Titles and brief synopsis of professional readings and references

Fighting the Good Fight: How to Advocate for Your Students Without Losing Your Job

By: Rick Lavoie

One of the greatest blessings of my professional life is the opportunity I have to talk with hundreds and hundreds of my Special Education colleagues. Before and after my seminars, I have conversations and discussions with countless teachers from coast to coast and everywhere in between. It is truly a joy, and these on-the-fly exchanges give me an updated perspective on the changes and challenges in America's classrooms.

These conversations are an ongoing source of information and inspiration for me. They confirm my long-held belief that some of the finest people on the planet are toiling daily in America's classrooms…and particularly in our Special Education programs!

Most of these exchanges are reassuring and reinforcing, but occasionally I have conversations that are troubling and disheartening. These disturbing conversations remind me that the inclusion battles of the 1970s continue in many American school districts and that the rights of struggling kids continue to be violated and ignored.

Among the most disturbing comments that I hear are these:

I have a student who really belongs in a regular math class, but the math teacher won't allow it.

I wanted to advocate for my students' needs, but I don't want to lose my job.

I am new to my school and the other teachers have warned me that I shouldn't rock the boat. The Special Education teacher at the school last year got fired for defending parents at an IEP meeting.

The administrators at my school told me not to mention the new Resource Room to Michael's parents when I met with them because there was no more room in the program… but that's where he belongs.

It saddens me greatly to hear these all-too common complaints and concerns from my colleagues. I worked as a school administrator for thirty years and always felt that teachers' willingness to defend and advocate for students should be encouraged and reinforced… not discouraged and criticized. One of the most sacred responsibilities of a Special Education teacher is to advocate for her students and their needs. We need to be voices for the voiceless.

After all, that's why they call it SPECIAL Education.

For the past several years, I have delivered a seminar entitled "Other People's Kids: The Ethics of Special Education." In this workshop, I outline a dozen basic ethical tenets that must be understood and followed by those of us who toil in the vineyards of Special Education. These tenets involve confidentiality, collaboration and parental interactions. But the main emphasis of the workshop is the premise that "The professional's PRIMARY loyalty and commitment is to the CHILD."

That statement appears to be simple and basic, but it is—in point of fact—quite profound and significant.

Consider: Reflect upon the last time you wrote and Individualized Educational Plan for a student. What was your motivation? Who was your audience? What was your goal? Who were you writing it for? Did you design the document primarily to please the child's parents? To impress your supervisor? To meet your budget? To adhere to school policy? To adjust your workload?

If you answered "yes" to any of those questions, you have violated the primary ethical tenet of our profession: Your fundamental loyalty and commitment must be to the child. His needs should be foremost in your mind… and in your actions and decisions.

Now, if you are able to meet the child's need and simultaneously keep your superiors, colleagues, parents and budgets satisfied—TERRIFIC! But when faced with the choice of serving the child and /or pleasing your other constituencies… you must ALWAYS focus on the needs of the child. It is as simple as that.

But — as we all know — some things that are SIMPLE are not EASY.

In a perfect world, no teacher should be criticized for defending, protecting, or advocating for a child. But, the world is imperfect and teachers often find that they are asked to compromise students' services in order to maintain budgets and other real-world constraints. Teachers face this conundrum daily. Their allegiances are torn: How do I meet the needs of my students while also being a loyal, responsible, and responsive school employee?

So, what can the teacher do? For your consideration, I offer some basic suggestions for the teacher who attempts to juggle her commitment to kids along with the realities of today's school workplace.

The underlying theme of these suggestions is that schools are political. In order for your voice to be heard and your advocacy to be effective, you must play and win the 'political game' in the hallways, the teachers' lounge, and the administrative suite.

• Understand that the PRINCIPAL is the key player in this drama. You must have the loyalty, support, faith, and cooperation of your principal in order to advocate effectively.
• If you are a new teacher, find a mentor in the school. Find a successful, respected teacher in your building and become her protégé. She can provide you with invaluable counsel and advice.
• Ingratiate yourself to colleagues in all departments and at all levels. It does, indeed, take a village to raise a child and you will need all the teachers, secretaries, custodians, lunch ladies, and ancillary staff in order to assist you in your advocacy. Write thank you notes. Be polite. Show interest. Be kind. Don't complain. Share ideas and materials. Compliment. Support. Smile.
• Get out of the Special Education classroom… on a regular basis. Become an integral part of the school community.
• Get involved in staff development and in-service programs. Promote the idea of using these programs as vehicles to educate and sensitize your colleagues to the unique needs of students with learning disabilities.
• Promote the concept of Universal Design that holds that Special Education strategies are effective with all kids! If a teacher learns a few "special ed" techniques to use with the child with LD in her class, she can also use those strategies with her "best and brightest" student who may be unable to understand a specific concept. Remind your colleagues that Special Education is simply really good education.
• Organize and participate in Teacher Assistance Teams. This innovative, transdisciplinary approach consists of teachers and support staff who voluntarily gather on occasion in an informal setting. One of the team members presents a brief outline of a difficulty that she is having with a particular student. The group then brainstorms various suggestions and solutions. This strategy is often used in business or medical settings with great success.
• Be positive and upbeat about your Special Education students. If you constantly vent (loudly and publicly) about how difficult, complex, and challenging these kids can be… your colleagues will be less willing to work with them. Give your kids good, positive, constructive PR.
• Propose a study group or Great Books Club where you and your colleagues read and discuss an educational book. Brainstorm ways that the author's concepts can be used in your school.
• If you are frustrated or troubled by a colleague, take care NOT to communicate your feelings to parents or students. Nobody wins in that type of conflict. It is unprofessional and unfair to undermine a colleague's authority or reputation.
• Observe your colleagues in their classrooms and encourage them to visit your class, as well. Learn from one another.
• Volunteer for committees and assist with school functions and events. If you help the yearbook advisor design the layout, he will be more likely to assist "your" Special Education students who are assigned to his English class. Again… schools are political: You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours.
• Deal with conflict effectively. Recognize that—in the overwhelming majority of conflicts—no party is all wrong (or all right!). Try to see all sides of an issue. Walk in the other person's shoes. Adult conflicts tend to—eventually—impact on the child. When elephants fight, it's the grass that gets trampled.
• Avoid negativity and do not get involved in the negative teacher cliques that are common in schools. These destructive groups will often try to sabotage the administration's goals and plans. Be cordial with these folks, but don't allow them to sap your energy or enthusiasm.
• Don't get involved in gossip or destructive rumor-spreading. If you hear a troubling rumor, go directly to the principal to request clarification or confirmation.

