9486 in the collection  

FCAT tosses teachers lifeline

Worship of test scores turns ironic. And expensive.

By Christina DeNardo

For 18 years, Samuel Young taught English and creative writing, working at some of the best schools in the county. His work with students earned him national awards, and principals doled out mostly positive reviews on his annual evaluations.

But after a decade, supervisors began to see problems. Over the years, they observed students falling asleep, giving attitude and speaking out of turn, signs that he had lost control of his classroom, records show.

One student even reported feeling unsafe in Young's class after a classmate assaulted another student. His lessons were disjointed, making it difficult for students and even those observing him to follow along. He was put on probation in 2002.

In 2003, after numerous visits to his classroom and several negative evaluations, the district fired Young from his job at Dreyfoos School of the Arts in West Palm Beach.

But now Young is returning to the classroom because of the one thing his bosses didn't consider: his students' test scores.

In an ironic twist, the state's reliance on the FCAT and other standardized tests to boost student achievement and hold schools more accountable, is forcing the district to take back teachers it deemed incompetent.

In a few cases in which teachers have been fired for poor performance, the district essentially ignored student test scores. That prompted a district court of appeals to call for the reinstatement of those teachers. The court cited state law requiring that student performance play a starring role in how teachers are evaluated.

The decision can be expensive. The district is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in back pay to fired teachers whose students' FCAT performance wasn't considered in their dismissals.

Bruce Belzer, a former second-grade teacher at Greenacres Elementary fired in 2005 after failing to improve his lessons, will get his job back and $168,000 in back pay. Supervisors noted he sometimes talked harshly to students and slammed his fist on a table to get their attention. His principal also worried that his students were spending too much time playing games and watching videos.

Curtis Sherrod, a former Suncoast High School social studies teacher fired in 2004, waived his right to return to the district but will get $147,000 in back pay. Sherrod showed R-rated videos to his class, failed to post grades in a timely manner, didn't follow lesson plans and struggled to manage his classroom, records show.

The Florida Education Association, which represents most of the state's teachers, said the decision could affect other cases of teacher firings, but the union remains opposed to using test scores to evaluate teachers.

"It's really tempting to try to find a simple way of looking at teachers and students, but that assumes everyone is equal from the start," said Mark Pudlow, the group's spokesman.

Though some legislators say they did not intend for the law to limit districts' authority to get rid of bad teachers - the legislature later tweaked the law to make that clear - the requirement that student performance play a major role in how teachers are judged remains. So do questions about its value.

"For too long, teachers and teaching have been judged on input instead of outputs," said Sen. Don Gaetz, chairman of the Florida Senate's education committee and former school district superintendent. "I think in public education, we have been obsessed with the process and haven't been as concerned and we should be about the results."

In response to the ruling, the district is coming up with a way to evaluate teachers that emphasizes student performance, but officials caution that it's dangerous to rely on test scores to weed out bad teachers.

"If you have bright kids, they are going to do well regardless," said Darron Davis, the district's human resources chief. "You can have students do very well on FCAT, but there could be areas where principals feel teachers are not doing so well."

Evaluations that don't take into account student performance have drawn criticism from education reformers who say they allow incompetent teachers to remain in the classroom, but the issue has yet to get much attention. Even under President Bush's landmark No Child Left Behind, teacher quality is measured not by performance but credentials.

But as schools try to meet the academic demands, teacher evaluations could play a bigger role. In New York City, student test scores will soon determine teacher tenure, as well as play a role in evaluations and bonuses.

The reinstated Samuel Young said using test scores to measure performance offers teachers such as him protection. He didn't always conform to authority and felt he should run his classroom the way he saw fit, something that he said aggravated his bosses.

"There needs to be some objective criteria," he said. "They are supposed to be using student improvement. If you don't have to look and see what the effect on students in the classroom is, you can say anyone is a bad teacher."






Palm Beach Post
2008-02-11
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/02/11/s1b_skfired_0211.html

---

INDEX OF OUTRAGES

Pages: 380   
[1] 2 3 4 5 6  Next >>    Last >>