tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113479300897983388.post5488820847415315254..comments2024-01-06T06:09:29.140-05:00Comments on An Urban Teacher's Education: Teach For America Corps Member Discusses TFA's Data Emphasisjames boutinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09625944306253098621noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113479300897983388.post-63679074213052804722012-10-02T15:33:24.868-04:002012-10-02T15:33:24.868-04:00Howdy excellent blog! Does running a blog such as ...Howdy excellent blog! Does running a blog such as this require a great deal of work?<br /><br />I've virtually no knowledge of coding but I had been hoping to start my own blog in the near future. Anyways, should you have any ideas or techniques for new blog owners please share. I know this is off subject however I just wanted to ask. Kudos!<br /><i>Also see my page</i> > <b><a href="http://www.squidoo.com/squidoolens-creation-service" rel="nofollow">shark attack</a></b>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113479300897983388.post-23492244171112616852012-03-11T03:09:50.671-04:002012-03-11T03:09:50.671-04:00There's a lot of broad generalizations and fac...There's a lot of broad generalizations and factually inaccurate statements in your blog: <br /><br />1) I don't see the connection between you having higher scores than your department and "value added." You're comparing apples and oranges if you had a different group of students. You yourself argue that the only reliable measure is a diagnostic at the beginning and a similar end of year assessment at the end, not arbitrary and relative comparisons. <br /><br />2) Also, I wasn't placed in a successful school. It had an API of 1. My students did average their first year, but they did really well their second. A classroom culture and success is not necessarily completely driven by its surroundings (though I agree that being placed in a traditional public school where the school culture is rocky makes it more difficult to help students towards success). <br /><br />3) I also take exception that charter school students just flunk out of college. The fact is charter schools like KIPP have 85% of students making it to and through college. <br /><br />4) I also think that the connection between standardized curriculum and dumbing down teaching is an atrocious connection. Standardized testing has been around from the time we were in schools. It doesn't mean that their existence means our generation is dumber. Frankly, the test is such a low bar it's a joke. The idea is to teach critical thinking and high level thinking and if you do, the students will naturally do well on the end of the year test. The problem is that many teachers teach to the test as a goal. However, it is not the tests fault that they do that. <br /><br />And contrary to what you say, there is a correlation between high test scores and success. The person that got a perfect SAT score makes on average more than the person that scored in the 10th percentile. It's not an exact science. Someone that scored in the 10th percentile could end up making a lot of money. As an average, however, it works.<br /><br />William (TFA '05) <br />www.lulu.com/alastingwill - Classroom Resources For Allalastingwillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00328785601874417792noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113479300897983388.post-65410513301189087812012-01-22T18:18:58.755-05:002012-01-22T18:18:58.755-05:00Amen to that. One good question is worth a thousan...Amen to that. One good question is worth a thousand answers. If my students understand that upon leaving my classroom, I will have succeeded.<br /><br />Don't you think a kid who can ask good questions will be able to pass a standardized test? I do. I guess the data advocates just hope he won't start to question the validity of the test.Confused in Missourinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113479300897983388.post-52399717698602756282011-05-08T13:25:50.143-04:002011-05-08T13:25:50.143-04:00Whether the pressure for test scores above all els...Whether the pressure for test scores above all else comes from school districts or from TFA, it's wrong. Today I finished "Night", which I'm teaching (privately) to a student. In his foreword, Francois Mauriac writes, "We do not know the worth of one drop of blood, one tear." Yet metricists like Donald Rumsfeld lead corps that seek to measure everything, and ignore everything that isn't measurable. I am reminded of Hannah Arendt's reflections, in "The Life of The Mind", upon Nazi Germany, at that time arguably, in some ways, the most advanced nation in the world, immensely proud of its culture at the same time it was wiping out some of its most cultured people: "We don't need any more educated Eichmanns." On this day when we show love to our mothers everywhere, we shouldn't overlook that which cannot be measured.Bruce William Smithhttp://www.oneworldschool.usnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113479300897983388.post-17373228568536876492011-05-08T10:41:27.084-04:002011-05-08T10:41:27.084-04:00I definitely agree