High-Stakes Testing, Lack Of Voice Driving Teachers Out

Contrary to popular opinion, unruly students are not driving out teachers in droves from America’s urban school districts. Instead, teachers are quitting due to frustration with standardized testing, declining pay and benefits and lack of voice in what they teach.

So finds a Michigan State University education scholar – and former high school teacher – in her latest research on teacher turnover, which costs the nation an estimated $2.2 billion a year.

Alyssa Hadley Dunn, assistant professor of teacher education, conducted in-depth interviews with urban secondary teachers before they quit successful careers in teaching. In a pair of studies, Dunn found that despite working in a profession they love, the teachers became demoralized by a culture of high-stakes testing in which their evaluations are tied to student scores and teachers have little say in the curriculum.

Many policymakers say the dominant emphasis on standardized testing is needed to make U.S. students more globally competitive. But “preparing students to answer multiple choice questions,” Dunn argues, is not true learning.

“Those are not the skills that created Silicon Valley and Facebook,” Dunn said, “and I don’t believe the child who will eventually cure cancer will achieve that by learning to choose between A and B.”

Frustration with high-stakes testing and top-down educational policies is part of what led Dunn, in 2009, to leave her job as an urban high school English teacher in Atlanta. According to the Alliance for Excellent Education, the teacher turnover rate in poor schools is about 20 percent per year – roughly 50 percent higher than the rate in affluent schools.

While previous research has examined why teachers quit after the fact, Dunn wanted to explore the issue while teachers are wrestling with the decision, to get a real-time take on the problem. In one of her studies, which appears in the Urban Review, the teachers she interviewed said the factors that made them want to continue teaching included their students, colleagues, commitment to the profession and worry about pursuing a new career in hard economic times.

“As previous research has shown, it is not, contrary to popular opinion, students who drive teachers out of the classroom,” Dunn said.

But the negative factors – including lack of quality instruction time and low salaries – outweighed the positive aspects of teaching and led the teachers to quit. The average U.S. teacher salary decreased 1.3 percent between 2000 and 2013 – to $56,383, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Further, the United States ranked 22 out of 27 participating countries in a 2011 study of teacher salaries by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

In addition, lack of support contributed to teachers’ decision to quit. Dunn said teachers need more than professional development – they also need personal support, even if that’s a colleague or an organized group to talk to about the pressures they face.

“How can teachers and administrators support each other in having courageous conversations about what teaching is doing to them,” Dunn said, “and how can they work together to ease some of the common stressors?”

In the other study, which appears in Teachers College Record, Dunn interviewed one of her brightest former teaching candidates, Samantha Durrance, who went on to become an urban middle school teacher – only to quit after just two years in the classroom.

Like Dunn, Durrance found the high-pressure environment of standardized testing to be detrimental to both her and her students.

“The reality I found was one in which there are far too many standards and far too little time to teach,” Durrance said. “I have given all of myself to this for too short a time to already be so drained. Fighting against the myriad of forces that drag our students down is just too much for me.”

The Core of the problem is the tests

Earlier this week (October 14th, 2014) the Ohio house Rules Committee held its 7th hearing on HB597 - commonly referred to has the "Common Core Repeal bill", but in actuality is replete with all manner of extreme pieces of legislation only tangentially related to educating students. This hearing was committed to hearing from opponents of common core, including teachers. Here's how Gongwer reported their testimony

Teacher Tracy Yereb said one of her kindergarten students, Julia, had to sit beside the trash can daily because she vomited from stress. Her student Daniel came from a home where both parents were addicted to drugs and in and out of jail.

"Yet we asked Daniel to give his best performance on a 52-minute test to have documentation that he mastered the Common Core standards," she said in testimony. "Really? All Daniel could think about was wanting to have food and to live in a safe environment.

Another teacher testified

Vicki Brusky, a first-year teacher from Lorain County, said she has opted her son, who has Asperger's syndrome, out of taking the state tests because of the anxiety they cause.

