Increasing Class Sizes: What People Outside the Classroom Don't See

This week Baltimore County Executive Keven Kamentz suggested shifting fourth- and fifth-graders to middle schools in order to solve the problem of overcrowded elementary schools. Across the country schools are suffering from increased class sizes due to budget problems despite the research that shows smaller class sizes promote higher achievement. However, across the country districts have been appealing penalties placed on schools for exceeding class sizes that have resulted in violations of the law.

Those who aren’t in the classroom don’t realize the added responsibilities of teaching more students aside from the issue of classroom management. As a teacher with rosters that reach almost sixty students per class, I understand those frustrations. No matter how many students sit in front a teacher every day, the teacher must deal with extra pressures. These include grading extra papers, providing more makeup work for the higher amount of absent students, contacting more parents, documenting more behaviors and academic data (especially if there is a higher population of special education students in the classroom), among other responsibilities. For teachers with “copy limits” or small classrooms, the increased sizes can add extra stress that is completely unnecessary and ultimately distracting from the teacher’s critical role: teaching.

In addition to a public misconception about the duties of a teacher when class sizes increase, it seems that our leaders are not in touch with the real numbers. Last Sunday Arne Duncan spoke with governors in Washington and asked them to consider paying bonuses to the schools’ best teachers for taking on extra students. Mr. Duncan stated that he would prefer to put his own children in a classroom with 28 students led by a “fantastic” teacher than in one with 23 and a “mediocre” teacher. Mr. Duncan, 28 students has become more of a norm for teachers in low-performing schools. When you look at the average class sizes of students in a city, you are including all schools, not just those schools serving low-achieving students, which are the schools that would benefit most from small sizes.

Sources: http://www.wbaltv.com/education/27141722/detail.html;

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/education/07classrooms.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=education

Relationships Between Charter Schools And Unions May Suffer Due To Struggles Between AFT and KIPP

Earlier this month, Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, criticized the KIPP schools in Baltimore for their alleged unwillingness to work with the union to reach an agreement concerning the temporary deal made last year. KIPP is seeking a ten-year extension of its one-year agreement with the BTU. Under that deal, it can afford to keep its 9 1/2 hour school days because its teachers are paid 20.5 percent extra for the extended day, much less than under the current union contract.

Weingarten expressed frustration that “KIPP is playing by its own set of rules”. She stated that KIPP has been eager to run to the press and criticize the union or try to change Maryland’s state law that requires teachers at charter schools to be represented by unions, instead of working with the union for an agreement that would benefit everyone involved. KIPP Baltimore’s executive director Jason Botel responded that KIPP schools in the city would have to close if they were forced to comply with the unions’ rules, and that he hoped they could reach an agreement soon.

Reading the article, interesting issues are raised between charter schools and unions. Should KIPP be able to “opt out” of union rules by changing the state law? And if so, would this result in a sort of landslide effect in which dozens of other charters would be tempted to do the same? Should teachers trade off their union rights in exchange for working at higher-performing schools, or should they be “forced” to follow the same rules as other teachers, even when they don’t want to? Either way, the tensions resulting from these public altercations is, as the author notes, a blow to the budding relationships between teachers unions and the charter school movement, “one of the most robust developments in American education.”

Source: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2011/03/randi_weingarten_scolds_kipp.html

Teacher Effectiveness Drives Student Performance: How Do We Evaluate Our Teachers?

Teacher effectiveness is often thought of as the most important factor in student growth. This means that the teacher himself or herself is stronger than income, class size, race or family educational background. The million dollar question is, how do we define an “effective teacher?” Cities have struggled to find an effective system for evaluating teachers. Last year the National Center on Teacher Quality did a report on teacher evaluation and Human Capital in Baltimore City. Only half of the City Schools teachers were evaluated. Of this 50%, 97% were rated Satisfactory or higher which is two percent lower than the national average. This means that Baltimore City is becoming more progressive in teacher evaluation.