Getting colleagues to assist

The key to getting your colleagues to provide the support and assistance that your students require can be summed up in one solitary word: PERSUASION!

You need to persuade your colleagues to invest the extra time, energy, and resources that the child requires. You must motivate and/or inspire them to make and maintain this commitment. Persuasion is far more effective than threatening, cajoling, or ordering.

In order to persuade a person to do something, you must look at the situation from that person's perspective. Walk in her shoes. This will make you better able to understand—and allay—her objections and concerns.

There are five basic steps that you should follow if you are trying to persuade someone to do something.

1. Show them the benefits of your idea.
   If possible, show how the child, the school, and the teacher herself will benefit.
2. Be prepared for contradictions and objections.
   Think of issues or concerns that your colleague might raise and prepare effective responses.
3. Be willing to be agreeable… even if you don't agree!
   Say, "I can see your point, but if we make a few compromises and adjustments, we can make this work."
4. Admit mistakes or miscalculations.
   Be willing to say, "Well, I hadn't thought about that…" This approach makes you seem more trustworthy and flexible.
5. Ask her to consider your recommendations and agree to continue the discussion at a later time.
   If you insist on an "immediate answer," she may feel intimidated or defensive.

It is also effective to use a persuasion method known as "Discovery". This strategy allows the other person to feel that your suggestion is actually her idea… therefore, she feels more ownership for the suggestion.

As an example, suppose a special educator (Mary) wants a history teacher (Max) to modify his testing of a student (Alex) by eliminating the essay section of his monthly exams. The conversation could go like this:

Mary: I appreciate your extra efforts with Alex. He really seems to enjoy your class and raved about the museum field trip.

Max: I know he likes history and he participates often in class, but his exam grades are really poor.

Mary: I wonder what we could do about that. I looked at his last exam and he did really well on the multiple choice items and the true/false. It was the essay section that pulled him down.

Max: Yeah. And that's too bad. I know that he knows the material because of his comments in class.

Mary: So I guess that he knows the stuff—and can explain it verbally—but just can't get it down on paper. That seems to be the problem…

Max: Wait a minute. What if I give him the essay section orally? I could meet him at lunch on the day of the test and he could explain his response to me. Would that work?

Mary: BRILLANT! Wish I had thought of that…

With this approach, Max is very committed to making the strategy work because he feels that it was his idea.

Manipulative? Sure. But effective.

Why do systems place obstacles in the way of student services?

In order to "fight the good fight," you must know the dragon that you are fighting. When advocating for students, you will confront common obstacles and objections from your colleagues. This does not necessarily reflect that they are insensitive or uncaring. Rather, their objections are often rooted in the reality that available time, energy and resources are limited. Every established organization has a tendency to resist change and defend the status quo… even if the status quo is not working!

I recall a teacher once entering my office and saying, "I have kept Joshua in for recess for 15 days in a row and he STILL isn't doing his math homework!" Well, let's circle the 'slow learner' in this picture… IT AIN'T WORKING!!!

In their brilliant and groundbreaking book, From Emotions to Advocacy, Pete and Pam Wright outline the most common objections confronted by those who advocate for special needs students:

1. Insistence on adhering to longstanding policies and procedures (We've always done it this way).
2. Resistance to making exceptions (If we do this for Allison, we will have to do it for everyone).
3. Resistance to setting a precedent (This will open the floodgates and all the parents will want these services).
4. Insufficient training (Our teachers don't know how to do that…).
5. Insufficient staff (We simply don't have enough people to do this…).
6. Unavailability of services (Our school doesn't do that… we never have!).
7. Commitment to a one-size-fits-all approach (All of our students with LD use this reading system).
8. Insufficient Funds (That would cost too much… we don't have the money).
9. Overwhelmed (We've never seen a kid with such complex needs before…).
10. Lack of understanding of legal aspects (Even if the law requires it, we can't do it…).

You should prepare effective, accurate, and appropriate responses to each of these objectives BEFORE you approach the powers-that-be with your proposals.

Although these objections are understandable from the other person's perspective, all of them are contrary to the letter and spirit of current Special Education law.

The Wrights cite an eye-opening 2001 study conducted by Galen Alessi. She reviewed 5,000 evaluations written by school psychologists in order to determine the factors the psychologists felt were contributing to the child's failure/frustration in school. She listed five factors (inappropriate curriculum, ineffective teaching, ineffective school management practices, inadequate family support, child-based problems/disabilities) that are widely accepted as reasons why kids fail in school.

