Dear Governor Cuomo:
I have my whole professional educational life been a supporter of teacher accountability. And, as you may know, I sided publicly with the findings in your recent report on the sham of current local teacher effectiveness ratings in New York schools and districts.
However, I have long written and consulted on the need for transparency in assessment and accountability via released tests after they are given – as the Regents did for over 100 years until recently. You simply cannot expect people to trust a system in which the scores are psychometrically generated and where I cannot see, for myself, what was assessed and what the actual results were. It fails as both credible accountability and as feedback to teachers.
More bluntly: Would you accept such a system for yourself?
The cardinal rule in Quality Control as formulated by Edwards Deming is Drive Out Fear. Alas, a one-shot high-stakes test in which no one can even challenge the VAM growth score or (despite its lack of year-to-year reliability) see it in context with the specific item analysis greatly amplifies fear. Instead of building an accountability system that incentivizes success we are simply beating the prisoners in hopes of improving morale.
The recent edits to the APPR system. The proposed edits in the APPR system, as part of the recent budget negotiations, are thus unwise and likely to backfire. In particular, I found the following changes to be without much merit:
APPR plans may no longer include evaluations based upon the following factors:
• Parent/student surveys;
• Teacher artifacts or lesson plans;
• Student portfolios (unless there is an SED approved rubric);
• Goal setting;
• District/regionally developed assessments (unless SED approved);
• Any growth or achievement target
This is truly a step backward. This disempowers the teacher, the supervisors, the parents, and the BOCES. To not look closely at goals and unit plans that frame the lessons observed; to ignore feedback from students and parents; and to further undercut the legitimacy of district and regional assessments is to emasculate local authorities and any incentive to “own” reform. At the very least, why not do what NYC has done in its Quality Review reports and use student and parent survey data (as well as external evaluators), in order to better triangulate the data?
What is an effective teacher? What these unwise and hurried changes have done is to – ironically – bring an essential question more clearly to the surface. Just how do we identify an effective teacher? You and I agree that the current rating system does not work. So, we require a lengthy and public debate, across all stake-holders, on what constitutes an effective teacher. The new proposed system reduces that criterion to an external opaque test score and observation – both of which are prone to reliability errors and that focus far too narrowly on only a few aspects – and testable aspects – of student achievement. (Nor, currently, do valid external tests exist that can assess numerous subjects and courses not covered by Common Core.)
Over my 35 years of work in educational research and reform – and based on the work done by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards – I can say with confidence that teacher behavior in the classroom is only a small part of being an effective teacher. Teacher planning, self-assessing, and self-adjusting are all critical criteria – and in the NBPTS process. Further, only by looking at what teachers assess, how they assess it, and how they act on that feedback can we truly grasp what is effective and ineffective about them. All of us in education have seen teachers that seem effective if we look only at their style, student engagement, their articulateness, and their subject knowledge. But these are sometimes very misleading indicators – as is a single score, earned once per year.
Consider baseball, your love and mine. Here is a simple analogy to make the point. You were a ballplayer and are a Yankees fan. But suppose only once per year, we “tested” the Yankees on their skills, on tests developed by experts. Now, imagine, the players do not know how they did, either during or after the test. Now imagine, the NYSED gives them a value-added score – with test security, so they cannot double-check or question the test results (or test validity). Worse, imagine in addition that the impartial evaluators and internal supervisors (coaches) went to one game where the Yankees were terrible – like the game last week in which they made 4 errors, left runners stranded, and pitched poorly. By the logic of your plan, we would be obligated to find Manager Girardi “ineffective.” But that’s both bad measurement and not common sense. Two weeks later it looks different, doesn’t it? Indeed, the charm of baseball is that a long season of 162 “tests” enables the truth of quality to out. If this is true for highly-skilled and trained professional athletes, what about novice young students?
In short, I fear you are making matters worse, not better, by this new round of reductionist rules. And by insisting that they be put into operation next year, with no time to really think them through, test them, and refine them ensures that this effort will backfire. Which neither you nor I wish to see.
I hope you will re-think these new criteria of “effective teaching”. I strongly recommend that you put together a blue-ribbon panel of educators to help you develop a definition and set of criteria that will have a broader professional stamp of approval. And I trust that you realize that your goal of great accountability for teachers and thus opportunity for kids can only happen if you have a sufficient number of respected educators on your side. When you start losing impartial and informed people like me, who have no skin in this game, then your initiative is in trouble.
Sincerely,
Grant Wiggins
19 Responses
Thank you.
Well said! Love the analogy!
Great letter. I hope he reads it. Maybe you can send one to the FL Gov. too?
Grant, Bravo!!!! From a Mets Fan no less-:)
Think how painful it was to write as a Sox fan!!! (Actually, I enjoyed recalling the 4-error Yanks game…)
Ahhh. The Sox have had some good years recently. Mets not so much. Thanks again for your wonderful letter.
Grant, the letter was outstanding. I’m afraid there exists a paucity of understanding of the nature of testing in the state. Feckless politicians are set on a quick cure, and the end result is the chaos that has been created by an inept system of measurement. Hope your voice is heard. Thanks to AndyGreene for sending me this letter.
Dr. Wiggins, thank you for your intelligent words. I am a middle school math teacher with 10 years of experience and to say that I am disheartened with the current state of the profession is an understatement. I feel like I am in the twilight zone. It is so clear that the VAM scores are unreliable and yet, college educated politicians are ignoring the facts. Governor Cuomo responds to statements about the unreliability of the VAM scores with, “teachers just don’t want to be evaluated.” My favorite response is, “these scores are the best we have right now.”
I am in constant fear for my livelihood. If I thought my effort would be reflected in these numbers, I would not be fearful at all. These VAM scores are equivalent to playing musical chairs and teachers have to hope they have a seat when the music stops. At 44 years old, I am contemplating what other careers I can pursue. This is a shame because I really love teaching.
