Stop the Blame Game and take some responsibility

On Monday, Maryland voted 13-7 to approve a new teacher evaluation system that bases 50% of a teacher's evaluation on student achievement. While the details are being worked out, I find it notable that every teacher on the panel voted AGAINST this evaluation system. While the Baltimore Sun article does not suggest any reasoning for the strong teacher disapproval, I have a couple ideas.

First of all, perhaps the issue in approving this evaluation system is the same one many teachers had in approving the new contract: its all very vague right now. There's going to be some data from standardized tests, and maybe some projects or portfolios, but nothing definitive yet. I strongly believe that some portion of our teacher evaluation should involve student data, but just as I want to know where a plane is going when I buy a ticket, I want to know exactly how I'm being evaluated before I give my approval. If you don't have a clear plan, I'm not very confident that I should trust you to evaluate me (particularly when my evaluation is linked to my pay).

It seems to me that we should be doing a lot more to get the major players on-board with reforms. By approving a system that teachers (at least those on the panel) cannot get behind, MD is basically saying "we want you to change, because we believe teacher quality is an important factor in increasing student achievement, but we don't really care if you agree or not". Maybe this evaluation system could be a step in the right direction, but failing to get teacher support is skipping a crucial step.

As we've learned in class, real reform requires community support. Teachers have to buy into this! Whether I am evaluated or not, if I don't BELIEVE that the way I teach impacts student performance, I'm not going to work hard to be a better teacher. Consider the standpoint of veteran teachers. If I've been rated proficient every evaluation of a 10+ year career, and every one of those years I've only been able to get a handful of students to score Proficient on a test, how will I react when suddenly that test data is taking MY rating from Proficient to Satisfactory? Will I believe that I've suddenly become a worse teacher? Will I imagine that actually all of these years I was only truly a Satisfactory teacher? Not if you never got me to believe that the way I teach impacts student achievement.

Recent opinion headlines from the Baltimore Sun, such as "Rating Teachers: Parents are the ones who determine student performance" and "Stop blaming teachers for poor student performance" tell us that not only teachers, but community members as well, do not want to see teachers carry this much responsibility for student achievement. Blame the families. Blame the communities. Blame the administration. Blame the unions. Blame the money. Blame the students. No one wants to be blamed for failures (though they're real quick to take credit for successes), and they would all like to blame someone else.

Frankly, it is irresponsible. No ONE part of this mess of a system is to blame-we are ALL responsible. Systematic change is what is needed: a partnership of teachers, students, administrators, families, communities, unions, and funders. If each of us could own up to the part we've played in making some schools successful and others not, we might actually get some real results.