Her review found that in 5,000 reports, the factors listed above were cited in the following manner as primary causes for the child's failure.

Inappropriate curriculum	0% times
Ineffective teaching practices	0% times
Ineffective school management	0% times
Parent/home factors	20% times
Child based problems	100% times

When in doubt, blame the victim!

Getting the support of your principal

As an advocate, your key and indispensable ally is the building principal. No matter how talented or devoted the faculty is, no matter how powerful or influential the parent body is, no matter how committed the School Board is… the child will NOT get responsive, effective services unless he has the support of the person in the principal's office.

Every time I have observed a school program that is exceptional in its responsiveness (or lack of responsiveness!) to the needs of struggling children, the primary influencing factor is the PRINCIPAL.

A landmark study of management styles of principals rendered the following profound results:

We found some BAD schools with a GOOD principal… but we found no GOOD schools with a BAD principal

However, research indicates that many principals hold very negative feelings about Special Education and may view these students as a "drain" on a system that is already strained to the breaking point.

In order to effectively advocate for children with special needs, and in order to be a "shepherd of change" in the school, the principal must understand and embrace ten basic concepts.

1. Change is a process, not an event.
2. Change requires intense preparation.
3. In order for organizations to change, individuals must change.
4. Change generally occurs from the top down.
5. Mandates do not make change work; only a sound, supportive process makes change effective.
6. Change will be effective only if accompanied by support.
7. Under legislative guidelines, students are entitled to services. You are not "doing the family a favor" by creating and implementing responsive programs. You are just doing your job.
8. Each child is an individual and must be viewed as such. There is no one, solitary program or approach that works effectively with all kids… even if they have the same diagnosis or label. If the child can't learn the way we teach, we need to teach the way he learns.
9. Special Education is not a place or a program. Rather, it is a flexible set of services and supports.
10. Effective Special Education services do not exist in a vacuum. Neither do they exist detached from the general program. They must be an integral and important part of the school-wide culture.

The key to dealing effectively with your principal or supervisor is to view situations and issues from the principal's perspective. I learned two important life lessons from two unlikely sources: a former boss and a U.S. President.

When I was appointed headmaster at a residential school on Cape Cod, I had a meeting with the chairman of the school's board. He provided me with some significant and valuable advice at our initial meeting, "Run this school in the way you think is best. I will not interfere. But don't ever let me be surprised."

Always keep your superiors informed. Tell him about any problems that may be "bubbling." Don't wait until small problems grow into a crisis. If a child or a parent is having difficulty, mention it to the principal. In this way, she won't feel blindsided if the problem does become critical.

The second lesson came from Ronald Reagan. Prior to his presidency, Reagan honed his daily management skills as Governor of California and he knew how to run and manage a complex organization. He continually reminded his staff, "Don't bring me problems, bring me solutions."

When an aide entered the Oval Office, he would not merely announce a problem or a challenge that required the President's attention but, rather, the aide would verbally outline the problem and offer three of four viable solutions for the President's consideration:

Mr. President, we don't have sufficient Congressional votes to pass House Bill #94-266. Would could shelve the bill and re-introduce it next session, OR we could remove the objectionable amendments and, thereby, gain some votes, OR we could add several of the important provisions of the bill to another piece of legislation.

What course of action would you suggest?

This approach will greatly enhance your effectiveness with your principal. All day long, people enter he office and present her with problems, challenges, difficulties, conundrums, and crises. What a refreshing change to have someone offer solutions!

Dr. Harding, several of the parents of my Special Education students are upset that the kids' grades in their subject areas are being negatively impacted by their inability to complete their homework. The parents made some pretty compelling arguments that the assignments are overly difficult and that the kids' after-school therapy and tutoring commitments prevent them from getting the homework done.

Some of the parents told me, frankly, that they are unable to assist the kids with the homework because of their own language difficulties. A few of them are very upset and indicated that they might bring the issue to the district office.

I have a few solutions. First, we could assign one of our aides to work with the kids after lunch everyday so they could get assistance with the more difficult assignments. Or we could meet with the content area teachers and discuss modifying the assignments. Or we could establish a policy where these kids get two separate report cards: one for classwork performance and one for the homework performance.

Which solution do you think is best?

This approach is effective for two reasons: 1) It clearly demonstrates that your solutions will benefit the principal because it prevents a potential conflict with the district office, and 2) It gives her input into the decision so she is more likely to be committed to its success.

Some other "principal pleasing tips"

• Share good news with your principal occasionally. Don't go to her office ONLY when you have a problem or a request, soon she will dread seeing you. Stop by to share good news about your students or colleagues.
• Don't overuse the principal for discipline problems. Try to handle most disruptive behavior on your own. If you don't, you begin to develop a reputation among your students that you have a very limited repertoire for dealing with disruptive behavior, and they will continually push you to the edge with ever escalating behavior difficulties: You can do anything you want in Mr. Malzone's class, but don't push him too far or he'll send you to the principal.
• You will impress your principal—and make him your ally—if you "play by the rules." Be punctual. Submit paperwork on time. Stick to the schedule. Be positive. Volunteer.
• A hint: Most principals work during the summer months. Visit the school and spend some time with her. Ask if you can help in any way. The summer is a great opportunity to build and enhance your relationship with her.