In working with IEP students, she said she administered the third-grade reading test to two students who were granted extended time. She spent the day - 9 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. - administering the test to them and while one gave up, the other spent the end of the day rushing to fill in bubbles, she said.

And a third teacher

Steve Parlin, an English teacher from Marietta, said he thinks students are becoming more dependent and less self-directed.

"They are taking fewer risks, and instead hold out for the correct answer to be given to them, for that is all that matters," he said. "Indeed, the test-driven mania that dominates our school culture communicates one clear message above all others: The only thinking and learning that matters is that which can be measured. The only learning that matters is what will be tested."

What is striking about this so-called "anti-common core" testimony is how little of it is opposed to the standards, but rather the explosion of testing that is taking place in our schools. It should be obvious to all by now that the corporate reformers have created an over-testing crisis in our schools. In their desire to "hold teachers accountable" what they have instead achieved is holding back student learning so they can take test, after test, after test. It's time that madness ended, and the corporate reformers were sent back to their billionaire backed board rooms to leave the real business of education our children to the experts.

Teacher retention is critical to school quality

When Reynoldsburg teachers went on strike, the issue of teacher retention came to the forefront of discussion. It was reported that almost 1 in 5 teachers had left the district. A rate of turnover far exceeding other districts in the area.

An EdWeek article discussing research on the issue of retention:

The panelists also stressed that teacher shortages are not a recruitment issue so much as a retention issue, as Ingersoll has demonstrated in his oft-cited studies on teacher-retention rates. Ingersoll's research finds that 45 percent of turnover occurs in only 25 percent of schools.
[...]
"We have the wrong diagnosis and the wrong prescription ... It's not that we produce too few [teachers,] it's that we lose too many," Ingersoll said.

He emphasized that any solution to school understaffing needs to focus not on making teaching more attractive to potential teachers but on retaining teachers once they enter the workforce. I said that the way to fix the problem "is to improve the quality of teachers and teaching, and the way to do that is to improve the quality of the teaching job."

That starts with administration.

"The key factor that matters," said Ladd, "is school leadership," particularly "transformational leadership" that focuses on more than simply instructional issues.

McWalters agreed, suggesting that leaders create environments where teachers can better collaborate with each and have more power in decision-making processes.

The variables mentioned for creating an environment conducive for retaining top talent seem obvious, but are also clearly lacking in Reynoldsburg. As evidence, even now that a contentious strike is over, the District led by first year Superintendent Tina Thomas Manning continues to disrespect its teaching force and act unilaterally

“Despite good-faith efforts to resolve this issue, the district decided to act unilaterally once again,” Kim Cooper, co-president of the Reynoldsburg Education Association, said in a statement on the union’s Facebook page yesterday.

“The district told us on Friday that they would not be able to make any decisions on a plan to address the missing pay until Monday,” Cooper said. “In good faith, we decided to give them that time to come up with a proposal. Instead, like so many times before, the district decided to act on its own and do whatever it wanted.”

When researchers examined the reasons for teaching staff turnover, the found the following:

The top four reasons were all primary reasons that led to the strike in Reynoldsburg, yet instead of addressing these issues the district instead sought to divide teachers using a merit pay system that has repeatedly been demonstrated to not work, and to further the insult, eliminate health benefits.

This battle with corporate reformers have been going on for a long time now, yet all the evidence continues to point away from their prescribes "solutions". There are now quick fixes to improving educational quality. It requires professional teachers, with manageable class sizes, ample preparation time and collaboration with colleagues, resourced with modern tools and supported by school management that is constantly open to meaningful dialogue. None of this is sexy, it's hard work, sometimes costly - but if you truly are interested in improving educational quality for all students this is where you must first look.

If you address the problems of teacher retention you are directly addressing school quality.

The Wisdom of Dr. Seuss on This Novembers Election

Sent to us by Jeanne Melvin, OEA-Retired Teacher from Hilliard

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It's not.”
-Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

Theodor Seuss Geisel was one of the greatest American writers, cartoonists, and political activists who ever lived. He had this natural ability to present philosophical concepts through children’s literature that provoked thought at many different levels. Whether one works with elementary, middle, or high school students, Dr. Seuss is a favorite resource for helping both kids and grown-ups alike to understand many issues in our world.

