Example of "Value-Added" formula
The following post appeared on the Band Director's page on Facebook last night. The teacher in question has given permission to share:
Robin Stephens
10 hrs
Rant!!!
State of NM has gone to a new 'Teacher Evaluation' system. Our attendance is included in this. On my most recent state eval, out of 40 points, I got exactly '0'... ZERO!!! Seems that when I had to take two weeks off because of lung cancer surgery, I lost ALL my points. The loss of those points took my from being rated 'Highly Effective' or 'Minimally Effective'. Consequently, the state PED turned down my request for a Level III Teacher Licensure. Difference between Level II and Level III is about $5000 a year. Oh, I am just finishing my 24th year in teaching.
Tell me again why I'm doing this................
Think about that.
They docked for CANCER SURGERY. FMLA be damned. And since it has gone to the state, there are NO APPEALS. They've done this for other surgical leave, MATERNITY LEAVE, and for every other reason under the sun. This is their "value-added" model. The teacher in question has already been advised to get a lawyer and go to the media.
This is not an isolated case in New Mexico. Jump for more:
Evidently their evaluation model is so bad that there is currently a lawsuit challenging it.
The American Federation of Teachers last month sued New Mexico state officials over new teacher evaluations that have sparked resistance across the state from teachers who say that the system is unfair and error-ridden. Like many new evaluation systems across the country, the NMTEACH Educator Effectiveness system, as it is known, includes a “value-added” score that is meant to capture how much a teacher contributes to student learning. The evaluations also include scores for traditional classroom observations and teacher attendance.
Secretary of Public Education Hanna Skandera instituted the new evaluations over the protests of teachers and many state lawmakers because, she said, the state needs aggressive changes in order to produce real change for students. New Mexico’s academic performance metrics consistently fall near the bottom of national rankings.
But many teachers disagree. They say that the new evaluations, which were first used for the 2013-2014 school year, are arbitrary and offer little guidance as to how to improve. Below are four teachers’ evaluations along with their explanations of problems they see with those evaluations. The AFT collected these and many other narratives and evaluations in May; since then, the state department of education acknowledged errors and revised some evaluations.
Here is the complaint of Pamela Crone. Third-grade teacher Pamela Crone was rated minimally effective after receiving zero out of 40 possible points for teacher attendance. Crone said she missed four months of work after she slipped on a wet floor at school and suffered a brain injury.
Pamela Crone evaluation
I encourage you to go to the article and read the others. They involve taking care of family members, having a class of advanced students who because they are advanced didn't make "adequate progress", and having not enough years of teaching a particular subject for VAM-data yet being rated anyway.
We have heard stories like this before. This seems to be the norm in education now. Of course, the purpose is to drive master teachers away from the profession so they can employ pliant Teach for a While scabs to do minimum wage grunt work reading scripted curriculum full of nothing but test prep while Music, Art, PE, and anything that makes school interesting and helps create a well-rounded citizen are chucked out the window.