Conclusion

In summary, if you wish to be an effective advocate for your students, remember the eleven P's that will enable you to enhance your cooperation and collaboration with your colleagues.

• Principal:

Gain the support of your school's leader.

• Problem Solver:

Be viewed by your colleagues as a person who solves problems, rather than causes them.

• Planning:

Have specific, observable, understandable goals for each student.

• Practical:

Provide your colleagues with suggestions and solutions that are pragmatic and workable. Consider their time and energy constraints.

• Participate:

Be an active, contributing member of the school community.

• Passion:

Share your passion with your colleagues.

• Positive:

Try to remain positive when dealing with colleagues.

• Potential:

Be ever mindful of the potential of your students.

• "Polish the Apple":

Give compliments and praise willingly and often.

• Prepare:

Always have evidence and data to support your suggestions.

• Pray:

It couldn't hurt… and it just might help.

But the most important P is Protect. It is your sacred duty to protect all students from harm, humiliation, or hurt. You simply cannot stand by and watch when a student suffers.

As Dante reminds us:

"The hottest places in Hell are reserved for good people who — in times of moral crisis — choose to do nothing."

REFLECTION 1

Title: Fighting the Good Fight: How to Advocate for Your Students without Losing Your Job (Lavoie, R. 2008)

Teacher is known to have a long patience and deep love and care for the learners. But not all the teachers have those kind of personalities. It is naturally given for every school in over the world that teachers have a struggle dealing with their colleagues if they are a beginner. Having a different ideas and suggestions are the main root of arguments and misunderstanding. One thing is surely important, as a teacher it is necessary to build harmonious relationship with other school staffs for you to have a better image for them. One of the factor why some teachers losing their job was because of the advocates they have for their students.

               Moreover, the article is about having good fight with colleagues while supporting the students’ right and conditions for them not to lose their job. Mr. Rick Lavoie, the author of the article introduced a seminar. It is entitled “Other People’s Kids: The Ethics of Special Education” the main emphasis of the workshop is   “professionals’ primary loyalty and commitment is to the child” almost of the teachers were against to students’ concern. But the author reminds the teachers that school are political, there is a good school but bad principal then there is a bad school but have a good principal. School is just like a political game, if you want to won the game then do the best you can to come up with their standards. It is important to meet the child’s needs but consider the reactions of your colleagues in doing some actions just to protect the learners. To become a better teacher, have a closure to successful teachers in able to have a Councel and advice to develop and improve your styles in teaching and building relationship with other people especially to the principal. To become effective advocate for the students just remember the eleven P’s. It enables to enhance cooperation and collaboration with other colleagues. Such as Principal, (support school’s leader) problem solver, (be a person who solves problems rather than causes them) planning, (have specific goal for the students) practical, (consider their time and energy constraints) participate, (be an active member of the school community) passion, (share it to your colleagues) positive, potential, polish the apple (give praise willingly and often) prepare, (always have data to support suggestions), and the last p is pray.

                 Having a passion to your chosen profession is the best way to appreciate all the traits and principles in the world of teaching. Having a balance on the situation is not an easy task, it is between the students’ and co-teachers’ relationship. It depends on the way of the beholder, it’s either to fight in a good way or to fight with dignity and no fear in losing their job. Set goal for the students and learn to build a better relationship with your colleagues, learn how to be humble enough in order not to dislike your attitude and personality. It is hard for very teacher to work with uncomfortable surroundings. In able to become effective advocate, learn to be an active participator of the school community and be prepared enough to have data and information to support your ideas and suggestions. As an advocate, discard all the negative thoughts. Let your mind focus on positive sides and have fun and dedication with your job.

Avoiding a Rush to Judgment: Teacher Evaluation and Teacher Quality

By: Thomas Toch, Robert Rothman

Comprehensive methods of evaluating teachers that avoid the typical "drive-by" evaluations can promote improvements in teaching.

The troubled state of teacher evaluation is a glaring and largely neglected problem in public education, one with consequences that extend far beyond the current debate over performance pay. Because teacher evaluations are at the center of the educational enterprise — the quality of teaching in the nation's classrooms — they are a potentially powerful lever of teacher and school improvement. But that potential is being squandered throughout public education, an enterprise that spends $400 billion annually on salaries and benefits.

The task of building better evaluation systems is as difficult as it is important. Many hurdles stand in the way of rating teachers fairly on the basis of their students' achievement, the solution favored by many education experts today. And it's increasingly clear that it's not enough merely to create moredefensible systems for rewarding or removing teachers. Teacher evaluations pay much larger dividends when they also play a role in improving teaching.

This article explores the causes and consequences of the crisis in teacher evaluation. And it examines a number of national, state, and local evaluation systems that point to a way out of the evaluation morass. Together, they demonstrate that it's possible to evaluate teachers in much more productive ways than most public schools do today.

Drive-bys

It's hard to expect people to make a task a priority when the system they are working in signals that the task is unimportant. That's the case with teacher evaluation.

Public education defines teacher quality largely in terms of the credentials that teachers have earned, rather than on the basis of the quality of the work they do in their classrooms or the results their students achieve.

It's not surprising, then, that measuring how well teachers teach is a low priority in many states. The nonprofit National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) reports that, despite many calls for performance pay coming from state capitals, only fourteen states require school systems to evaluate their public school teachers at least once a year, while some are much more lax than that. Tennessee, for example, requires evaluations of tenured teachers only twice a decade (NCTQ 2007a).