Three years ago, educators from all over the state joined with police officers, firefighters, and other public employees to fight against Ohio Senate Bill 5, an unjust law that would have stripped away public workers’ collective bargaining rights. "Collective bargaining" is the mutually beneficial obligation of public employers and their employees to negotiate in good faith on wages, hours, terms, and other conditions of employment, and people were outraged that these rights were being crushed by their elected officials.

Rallies and petition drives against Senate Bill 5 brought unprecedented numbers of teachers out of their living rooms and into the spotlight. Educators made considerable numbers of phone calls and sent many emails to their legislators decrying this unfair attack. Teachers sent letters of concern to the editors of every Ohio newspaper about what was being written into the state budget. All of this teamwork contributed to the issue being put on the ballot, and in November of 2011, voters overwhelming repealed Senate Bill 5.

In the aftermath of SB 5, many teachers remained politically active and began to keep a watchful eye on everything that was happening at the Statehouse- not just legislation that affected the rights of public workers. If Ohio lawmakers could so easily follow an outside agenda that enacted policies detrimental to public servants, then continued vigilance from their constituents was the logical course of action. The rights of all Ohioans were at stake.

That outside agenda came from a corporate bill mill called the American Legislative Exchange Council, more commonly known as ALEC. Because of gerrymandering, most of Ohio’s legislators belong to ALEC, the secretive organization of lawmakers and corporations that has taken over the Ohio Statehouse. ALEC’s corporate policy-makers create bills, such as Senate Bill 5, for ALEC legislators to sponsor and get passed into laws in states all over the country. ALEC bills erode worker rights, consumer rights, and the rights of citizens injured or killed on the job. ALEC promotes the privatization of public agencies and the outsourcing of jobs, and the corporate-funded group was behind efforts to prevent implementation of healthcare reform, such as Medicaid Expansion in Ohio.[1]

ALEC’s top priority is to promote a private for-profit education model- in 2013 alone, 139 education bills written by ALEC were introduced in state legislatures around the U.S., and 31 of those have already become law. Unfortunately, most of Ohio’s Republican legislators are deeply entrenched in following the ALEC playbook and are quick to promote its anti-public school agenda. Look at all of the educational reform that’s recently been put into place that will diminish Ohio’s public schools through high stakes testing, school grade cards, OTES, private school voucher programs, and virtual learning. These are all ALEC initiatives.[2]

Many educators still care enough to be proactive about Ohio politics, but a number of them don’t pay attention to political initiatives anymore unless they directly affect them. They neglect to sign petitions and attend rallies meant to support people’s rights because of claims that they’re too busy to keep track of current legislative campaigns. Some teachers don’t find it necessary to contact their representatives or write letters to newspapers to express their disapproval of unjust laws. Several of them even vote for the same ALEC legislators that have worked to destroy public education in Ohio, even though a little bit of research would help them to express their displeasure of ALEC by voting out its politicians.[3]

The midterm election is upon us, and with it comes the re-election campaigns of many of those politicians who continue to follow the ALEC agenda, including Gov. John Kasich, an alumnus of ALEC who has been an important part of its initiatives over the years. Capitalizing on economic turmoil throughout our state and country, Kasich has worked diligently to further ALEC’s #1 priority, the privatization of many of Ohio’s public entities, since he took office in 2011. To help enable the expansion of his private school voucher program to move forward, the governor and his legislature first created financial hardship through drastic budget cuts, just as in other ALEC-controlled states. Richard Lee Colvin, director of D.C. think tank Education Sector, said: What’s particularly unfortunate about this wave of voucher programs now is that they come at a time when states are so strapped and they are cutting the basic funding for public education. So, we’re undermining public education by our state budgets and then we’re undermining through these voucher programs.[4]

Ohio teachers should heed the wisdom of Dr. Seuss and renew their commitment to standing up for our system of public education, instead of standing by as spectators. Their most powerful tool to positively impact public education is to make well-informed choices for candidates and issues during this very important election that will conclude on November 4, 2014. Vote for candidates who value our public schools, educators, and students.[5]

Times have changed- we teachers cannot afford to just close our doors and work in a vacuum any longer. Unless people like us care a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.

