Shaming the teachers

Recently, I opened the Los Angeles Times online and the big story of the day was about evaluating teachers. A man with white hair and jeans was pictured in action in his classroom, and I assumed that he was one of the top-ranked because of his prominence. Rather, he was one of the worst-ranked. The Times set the scene for his official public shaming.

Most teachers are eager to learn more about their effectiveness and how they can improve. When I posted the piece on Facebook, upset about its inherent meanness and the focus on standardized test scores, former and current teachers laid into me. They were chomping at the bit for something like this.

With this story, the Times has created its own news, stirring up a firestorm that has prompted many subsequent articles and a slew of smart comments. In their relatively new role as LAUSD watchdog, they've exposed some travesties, like the "holding tank" of teachers who can't be in a classroom because of serious charges against them but who are still collecting salaries, sometimes paid to stew for years. Another piece on the ridiculously soft evaluation process was dead on.

This is something different. Here's the original article, "How Good Is Your Child's Teacher?" 

Diane Ravitch, author and education expert who has come down hard against standardized test culture, called the article "disgraceful."

My favorite response to it has been "The Measure of Our Worth," an Op-Ed in the LA Times by Ivanhoe Elementary fifth-grade teacher Kim Jones.

Arne Duncan says that releasing this data (based on a "value added" approach that many experts distrust) is about looking at success. It's more about looking at failure -- the failure of an education system that is becoming more about standardized test scores and less and less about nurturing creativity and curiosity.

Feeling like a sucker in the system

What's happening in education right now reminds me of a book review I did for the Los Angeles Times. The book, called Welcome to the Aquarium, is about a year in an incredible teacher's kindergarten classroom.

Here's an incredible teacher offering the kind of rich life experiences that create life-long learners, and then you see how the system dampens the experience for the students.

[From the review:] "...it's no surprise that Diamond is sometimes infuriated by new trends in education. She describes how her kindergartners' legs shake as they take a standardized test -- the fact that the test kit comes with a cheery puppet who is supposed to spout the questions makes the scenario even more horrifying." (To read the entire piece, click here).

Sometimes it's hard not to feel that the ed system is there to impede learning, not to promote it.