An NCTQ analysis of the teacher contracts in the nation's fifty largest districts (which enroll 17 percent of the nation's students) suggest that not much teacher evaluation is enshrined in local regulations, either. Teachers union contracts dictate the professional requirements for teachers in most school districts. But the NCTQ study found that only two-thirds of them require teachers to be evaluated at least once a year and a quarter of them require evaluations only every three years (NCTQ 2007b).

The evaluations themselves are typically of little value — a single, fleeting classroom visit by a principal or other building administrator untrained in evaluation wielding a checklist of classroom conditions and teacher behaviors that often don't even focus directly on the quality of teacher instruction. "It's typically a couple of dozen items on a list: 'Is presentably dressed,' 'Starts on time,' 'Room is safe,' 'The lesson occupies students,'" says Michigan State University professor Mary Kennedy, author of Inside Teaching: How Classroom Life Undermines Reform, who has studied teacher evaluation extensively. "In most instances, it's nothing more than marking 'satisfactory' or 'unsatisfactory.'"

It's easy for teachers to earn high marks under these capricious rating systems, often called "drive-bys," regardless of whether their students learn. Raymond Pecheone, co-director of the School Redesign Network at Stanford University and an expert on teacher evaluation, suggests by way of example that a teacher might get a "satisfactory" check under "using visuals" by hanging up a mobile of the planets in the Earth's solar system, even though students could walk out of the class with no knowledge of the sun's role in the solar system or other key concepts. These simplistic evaluation systems also fail to be remotely sensitive to the challenges of teaching different subjects and different grade levels, adds Pecheone.

Unsurprisingly, the results of such evaluations are often dubious. Donald Medley of the University of Virginia and Homer Coker of Georgia State University reported in a comprehensive 1987 study, "The Accuracy of Principals' Judgments of Teacher Performance," that the research up to that point found the relationship between the average principal's ratings of teacher performance and achievement by the teachers' students to be "near zero."

Principals fared better in a recent study by Brian Jacob of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and Lars Lefgren of Brigham Young University (2005) that compared teacher ratings to student gains on standardized tests. Principals were able to identify with some accuracy their best and worst teachers — the top 10 or so percent and the bottom 10 or so percent — when asked to rate their teachers' ability to raise math and reading scores.

Principals use evaluations to help teachers improve their performance as rarely as they give unsatisfactory ratings. They frequently don't even bother to discuss the results of their evaluations with teachers.

But principals don't put even those minimal talents to use in most public school systems. A recent study of the Chicago school system by the nonprofit New Teacher Project (2007), for example, found that 87 percent of the city's 600 schools did not issue a single "unsatisfactory" teacher rating between 2003 and 2006. Among that group of schools were sixty-nine that the city declared to be failing educationally. Of all the teacher evaluations conducted during those years, only 0.3 percent produced "unsatisfactory" ratings, while 93 percent of the city's 25,000 teachers received top ratings of "excellent" or "superior."

And principals use evaluations to help teachers improve their performance as rarely as they give unsatisfactory ratings. They frequently don't even bother to discuss the results of their evaluations with teachers. "Principals are falling prey to fulfilling the letter of the law," says Dick Flannery, director of professional development for the National Association of Secondary School Principals, a principals' membership organization. "They are missing the opportunity to use the process as a tool to improve instruction and student achievement."

New models

A small number of local, state, and national initiatives have sought a different solution to drive-by evaluations — comprehensive evaluation systems that measure teachers' instruction in ways that promote improvement in teaching.

The Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) is a good example. Launched by the Milken Family Foundation in 1999 and now operated by the nonprofit, California-based National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, TAP is a comprehensive program to strengthen teaching through intensive instructional evaluations, coaching, career ladders, and performance- based compensation. It's now in 180 schools with 5,000 teachers and 60,000 students in five states and the District of Columbia.

Standards for Teaching

TAP measures teaching against standards in three major categories — designing and planning instruction, the learning environment, and instruction — and nineteen subgroups targeting things like how well lessons are choreographed, the frequency and quality of classroom questions, and ensuring that students are taught challenging skills like drawing conclusions.

Schools using TAP evaluate their teachers using a rubric that rates performance as "unsatisfactory," "proficient," or "exemplary." Standards and rubrics such as TAP's "create a common language about teaching" for educators, says Katie Gillespie, a fifth-grade teacher at DC Preparatory Academy, a District of Columbia charter school in its third year of using TAP. "That's crucial," says Gillespie.

Connecticut's Beginning Educator Support and Training Program (BEST), the nation's first — and, until recently, only — statewide evaluation system, draws heavily on the state's teachers in drafting standards.

The Connecticut Department of Education established BEST in 1989 to strengthen its teaching force by supplying new teachers with mentors and training and then requiring them in their second year to submit a portfolio chronicling a unit of instruction. The unit needs to involve at least five hours worth of teaching, to capture how teachers develop students' understanding of a topic over time, something "drive-by" evaluations can't and don't do.

State-trained scorers evaluate the portfolios from four perspectives — instructional design, instructional implementation, assessment of learning, and teachers' ability to analyze teaching and learning — using four standards: conditional, competent, proficient, and advanced. The state established committees of top Connecticut teachers to draft the standards, which were circulated to hundreds of teachers, administrators, and higher-education faculty members for comment.

The nonprofit National Board for Professional Teaching Standards also has sponsored a large-scale system of teacher evaluations. It has conferred advanced certification in sixteen subjects on some 63,000 teachers nationwide since its inception in 1987, using a two-part evaluation: candidates submit a Connecticut-like portfolio and complete a series of half-hour online essays.