November 2014 School levies and issues

165 school levies and issues will appear on the November 4th ballots across the state. The majority, 94, are renewals, with 58 asking for new or additional monies, the remainder are substitute or replacement levies.

The table below lists all the issues and levies that will appear on ballots. When you vote, we urge all the supporters of Join the Future to consider supporting their local schools.

County	Subdivision Name	Question Type	Description
Allen	Elida Local School District	Levy	Additional
Ashland	Hillsdale Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Ashland	Loudonville-Perrysville EVSD	Levy	Additional
Ashland	Mapleton Local School District	Income tax	Additional
Ashtabula	Ashtabula Area City School District	Levy	Renewal
Ashtabula	Conneaut Area City School Distrct	Levy	Renewal
Ashtabula	Grand Valley Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Ashtabula	Grand Valley Local School District	Levy	Additional
Ashtabula	Jefferson Area Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Ashtabula	Pymatuning Valley Local School Dist	Levy	Renewal
Belmont	Bridgeport Exempted Village SD	Levy	Renewal
Belmont	Union Local School District	Income tax	Additional
Brown	Ripley Union Lewis Huntington LSD	Levy	Additional
Carroll	Brown Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Champaign	Urbana City School District	Bond	N/A
Champaign	Graham Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Champaign	Mechanicsburg Ex Vill School Dist	Levy	Renewal
Champaign	Triad Local School District	Levy	Additional
Clark	Greenon Local School District	Levy	Additional
Clark	Greenon Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Clark	Southeastern Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Clark	Tecumseh Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Clinton	Clinton-Massie Local School District	Levy	Additional
Columbiana	East Liverpool City School District	Levy	Renewal
Columbiana	Salem City School District	Levy	Renewal
Columbiana	Southern Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Coshocton	River View Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Crawford	Crestline Exempted Village SD	Income tax	Additional
Cuyahoga	North Olmsted City School District	Bond	N/A
Cuyahoga	Cleveland Municipal School Dist.	Combo	Additional
Cuyahoga	North Royalton City School District	Combo	Additional
Cuyahoga	Bedford City School District	Levy	Additional
Cuyahoga	Berea City School District	Levy	Additional
Cuyahoga	Brecksville-Broadview Hts. City SD	Levy	Renewal
Cuyahoga	Cuyahoga Community College	Levy	Renewal
Cuyahoga	Garfield Hts City School District	Levy	Additional
Darke	Franklin Monroe Local School Dist	Levy	Renewal
Darke	Ansonia Local School District	Income tax	Renewal
Darke	Arcanum Butler Local School Dist	Income tax	Renewal
Defiance	Northeastern Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Delaware	Buckeye Valley Local School District	Bond	N/A
Delaware	Delaware City School District	Levy	Renewal
Erie	Sandusky City School District	Combo	Additional
Erie	Huron City School District	Levy	Renewal
Erie	Margaretta Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Fairfield	Walnut Twp Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Fairfield	Liberty Union-Thurston LSD	Income tax	Renewal
Fayette	Miami Trace Local School District	Combo	Additional
Franklin	Gahanna-Jefferson City School Dist	Levy	Additional
Franklin	Grandview Heights City School Dist	Levy	Additional
Franklin	New Albany-Plain Local School Dist	Levy	Additional
Geauga	Ledgemont Local School District	Levy	Additional
Geauga	Newbury Local School District	Levy	Additional
Geauga	Berkshire Local School District	Income tax	Additional
Geauga	Ledgemont Local School District	Income tax	Renewal
Greene	Beavercreek City School District	Levy	Renewal
Hamilton	Winton Woods City School District	Bond	N/A
Hamilton	Forest Hills Local School District	Combo	Additional
Hamilton	Cincinnati City School District	Levy	Renewal
Hamilton	Lockland Local School District	Levy	Additional
Hamilton	Mariemont City School District	Levy	Additional
Hancock	Van Buren Local School District	Bond	N/A
Hancock	Liberty-Benton Local School District	Combo	Additional
Harrison	Conotton Valley Union LSD	Levy	Renewal
Harrison	Conotton Valley Union LSD	Levy	Renewal
Harrison	Harrison Hills City School District	Levy	Renewal
Henry	Patrick Henry Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Highland	Bright Local School District	Income tax	Additional
Huron	Monroeville Local School District	Combo	Additional
Jefferson	Edison Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Jefferson	Toronto City School District	Levy	Renewal
Knox	East Knox Local School District	Combo	Additional
Lake	Fairport Harbor EVSD	Levy	Renewal
Lake	Madison Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Lake	Willoughby-Eastlake CSD	Levy	Renewal
Licking	Southwest Licking Local School Dist	Levy	Substitute
Logan	Indian Lake Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Lorain	Keystone Local School District	Levy	Additional
Lorain	Oberlin City School District	Levy	Additional
