” my most important asset is the team that I support. Their professional capabilities, confidence and empowerment is what makes me successful and what makes the organization work. Without my team, we would be nothing. My role, as a manager, is to enable them, communicate with them, give them regular feedback and support and, occasionally, provide constructive feedback to do a course correction.

Sorry for being wordy… but the current Teacher evaluation being implemented (and being reformed) in NY is a bunch of *&#$. It does not adhere to anything I’ve ever known and is the exact text book of “what not to do” if you want to be an effective leader or stay in business. It is bad for the individual, bad for the organization and, ultimately, bad for our children.

This article, “The teacher ratings system is a farce,” explains the details. The teacher writing it says:

It’s a disgrace that members of the Assembly and Senate, who have no idea who my kids are or what they need, are charged with not only telling me what to teach, but also judging me on factors having nothing to do with whether or not I’m doing my job well.

I will not let a test tied to untested Common Core standards determine the future of my students. I will continue to teach them what they need. I will continue to do everything I deem necessary to make them share my love of the English language.

As a School Board member, this rating system is, indeed, a complete farce and damaging to “my team” of district educators. I’m against it.

 

 

Facebooktwitterlinkedinrssyoutube

Filed Under: Educators, School Boards, School Districts, State Education Law, Value-added measures Tagged With: NY, Teacher evaluations

About K12NN Site Admin

I'm Cynthia Liu, Owner/Founder of K12 News Network. I'm the proud product of public schools through post-grad, the mom of a child in public schools, and the daughter of two teachers. Connect with me professionally on LinkedIn.

Sign up for our newsletter

* indicates required
Email Format

Buy a hybrid Facebook+ website today!

Federal Policy

Quick Education Voter’s Guide to the California CD34 Race, April 4, 2017

There are twenty-three candidates running to fill former Congressman Xavier Bacerra’s seat in Congressional District 34 in Southern California. (Bacerra is currently the state’s Attorney General, replacing Kamala Harris, who, after November 8, 2016, became our US Senator.) Election Day is Tuesday, April 4, 2017, 7:00 am to 8:00 pm. You can find your polling […]

Betsy DeVos, #NOTMYSDOE

Take the pledge to #resist and fight for public schools as a public good TODAY. DeVos had to have the assistance of Vice President Mike Pence’s unprecedented tie-breaking vote in order to win her confirmation. Two GOP Senators voted against, all Democratic Senators voted against. Yet all the other GOP Senators who received campaign donations […]

Next #DemDebate MUST Include K-12 Education Policy

The next #DemDebate is scheduled for the important primary state of Iowa on November 14, 2015. It’ll be broadcast by CBS in partnership with the Des Moines Register. Professor Julian Vasquez Heilig is leading the call for the families of 50 million students K-12 across the nation and the communities they live in to have […]

More Posts from this Category

K12NN on Blog Talk Radio

Online Politics Progressive Radio at Blog Talk Radio with MOMocrats on BlogTalkRadio

Categories

April 2015
S M T W T F S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
2627282930  
« Mar   May »

Copyright © 2022 · The Wire Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in