Teams of teachers from around the country draft standards in each certification area, and hundreds of teachers, administrators, and state and federal officials comment before the standards are finalized. The Educational Testing Service (ETS) manages the evaluation system under a contract with the National Board.

Multiple Measures

While traditional evaluations tend to be one-dimensional, relying exclusively on a single observation of a teacher in a classroom, the comprehensive models capture a much richer picture of a teacher's performance.

Comprehensive models capture a much richer picture of a teacher's performance. The National Board portfolios include lesson plans, instructional materials, student work, two twenty-minute videos of the candidate working with students in classrooms, teachers' written reflections on the two taped lessons, and evidence of work with parents and peers.

The National Board portfolios, for example, include lesson plans, instructional materials, student work, two twenty-minute videos of the candidate working with students in classrooms, teachers' written reflections on the two taped lessons, and evidence of work with parents and peers. That's on top of the six online exercises that National Board candidates take at one of 400 evaluation centers around the country to demonstrate expertise in the subjects they teach.

In total, National Board candidates spend between 200 and 400 hours demonstrating their proficiency in five areas: commitment to students' learning, knowledge of subject and of how to teach it, monitoring of student learning, ability to think systematically and strategically about instruction, and professional growth.

An advantage of portfolios is that, unlike standardized-test scores, they can be used to evaluate teachers in nearly every discipline. National Board certification is open to some 95 percent of elementary and secondary teachers.

Teamwork

Another way to counter the limited, subjective nature of many conventional evaluations is to subject teachers to multiple evaluations by multiple evaluators.

In schools using TAP, teachers are evaluated at least three times a year against TAP's teaching standards by teams of "master" and "mentor" teachers that TAP trains to use the organization's evaluation rubrics (master teachers are more senior and do less teaching than mentors). Schools combine the scores from the different evaluations and evaluators into an annual performance rating.

TAP evaluators must demonstrate an ability to rate teachers at TAP's three performance levels before TAP lets them do "live" teacher evaluations. Then TAP requires schools using the program to enter every evaluation into a TAP-run online Performance Appraisal Management System that produces charts and graphs of evaluation results, which are used to compare a school's evaluation scores to TAP evaluation trends nationally. And every year TAP ships videotaped lessons to evaluators that they must score accurately using TAP's performance levels as a prerequisite for continuing as TAP evaluators.

In Connecticut, every BEST portfolio is scored using the program's standards by three state-trained teacher-evaluators who teach the same subject as the candidate. Failing portfolios are rescored by a fourth evaluator. As in the TAP program, scorers must complete nearly a week's worth of training and demonstrate an ability to score portfolios accurately before participating in the program.

Not surprisingly, using evaluators with backgrounds in candidates' subject and grade levels, as TAP and BEST do, strengthens the quality of evaluations. "Good instruction doesn't look the same in chemistry as in elementary reading," says Mike Gass, executive director of secondary education in Eagle County, Colorado, where the district's fifteen schools use TAP.

Under traditional evaluations — done as they are by principals or assistant principals — it's rarely possible to use evaluators with backgrounds in the candidate's teaching area, especially at the middle and high school levels, where teachers typically teach only one subject. Many evaluations, as a result, focus on how teachers teach, at the expense of what they teach. Evaluators, writes Michigan State's Kennedy, "are rarely asked to evaluate the accuracy, importance, coherence, or relevance of the content that is actually taught or the clarity with which it is taught" (Kennedy 2007).

Subject-area and grade-level specialists, scoring rubrics, evaluator training, and recertification requirements like TAP's increase the "inter-rater reliability" of evaluations. They produce ratings that are more consistent from evaluator to evaluator and that teachers are more likely to trust.

Places to Grow

Unlike traditional teacher evaluations, these systems are part of programs to improve teacher performance, not merely weed out bad apples. They are drive-in rather than drive-by evaluations. At a time when research is increasingly pointing to working conditions as being more important than higher pay in keeping good teachers in the classroom, the teachers in the comprehensive evaluations programs say that the combination of extensive evaluations and coaching that they receive helps make their working conditions more professional, and thus more attractive.

At DC Preparatory Academy, which serves 275 middle school students in northeastern Washington, D.C., using evaluations to strengthen teaching is part of the fabric of the school. The school opened in 2003 and brought on TAP in 2005. And in the TAP model, a key role of evaluations by master and mentor teachers is identifying the teachers' weaknesses that mentors will work on with teachers during the six weeks between evaluations.

"I felt I was a really good teacher before I got here," says Gillespie, in her second year at DC Prep after spending four years teaching in nearby Fairfax County, Virginia. "I got really high marks on my evaluations [in Fairfax]. But holy moly, I've learned under TAP that I've got a lot of places to grow." Some studies have suggested that teachers' performance plateaus after several years in the classroom. But few teachers in public education get the sort of sophisticated coaching that Gillespie receives under TAP; if more did, perhaps studies would reveal that their performance continued to improve.

"It makes a difference when people are constantly there to help you," adds Gillespie's colleague, seventh-grade English teacher Geoff Pecover. "The expectations are high. My principal last year in DCPS [the District of Columbia Public Schools, where Pecover taught for three years] showed up to evaluate my class with the evaluation form already filled out, and the post-conference was a waste of time. You didn't feel like you were learning anything."

To further strengthen the relationship between evaluation and instruction, TAP requires schools to have weekly, hour-long "cluster" meetings where master/mentor teachers work with teams of teachers of a particular subject or grade level.