Certain programs such as the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) measures teaching against standards in three major categories, designing and planning instruction, the learning environment and instruction. TAP evaluates a teacher rigorously and provides information on what a teacher is doing well, struggles with and gives them feedback. Another system implemented in Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System where school systems follow and track student test scores between 4th and 8th grade in math, reading, social studies and science. Each student has a profile and their performance can be projected. Both of these systems contribute towards greater student performance. I tend believe that a system such as TAP is more effective. TAP is a way where teachers are not observed once a year and given a general unsatisfactory, satisfactory or proficient score. TAP consists of a rigorous method for evaluating teachers based on three important factors, designing and planning instruction, the learning environment and instruction. What do you think are the most important factors in evaluating teachers? Which system do you feel would be more effective in Baltimore City?

Teacher Buyouts? Budget Concerns vs. Losing Experienced Teachers

In an effort to offset budget shortfalls, Baltimore City Public Schools has offered a buy-out plan for up to 750 of its most experienced teachers. Teachers who have taught for more than 10 years can opt for an early-retirement package, which will pay 75% of a teacher’s current annual salary monthly, for a total of five years. Those who take the buyout will also get their regular pension at retirement age, but will not receive health benefits. BCPSS predicts a 73 million-budget deficit for next year, in addition to probably state budget cuts to education next year due to a change in the Thornton funding formula. BCPSS hopes to save 5-10 million from the buyout plan.

Andres Alonso, BCPSS CEO, defends the plan saying it will help avoid layoffs and also encourage expensive teachers, who may already have considered leaving the district, to do so, so the city can hire new teachers at a much cheaper price. He also says that by offering this plan, it will ensure there are more teachers who truly want to be teaching in the classroom, which insinuates that the teachers who accept the buyout are teachers who don’t really want to be there.

On the other hand, many parents are worried that BCPSS will lose many seasoned teachers, thus affecting their children’s education. Others have noted that spending for training and professional development for new, inexperienced teachers may mitigate the cost savings from the buyout and also may make it hard for schools to raise test scores with more inexperienced than experienced teachers in the classroom.

New Teacher Contract

The New Teacher Contract is a very progressive step for Baltimore City public schools. Whereas most aspects of the contract between Baltimore City Teacher's Union and Baltimore City Public Schools will remain the same, the main area of change will be in regard to compensation. In the new contract the compensation will be performance based. This means that the Teacher Evaluation will play a role in teacher salaries. Teachers will be compensated on how they teach, children learn and Achievement Units (AU). Teachers will receive Achievement Units not only for a Proficient Teacher Evaluation but also for approved collaborative site-based work as well as teacher professional development that is demonstrated to increase student learning.

While some believe that this is a huge step forward for Baltimore City, others are extremely hesitant. For the first time, compensation is linked to student achievement. Being able to control the amount of AUs may be dangerous. Certain teachers may attend professional development that may not correlate to their specific content simply to collect AUs. Teacher Evaluations are often based on test scores. While “cheating” becomes a bigger issue in City Schools, it may be risky for test scores to hold even greater importance. How do you think the new contract will play out in regard to standardized testing? Do you think teachers will abuse the AUs accumulation policy? If so, in which ways?

Cut or Not to Cut?...Changing the Thornton Education Funding Formula

As a result of budget shortfalls for the next fiscal year, Governor O’Malley has proposed altering the “Thornton” formula, which calculates per pupil spending, and thus how much money is allocated to each school district. The Thornton formula was established in 2002 and focused on allocated funding based on student needs. The original formula included an adjustment each year for inflation, but in 2008, the inflation component was removed to save money for the state, which in effect reduced the amount of education funding each year for the past three years already. Now by, by changing Thornton, per pupil funding will be reduced, which equates to even more cuts to the education budget in Maryland.

Baltimore City Schools anticipates the proposed change to the Thornton formula would equal a $15 million dollar cut to its budget. And because BCPSS has already made cuts to the central office in recent years, most of the budget cuts would be passed on to schools. This could mean almost a 10% cut to each schools budget, which could lead to teacher layoffs, increases in class size, the elimination of the arts and after school programs, and recent initiatives, such as pre-k expansion, to be halted or abandoned indefinitely.

Each state must have a balanced budget, unlike the federal government, who can run a deficit. Governor O’Malley must make cuts, but cutting anything in the state budget will incur criticism. Do you think in today’s economic recession that O’Malley is justified in the education cuts and that everyone must “feel the pain” or do you think K-12 education should be shielded from such cuts? If you think education should be shielded, where do you think O’Malley should cut in order to balance his budget?