What some teachers don't want you to learn

[DEDixon 39]

THE UNION

Knowledge is power, but it is not always welcome. The Los Angeles Times just completed an extensive study of how individual teachers have fared at raising their students' math and English test scores in the state's most populous city. The raw data have been available to the L.A. Unified School District for years, but it never bothered to crunch those numbers, let alone share them with parents. The Times has pledged to publish its ratings of 6,000 elementary school instructors.

Reaction of the local teachers union? It has called for a "massive boycott" of the Times.

So it goes in California education, where even the most modest attempt to hold teachers accountable encounters fierce resistance from teachers unions. Earlier this year, the unions successfully leaned on their friends in the California Legislature to defeat a bill (SB955, by Sen. Bob Huff, R-Glendora) that would have allowed districts to consider factors other than seniority in teacher layoffs. Proposals to create merit pay, loosen tenure rules, expand inter-district transfers or allow more innovation through charter schools are reflexively denounced by the unions as attacks on a noble profession and the many dedicated teachers whose heroic efforts are underpaid and underappreciated.

All of us know, from our experience as students and parents, how a special teacher can perform magic on an individual or even an entire class. The Times identified one such teacher from the poorest corner of the San Fernando Valley whose fifth-grade students consistently made striking gains from their fourth-grade scores on standardized tests. Students from the same neighborhood who had a teacher down the hall, in the same school, consistently slipped in math in their year with him.

Do you think parents might want to have access to that information? I certainly do. So does Arne Duncan, President Obama's reform-minded secretary of education, who asked, "What is there to hide?"

The union argument is that the tests are flawed, and an attempt to link them to teacher performance is "an irresponsible, offensive intrusion into your professional life that will do nothing to improve student learning," as A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers of Los Angeles, told the Times.

Admittedly, students' performance on a standardized test is a limited window into a teacher's effectiveness. But it is a window worth opening. The Times analysis uses what is known as a "value added" statistical approach: looking at a student's past scores to project his or her future results. The difference between the projection and the student's actual results is considered the "value" the teacher added or subtracted.

This methodology is neither radical nor irresponsible. Its tracking of individual students takes into account the cultural or socioeconomic factors that might otherwise penalize teachers who work in the most challenging classrooms. California and other states competing for Obama's Race to the Top grants have agreed to measure their teachers this way as a condition of their application.

Jack O'Connell, the state's superintendent of public instruction, said student scores should be one of "a multitude" of elements in evaluating a teacher.

"Should it be a factor? - yes," said O'Connell, a former teacher, a Democrat and a usual ally of the unions. "Should it be the exclusive factor? - in my opinion, no."

I asked him whether those teacher ratings should be available to the public. His answer: yes.

"The more information parents have - we all have - the better off the system is," O'Connell said in a phone interview.

I put the same questions to Carlos Garcia, San Francisco's schools chief, who has been aggressive in trying to identify and help underperforming teachers. Garcia, like O'Connell, suggests that test scores should only be "a percentage" of a teacher's evaluation.

"I'm not sure what good it does to publish it for everyone in the world to see," said Garcia, who added that he did not believe that test scores "should ever be used to beat up teachers."

But Garcia does not dismiss the value of such ratings. In fact, San Francisco has been using test scores at the school-site level to help identify teachers who are achieving gains in the classroom and others who might need mentoring or other professional development.

"Teachers want to learn from other teachers," he said.

Garcia's strategies include treating teachers as professionals and approaching parents with respect - and to engaging them as partners in the education of their children. Greater transparency about those classroom-by-classroom scores would advance, not undermine, those worthy objectives.

Parents in Los Angeles should be thanking - not boycotting - the Times for providing them with this limited but important insight into teacher performance. And parents in San Francisco and everywhere else in the state should be pushing school administrators to make this data available to them.

THE EXCUSE ME ... 578 MILLION DOLLAR HIGH SCHOOL!

Next month's opening of the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools will be auspicious for a reason other than its both storied and infamous history as the former Ambassador Hotel, where the Democratic presidential contender was assassinated in 1968. With an eye-popping price tag of $578 million, it will mark the inauguration of the nation's most expensive public school ever.

The K-12 complex to house 4,200 students has raised eyebrows across the country as the creme de la creme of "Taj Mahal" schools, $100 million-plus campuses boasting both architectural panache and deluxe amenities.

"There's no more of the old, windowless cinderblock schools of the '70s where kids felt, 'Oh, back to jail,'" said Joe Agron, editor-in-chief of American School & University, a school construction journal. "Districts want a showpiece for the community, a really impressive environment for learning."

Not everyone is similarly enthusiastic.

"New buildings are nice, but when they're run by the same people who've given us a 50 percent dropout rate, they're a big waste of taxpayer money," said Ben Austin, executive director of Parent Revolution who sits on the California Board of Education. "Parents aren't fooled."

At RFK, the features include fine art murals and a marble memorial depicting the complex's namesake, a manicured public park, a state-of-the-art swimming pool and preservation of pieces of the original hotel.

Partly by circumstance and partly by design, the Los Angeles Unified School District has emerged as the mogul of Taj Mahals.