Cost factors — time and money

Not surprisingly, comprehensive classroom evaluation systems are more time-consuming and more expensive than once-a-year principal evaluations or evaluations based only on student test scores.

In schools with complex models like TAP's, the administrative challenges of training and retraining evaluators, conducting classroom visits, and tying the evaluation system to teacher professional development activities are daunting. "We didn't realize how demanding it was," says Natalie Butler, DC Prep's principal. "You just have to make the investment."

TAP and other comprehensive evaluation models also are a lot more demanding on teachers under evaluation. The upward of 400 hours some candidates for National Board certification spend in that process suggests as much, and the demands are even greater on teachers facing multiple evaluations and follow-up work under programs like TAP. "The typical teacher evaluation process puts teachers in a passive role," says Catherine Fiske Natale, a Connecticut official with the state's BEST program. "This is different." But it is not unprecedented, at least by international standards. Researchers Shujie Liu of the University of Southern Mississippi and Charles Teddlie of Louisiana State University (2005) report in a study of Chinese teacher evaluation practices that Chinese teachers are expected to observe the classes of other teachers as many as fifteen times a semester and write a 1,500-word essay every semester on some aspect of their teaching experience.

At $1,000 per teacher, it would cost $3 billion a year to evaluate the nation's three million teachers using a Connecticut — or National Board — like portfolio or TAP's multiple evaluations — multiple evaluators model. By way of contrast, public education's price tag has surpassed $500 billion a year, including some $14 billion (about $240 per student) for teachers to take "professional development" courses and workshops that teachers themselves say don't improve their teaching in many instances.

Yet many school systems have been reluctant to use these resources on comprehensive evaluation systems such as TAP's. "It is really difficult to get them to use Title II monies," says Kristan Van Hook, TAP's senior vice president for public policy and development, referring to the section of NCLB that funnels some $3 billion in teacherimprovement grants to the nation's school systems. "They are very reluctant to change how they spend that money. It's tied up in things like salaries for reading tutors and class-size reduction."

Sending a message

Comprehensive evaluations — with standards and scoring rubrics and multiple classroom observations by multiple evaluators and a role for student work and teacher reflections — are valuable regardless of the degree to which they predict student achievement, and regardless of whether they're used to weed out a few bad teachers or a lot of them. They contribute much more to the improvement of teaching than today's drive-by evaluations or test scores alone. And they contribute to a much more professional atmosphere in schools.

Comprehensive evaluations are valuable regardless of the degree to which they predict student achievement. They contribute much more to the improvement of teaching than today's drive-by evaluations.

As a result, they make public school teaching more attractive to the sort of talent that the occupation has struggled to recruit and retain. Capable people want to work in environments where they sense they matter, and using evaluation systems as engines of professional improvement signals that teaching is such an enterprise. Comprehensive evaluation systems send a message that teachers are professionals doing important work.

But superficial principal drivebys will continue to pervade public education — and teacher evaluation's potential as a lever of teacher and school improvement will continue to be squandered — if school systems and teachers unions lack incentives to do things differently.

Ultimately, the single salary schedule may be the most stubborn barrier to better teacher evaluations. As Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality and memberdesignate of the Maryland State Board of Education, says: "If there are no consequences for rating a teacher at the top, the middle, or the bottom, if everyone is getting paid the same, then why would a principal spend a lot of time doing a careful evaluation? I wouldn't bother." Many teachers unions, of course, argue that the failure of principals to take evaluations seriously requires a single salary schedule.

There's no simple solution to this Catch-22. But TAP, for one, has addressed it head-on by combining comprehensive evaluations that teachers trust with performance pay. The program's comprehensive classroom evaluations legitimize performance pay in teachers' minds, and its performancepay component gives teachers and administrators alike a compelling reason to take evaluations seriously. Pay and evaluations become mutually reinforcing, rather than mutually exclusive.

References

Toch, T. and Rothman, R. (2008). Avoiding a Rush to Judgment: Teacher Evaluation and Teacher Quality. Voices in Urban Education, No. 20, Summer 2008.

 REFLECTION 2

Title: Avoiding a Rush to Judgment: Teacher Evaluation and Teacher Quality

References: Toch, T. and Rothman. R (2008). Avoiding a Rush to Judgment: Teacher Evaluation and Teacher Quality. Voices in Urban Education, No, 20, summer 2008

Nowadays, it is required and important to evaluate teachers’ performance. Unlike on the traditional teaching, there is no big deal on having a high position in education aspects. What important then is they have a constant salary very month. On our present time, having a master’s degree is an edge to have higher salary than the ordinary teacher. The more and high achievement you have, the higher the possibility to have an increase to your financial every now and then. On the other hand, not all teachers were said to be qualified on having a better quality. Bu then again, there are some ways to evaluation the teacher in a good way and to develop their skills and talents to become more qualified in the concept of teaching.

The article recognizes how teachers can develop and improve their teaching skills and strategies. It is necessary to explore the causes and consequences of the crisis in teacher evaluation. Rewarding and removing teachers is about credentials earned rather than on performance inside the classroom. The author of this article explains how the teachers may deserve a reward. Students’ achievements were based on the performance of teacher inside the classroom. The article is about how professional persons solve the problem in evaluating the teachers, different solution to dive-by evaluations-comprehensive evaluation systems that measure teachers’ instruction in ways that promote improvement in teaching. One of the example is TAP – Teacher Advancement Program, they apply this kind of evaluation. Where in, they focus on three major categories- designing and planning instruction, learning environment and instruction. The principal or representative of higher administrator was the one who will observe the teacher while having a class discussion. The rubric rates were unsatisfactory, proficient and exemplary.