Lorain	Sheffield-Sheffield Lake CSD	Levy	Additional
Lucas	Maumee City School District	Levy	Additional
Lucas	Oregon City School District	Levy	Additional
Lucas	Springfield Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Lucas	Springfield Local School District	Levy	Additional
Lucas	Toledo City School District	Levy	Additional
Lucas	Washington Local School District	Levy	Additional
Madison	London City School District	Income tax	Renewal
Mahoning	Boardman Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Mahoning	Campbell City School District	Levy	Renewal
Mahoning	Jackson Milton Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Mahoning	South Range Local School District	Levy	Additional
Mahoning	Springfield Local School District	Income tax	Renewal
Marion	Pleasant Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Marion	River Valley Local School District	Levy	Additional
Marion	Tri-Rivers Jt. Vocational School Dist	Levy	Additional
Mercer	Marion Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Miami	Bethel Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Miami	Miami East Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Miami	Milton-Union Ex Village School Dist	Levy	Renewal
Miami	Bethel Local School District	Income tax	Renewal
Miami	Covington Ex Village School District	Income tax	Renewal
Monroe	Switzerland of Ohio Local SD	Income tax	Additional
Montgomery	Brookville Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Montgomery	Brookville Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Montgomery	Huber Heights City School District	Levy	Additional
Montgomery	Jefferson Twp Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Montgomery	Kettering City School District	Levy	Renewal
Montgomery	Miamisburg City School District	Levy	Substitute
Montgomery	Northmont City School Disitrict	Levy	Renewal
Montgomery	New Lebanon Local School District	Income tax	Renewal
Muskingum	Franklin Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Muskingum	Zanesville City School District	Levy	Renewal
Ottawa	Genoa Area Local School District	Levy	Additional
Perry	Southern Local School District	Levy	Additional
Portage	Field Local School District	Levy	Additional
Portage	Field Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Portage	Ravenna City School District	Levy	Additional
Portage	Ravenna City School District	Levy	Additional
Portage	Rootstown Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Portage	Streetsboro City School District	Levy	Renewal
Portage	Streetsboro City School District	Levy	Renewal
Portage	Windham Ex Village School District	Levy	Renewal
Putnam	Columbus Grove Local School Dist	Income tax	Renewal
Putnam	Fort Jennings Local School District	Income tax	Renewal
Richland	Lucas Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Richland	Pioneer Jt. Vocational School Dist	Levy	Replacement
Ross	Zane Trace Local School District	Income tax	Additional
Sandusky	Woodmore Local School District	Bond	N/A
Sandusky	Bellevue City School District	Levy	Renewal
Sandusky	Clyde-Green Springs Ex Village SD	Levy	Renewal
Sandusky	Gibsonburg Ex Village School District	Levy	Renewal
Shelby	Jackson Center Local School Dist	Combo	Additional
Shelby	Anna Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Stark	Massillon City School District	Bond	N/A
Stark	Fairless Local School District	Levy	Additional
Stark	Marlington Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Stark	Osnaburg Local School District	Levy	Additional
Stark	Tuslaw Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Stark	Northwest Local School District	Income tax	Renewal
Summit	Coventry Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Summit	Cuyahoga Falls City School District	Levy	Renewal
Summit	Mogadore Local School District	Levy	Additional
Summit	Springfield Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Summit	Springfield Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Summit	Springfield Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Trumbull	Lakeview Local School District	Combo	Additional
Trumbull	Bloomfield-Mespo Local School Dis	Levy	Renewal
Trumbull	Bristol Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Trumbull	Bristol Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Trumbull	Howland Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Trumbull	Lordstown Local School District	Levy	Additional
Trumbull	McDonald Local School District	Levy	Additional
Trumbull	Mathews Local School Distrct	Levy	Renewal
Trumbull	Southington Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Trumbull	Trumbull Career & Tech Center	Levy	Renewal
Tuscarawas	New Philadelphia City School Dist	Levy	Renewal
Tuscarawas	Newcomerstown Ex Village SD	Levy	Renewal
Warren	Warren Co Jt Voca School District	Levy	Replacement
Washington	Frontier Local School District	Levy	Additional
Wayne	Southeast Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Williams	Edon Northwest Local School Dist	Levy	Renewal
Wood	Perrysburg Ex Village School Dist	Bond	N/A
Wood	Lake Local School District	Levy	Renewal
Wood	Rossford Ex Village School District	Levy	Additional