with you about problems surroun...I definitely agree with you about problems surrounding standardized testing. However, I'm really interested that you consider this to be a TFA problem. If anything it seems like over the last year TFA has been trying to balance the weight we give numerical data with their drive for CMs to create "vision-driven" classrooms. Staff members love to talk with me about creating enduring drive in our kiddos for reading and implementing an exploratory science curriculum... For me, the insane practices (showing us powerpoints of the "focal" students who we need to pass, writing their names on the board, pressure to teach to the test, etc) come from my school and school district, not TFA. <br /><br />Perhaps regions differ in this?'08 Alumnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113479300897983388.post-41045859169128059822011-05-06T04:36:49.692-04:002011-05-06T04:36:49.692-04:00i don't know too much about it, but from what ...i don't know too much about it, but from what i remember my high school teachers saying, No Child Left Behind was a terrible act, and i guess they'd say it's a good thing that Obama's getting rid of it (but let's hope something good replaces it).<br /><br />-RAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113479300897983388.post-20773627297377562132011-05-05T11:16:09.009-04:002011-05-05T11:16:09.009-04:00"It’s a good thing to have some assurance tha..."It’s a good thing to have some assurance that students everywhere are learning the same basic skills."<br /><br />Can I just say I fundamentally disagree with this sentence as it applies to anyone over the age of 5?<br /><br />Beyond numeracy, literacy, good manners, and critical thinking skills and other (generally untestable) problem-solving meta-skills, I don't think I can name another skill that is useful for "students everywhere."<br /><br />And herein lies the problem with standardized testing and TFA.Kylehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07789967181929309807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113479300897983388.post-39431014576419736192011-05-04T16:47:26.940-04:002011-05-04T16:47:26.940-04:00'A' for excellence in writing.'A' for excellence in writing.Suburban Chicken Farmerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13171878298939073055noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113479300897983388.post-20352391987839103082011-05-03T15:55:49.857-04:002011-05-03T15:55:49.857-04:00I taught for 3 years in the MS Delta, with the fir...I taught for 3 years in the MS Delta, with the first two as part of the MS Teacher Corps. I left (I was dept. head and well respected) after the administration started doing the following:<br /><br />1. Moving low performing juniors out of US History (state tested during the junior year) and into Economics (seniors) - thus manipulating upward the scores;<br /><br />2. Mislabeling classes so that students could essentially take the state tested course multiple times ("creative writing" elective = US history essay/reading class, for example); and<br /><br />3. Moving high performing sophomores into US History, again to manipulate upward the scores.<br /><br />All of this was about juking the numbers. That is all the matters.<br /><br />The real issue is poverty and low teacher pay. <br /><br />Solve the poverty problem and pay teachers more (attract and retain higher quality staff), and kids will perform better. In this sense programs like TFA and MTC are nothing more than life support for a system of injustice and exploitation.<br /><br />And how do teachers get higher pay? Unions. Where are some of our worst schools? Right to work states in the South. And urban schools serving overwhelmingly poor students.<br /><br />I now make more working 36 hours a week as a dog trainer than I did as a MS teacher who regularly put in 80+ hour work weeks.<br /><br />Eh.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113479300897983388.post-3176271102431351622011-05-03T12:22:40.334-04:002011-05-03T12:22:40.334-04:00Thanks. But surely there's some way--which I ...Thanks. But surely there's some way--which I suspect you've found--to do for your students what your schools did for you--take your minds seriously. It's also interesting after--if you can--to sit with some students and learn about the logic behind even their wrong answers.<br /><br />Good luck--and stick with it.<br /><br />Deborah Meierdeborahmeier@me.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5113479300897983388.post-22752263589632981222011-05-03T10:50:05.539-04:002011-05-03T10:50:05.539-04:00i just found your blog, and love it. i am beginnin...i just found your blog, and love it. i am beginning my teaching career this summer with an urban teacher residency program, and it's been a long time in the making (long story short: i spent three years on my immunology & infectious diseases PhD and loved the science and the teaching, but hated the road towards professorship that i was heading down).<br /><br />it's great to read a well-balanced blog from a HS biology teacher. you keep writing, and i'll keep reading.annapurnanoreply@blogger.com