As a result, I realized how these professionals made public schools very attractive to the mob. Even the government will suffer to increasing the salary of public teachers it is very worthy to have a particular changes in education standards. Teaching and learning is a long time process, it doesn’t have an end. As we goes by, we will learn something new. By criticizing things, we found effective and efficient solution on the said problem. Humans are truly amazing for having an excellent level of intelligence. Therefore, don’t stop on discovering new things. There are lot of reasons why we need to improve the education in every country.

Helping Children Develop
Self Discipline

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One of the primary tasks of early childhood is to develop self discipline. Parents often find themselves correcting their children for interrupting, being wild, not following instructions or for not controlling their hands or mouths. These all require self discipline or self-control. Young children are by nature impulsive. Some children have ADHD or other biological factors which increase impulsiveness. Part of the solution for impulse control is to learn self discipline. A child armed with self discipline has a tremendous asset for addressing life’s challenges. So many relational and personal problems can be avoided or controlled when one has self-control. Here are some suggestions for teaching it to children.

1. Teach children to come when they are called. When a parent calls a child, that child shouldn’t yell, “What?” from across the house, parking lot or playground. Children can learn to come to the parent, within a few feet, in order to have a dialog with the parent. This helps children learn that self-control sometimes means that we must give up what we would like to be doing in order to do something else.

2. Teach children to respond positively to correction. Most children don’t like to be corrected and respond negatively in either aggressive (anger) or passive (bad attitude) ways. This is unacceptable and becomes an excellent opportunity to teach self discipline. One of the facts of life is that people often must follow directions which may not be their preference. Teach children to respond with a good attitude as well as right behavior. This requires self-control and helps children learn to control their impulses. A good response to correction is sometimes difficult to learn but work in this area will help a child develop a skill which will help them forever.

3. A number of social skills require self-control. Praise children when they demonstrate this quality and point out areas they need to work on. Listening, knowing when and how to interrupt, anger control, reporting back after completing a task all require self discipline.

4. Encourage children to take on activities which build self discipline. They may include sports, music lessons, a paper route, the responsibility of caring for a neighbor’s pet, memorization of scripture, a clean room, or a host of other activities.

5. When a child receives a reward like payment for a job accomplished or even a star on a chart or special treat, talk about self discipline. External rewards give a great opportunity to talk about internal rewards. The real benefit to a paper route is not the money, it’s the building of self discipline. “You are pretty determined and responsible to get up every morning.” “I know you would have rather played the game but I like the way you took time to walk the dog. That shows self discipline.”

6. Use bed times to teach self discipline. Some children have a hard time going to bed without creating a battle and this becomes a great opportunity to teach self discipline to children. After all, it requires a lot of self-control for a child to stay quietly in bed while parents are still awake. Set a bedtime, develop a routine which covers all the necessary bedtime tasks and work at getting your child to stay in bed without Mom or Dad falling asleep in the room. This requires work on the part of the parent but will pay off tremendous dividends in the end.

7. Morning routines, chores, and family schedules become opportunities for children to learn responsibility and self discipline. Responsibility is “doing the right thing even when no one is watching.” The rewards for being responsible are called privileges. The child who is responsible to get ready and be at breakfast by 7:30 a.m. is allowed the privilege of staying up until their 8:00 p.m. bedtime. Being able to choose one’s clothes is the privilege for getting dressed before the deadline. Simple benefits of life are seen as privileges associated with basic responsibility.

Some parents try to give their children an easier life than they had or they try to make their children feel good at the expense of good character. Unfortunately, this often translates into more freedom and less self-control. A wise parent will use childhood to prepare a child for success as an adult. Self discipline is one of the most important character qualities a child can develop. Ironically, spoiled children are not happy; self disciplined children often are!

REFLECTION 3

How to Discipline Children and Help Them Develop Self-Control

The foundations for having a good manner was based on their early years. It is about between nature and nurture. In terms of nature, parents must be responsible enough to prepare their way of approaches on their children in order to discipline them. As the child develops independence and responsibility, the aspect of nurture will entered. In a way that, their actions were based on what they saw on their surroundings. They adapt it, but it depends on the person if she/he will going to make an observation between good and bad actions. They become more responsible to their behavior.

The article said that during adolescence, the individuals become responsible for their own behavior. Establishing self-control is a process which develops slowly, and the ultimate goal of discipline is to help children build their own self-control, not to have them merely obey adult commands based what I read from the article. Also, “children raised by authoritarian/strict parents tended to be timid and withdrawn, less intellectually curious and dependent on the voice of authority. Children raised by permissive parents tended to be immature, reluctant to accept responsibility or to show independence” There are some helpful discipline techniques such as use language to help solve problems, ignoring, rewards, natural consequences, no more no – keep it positive, don't dictate: negotiate, pick your battles, prevention, dealing with unacceptable behavior , and when to seek help.

Every individual have a good personality or behavior. Elders are more responsible enough to discipline the children. They must a good model for them, don’t teach anything to them if you alone don’t have the guts to do so. We can’t give what we don’t have. Big changes happened when you start from yourself first, then let the children realized the impact of having a self-discipline. Life is not about how smart the person is, but how people behave appropriately according to what is acceptable for each and every one. Be positive and don’t look unto negative sides of life.