The RFK complex follows on the heels of two other LA schools among the nation's costliest — the $377 million Edward R. Roybal Learning Center, which opened in 2008, and the $232 million Visual and Performing Arts High School that debuted in 2009.

The pricey schools have come during a sensitive period for the nation's second-largest school system: Nearly 3,000 teachers have been laid off over the past two years, the academic year and programs have been slashed. The district also faces a $640 million shortfall and some schools persistently rank among the nation's lowest performing.

Los Angeles is not alone, however, in building big. Some of the most expensive schools are found in low-performing districts — New York City has a $235 million campus; New Brunswick, N.J., opened a $185 million high school in January.

Nationwide, dozens of schools have surpassed $100 million with amenities including atriums, orchestra-pit auditoriums, food courts, even bamboo nooks. The extravagance has led some to wonder where the line should be drawn and whether more money should be spent on teachers.

"Architects and builders love this stuff, but there's a little bit of a lack of discipline here," said Mary Filardo, executive director of 21st Century School Fund in Washington, D.C., which promotes urban school construction.

Some experts say it's not all flourish and that children learn better in more pleasant surroundings.

Many schools incorporate large windows to let in natural light and install energy-saving equipment, spending more upfront for reduced bills later. Cafeterias are getting fancier, seeking to retain students who venture off campus. Wireless Internet and other high-tech installations have become standard.

Some pricey projects have had political fallout.

After a firestorm over the $197.5 million Newton North High School in Massachusetts, Mayor David Cohen chose not to seek re-election and state Treasurer Timothy Cahill reined in school construction spending.

Now to get state funds for a new school, districts must choose among three designs costing $49 million to $64 million. "We had to bring some sense to this process," Cahill said.

In Los Angeles, officials say the new schools were planned long before the economic pinch and are funded by $20 billion in voter-approved bonds that do not affect the educational budget.

Still, even LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines derided some of the extravagance, noting that donations should have been sought to fund the RFK project's talking benches commemorating the site's history.

Connie Rice, member of the district's School Bond Oversight Committee, noted the megaschools are only three of 131 that the district is building to alleviate overcrowding. RFK "is an amazing facility," she said. "Is it a lot of money? Yes. We didn't like it, but they got it done."

Construction costs at LA Unified are the second-highest in the nation — something the district blames on skyrocketing material and land prices, rigorous seismic codes and unionized labor.

James Sohn, the district's chief facilities executive, said the megaschools were built when global raw material shortages caused costs to skyrocket to an average of $600 per square foot in 2006 and 2007 — triple the price from 2002. Costs have since eased to $350 per square foot.

On top of that, each project had its own cost drivers.

After buildings were demolished at the site of the 2,400-student Roybal school, contaminated soil, a methane gas field and an earthquake fault were discovered. A gas mitigation system cost $17 million.

Over 20 years, the project grew to encompass a dance studio with cushioned maple floors, a modern kitchen with a restaurant-quality pizza oven, a 10-acre park and teacher planning rooms between classrooms.

The 1,700-student arts school was designed as a landmark, with a stainless steel, postmodernistic tower encircled by a rollercoaster-like swirl, while the RFK site involved 15 years of litigation with historic preservationists and Donald Trump, who wanted to build the world's tallest building there. The wrangling cost $9 million.

Methane mitigation cost $33 million and the district paid another $15 million preserving historic features, including a wall of the famed Cocoanut Grove nightclub and turning the Paul Williams-designed coffee shop into a faculty lounge.

Sohn said LA Unified has reached the end of its Taj Mahal building spree. "These are definitely the exceptions," he said. "We don't anticipate schools costing hundreds of millions of dollars in the future."

Edited August 23, 2010 by DEDixon

[evli1966 88]

Wow

All I can say is WoW.

Lets see lay off 100's of teachers decreasing the chance of quality education of students through out the state even if that would be in old school house or

Build extreme Schools with no teachers to teach.

WoW

did I mention the 1000's of teachers laid off or public employees?

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

THE UNION

Knowledge is power, but it is not always welcome. The Los Angeles Times just completed an extensive study of how individual teachers have fared at raising their students' math and English test scores in the state's most populous city. The raw data have been available to the L.A. Unified School District for years, but it never bothered to crunch those numbers, let alone share them with parents. The Times has pledged to publish its ratings of 6,000 elementary school instructors.

Reaction of the local teachers union? It has called for a "massive boycott" of the Times.

So it goes in California education, where even the most modest attempt to hold teachers accountable encounters fierce resistance from teachers unions. Earlier this year, the unions successfully leaned on their friends in the California Legislature to defeat a bill (SB955, by Sen. Bob Huff, R-Glendora) that would have allowed districts to consider factors other than seniority in teacher layoffs. Proposals to create merit pay, loosen tenure rules, expand inter-district transfers or allow more innovation through charter schools are reflexively denounced by the unions as attacks on a noble profession ...

Just how does the union get away with this? That's ridiculous. If tenure means everything and performance means nothing then capable teachers will run from the unions and, hence, from the public schools. The unions are digging their own grave and don't even know it.