The Transparent Desperation of Corporate Education Reformers to Privatize Education

The Corporate Education Reformers are becoming increasingly desperate in their goal to privatize public education.

Their original concept was to create a system whereby public schools and their teachers could be made to look like spectacular failures, thereby opening the door to charters schools, vouchers, outsourced curriculum, for-profit testing and the diminishment of teacher unions.

This plan called for high stakes testing, on a massive scale as we have detailed on Join the Future for over 3 years now. Their plan hit a snag. No one who actually has a stake in public education, from parents, students, teachers and administrators thought this "plan" was a very good one.

We'll let one of the biggest Corporate reform boosters explain their failure to enact their agenda:

a great many parents — and a huge fraction of teachers — appear to have had enough. They grump, with some justice, that

• Too much school time is given over to test prep — and the pressure to lift scores leads to cheating and other unsavory practices.
• Subjects and accomplishments that aren’t tested — art, creativity, leadership, independent thinking, etc. — are getting squeezed if not discarded.
• Teachers are losing their freedom to practice their craft, to make classes interesting and stimulating, to act like professionals.
• The curricular homogenizing that generally follows from standardized tests and state (or national) standards represents an undesirable usurpation of school autonomy, teacher freedom, and local control by distant authorities.
• Judging teachers and schools by pupil test scores is inaccurate and unfair, given the kids’ different starting points and home circumstances, the variation in class sizes and school resources, and the many other services that schools and teachers are now expected to provide their students.

If that all sounds familiar it is because that's what everyone opposed to the profiteers have been saying all along.

The high stakes testing and "accountability" however was never their primary goal, so jettisoning it in order to save their real agenda becomes unfortunate but necessary.

From the same article, comes their new prescription:
1. Individualization.
2. Technology
3. Quality choices.
4. Attaching the money to the child.

More school "choice", more outsourcing of teaching to technology and more money for charters and vouchers. In their desperation, they are revealing their true agenda.

If it was ever about quality and accountability, why would they now argue for even more money to flow to Ohio's failing charter school boondoggle? Why ask for more money for vouchers when the current demand doesn't come close to what's being offered? And if anyone thinks computers are primed to replace teachers in the classroom - go ask students in Reynoldsburg how relevant and rigorous their online education has been these last 3 weeks.

It's time that the people responsible for creating the current mess took a timeout. We don't need another Corporate Education Reform "reboot", we need a whole new conversation.