Thank you for your post. I really appreciate it.
Thank YOU, Colleen, for taking the time to write. Keep the faith: your kids need you, and this will ultimately yield a better system; I’m sure of it.
Grant,
Please continue to advocate for parents, teacher and the students.
Teachers are feeling extremely defeated and under-appreciated in NY State right now. I know I feel as if the politicians are trying to blame society’s issues on educators because it is easier than really hitting the complex issues that we all need to combat together. Even worse, we know that this is an attempt to privatize education and bleeding the public schools from multiple points of respect and support.
Most schools are doing fine, despite the narrative the governor has spun for several months. Thank you for stating that local school reforms are needed and more in-depth discussion with all parties. This time table is completely unrealistic and force feeding this non-educational reform proves that Cuomo has a personal agenda…and it doesn’t have to do with what is best for the kids!
I appreciate your focus on multiple assessments to evaluate teachers and the analogy makes complete sense! Educators are working hard to prepare our students for tomorrows world. I firmly believe that my three children deserve better than what has been put forward by this current NY State yovernment. Hearing their debate, most do not even know what they were talking about or even voting on with regards to education. It was sad to think that most that voted “yes” for this budget feel as if they will make quality change to education, however, as you have so eloquently stated…that is for from the truth.
It will back fire. Then they will have to mop up this mess. However, as a father of three, my serious concern is that my children are caught in this turbulence. My kids are now officially the guinea pigs for this unproven, rushed and unthought through experiment that the hedge fund billionaires have puppeteered our NY government to force through.
Why have the teachers been shunned away and not a part of this process? Why are those that have never taught a day in their lives making these decisions? This, to me, shows a serious lack of intelligence and greed. Parents and teachers do not trust or have faith in what is happening.
Please keep speaking up and fighting for my kids.
Thank you for your letter,
Jeremy Murphy
All teachers in NY appreciate your support Dr. Wiggins. The animosity towards teachers and the venom of the proposals made this year were truly beyond belief.
One wonders what the true goal of this attempt was since I am not sure Gov. Cuomo could get elected dog catcher at this point in NY. He has managed to lose the support of almost every NYSUT member with his secondary and higher education proposals. He had already lost the support of many New Yorkers with the Safe Act. Not sure who else thinks he is worth voting for ever again…
By all means come up with a plan to fix failing schools. The idea to make schools safe and nurturing refuges for students in impoverished areas is a good one. But asking all of the successful school districts as well as teachers who are already successful to jump through these ridiculous hoops is lunacy.
I would hope that everyone who agrees with Dr. Wiggins would take the time to provide a comment to the State Education Department. Comments may be sent to: eval2015@nysed.gov . Sending comments to the Regent who covers the area where you live is also vital if we are to get this ridiculous “reform” agenda to stop trying to fix things that aren’t broken.
I have been in education for over 35 years, as a teacher and more recently an administrator, and it is my humble opinion that Governor Cuomo’s position on education, as with a couple other concerns of his, can be neatly summed up form a scene from The American President. It was toward the end of the movie where President Andrew Shepard (Michael Douglas) is speaking about a candidate Senator Bob Rumson (Richard Dreyfuss).
In the middle of his dialogue, he (President Shepard) states, “. . . We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you, Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things and two things only: making you afraid of it and telling you who’s to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections. . . .”
Just substitute Governor Cuomo for Bob Rumson.
Vince Canini
Grant Wiggins has added considerable credibility to the idea of engaging educators and applying proven research to the purpose of defining teacher effectiveness. As for individual schools, the School Quality Review now used in NYC should be reactivated statewide as he suggests. Not so by the way, NYSED says it has not yet adopted VAM with its unreliable use of regression analyses to predict results and compare them to real scores. But what they ARE using does test the outer limits of statistical principles learned in Stat 101.
Reblogged this on Greece Teachers Association.
Dear Grant,
Thank you so very much for your eloquent letter to Andrew Cuomo. I am an educator who has retired from the classroom but is still very much involved and invested in fostering top quality education for the children of New York. Perhaps your letter will inspire other articulate professionals in the field to come forward in an effort to convince Mr. Cuomo to reconsider his flawed policy.
Your analogy was well received. Let’s take it a step further. If Governor Cuomo were to be rated by an APPR would he be held accountable for the dismal performance of his top legislative leaders? He has made it clear that his administrative expectations included honesty and integrity on the job. Why did they not perform in that matter? Should he be held accountable for their failures?
I have no desire to support an incompetent educator. However, the proposed evaluation system is discouraging very talented candidates from entering the field. Why would any rational individual risk entering a profession where his or her performance is evaluated on a flawed model? Why would any rational individual choose to work in our most troubled schools if statistical evidence predicts that he or she will be “graded” as ineffective and removed from the profession?
I applaud your suggestion that a Blue Ribbon panel of stakeholders be convened and we collaborate on what an effective teacher evaluation model looks like. It is time for Governor Cuomo to behave like a leader and listen as well as speak. Let’s get this APPR right! Stakeholders throughout the state and national are waiting for the next move!
Nancy Maguire
http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/videos/watch-john-oliver-explore-insanity-of-standardized-testing-20150504
Dr. Wiggins,
Your letter is brilliant and so well said. It is unfortunate that the Governor does not see the irony in telling parents that the scores on these test do not count for children for five years but they do count for the professionals who teach them. If it takes five years to get it right for our students shouldn’t we have the same courtesy as educators? Thank you for your support.
Reblogged this on Thought catalog 2015 and commented:
i regret the day i met Georgina
Thanks, Dr. Wiggins for supporting rational evaluation systems. I will now hold my breath until the Governor responds to the points you have made…