Teacher Rating and Administration Rating Skills Are Flawed

In Georgia we have TKES and LKES to rate teacher performance.  The systems' effectiveness are currently a point of discussion in the state legislature.  These two systems are supposed to be improvements to previous systems and in some ways they are.  Instead of being based on one time observations, the new system consists of multiple walk throughs and at least two formative evaluations.  Teachers and leaders can also submit items to document their performance on the ten standards that are rated.  The new system is time consuming on administrators, but it forces administrators into classrooms which I think is a good thing.  There is also the mandate that if you rate a teacher a 2 or below in a standard then you have to provide a comment to the teacher.  This is also a good thing because it makes administrators give needed feedback to struggling teachers.  I make sure I tell my teachers how seriously I take these ratings, as one day it maybe tied to their pay.  I have sat looking at an observation rating and toggled between a two and three for thirty minutes, but not every administrator is as conscientious or reflective in the process.  Hence, the biggest flaw of the entire system-REFLECTION!

The system is flawed in that it thinks that all teachers and administrators are reflective educators.  Totally ignoring the fact that the current testing demands and paperwork demands on educators do not provide time for teachers to have a restroom break, never mind the time to reflect on educating the masses.  In a perfect world, we hope that teachers and administrators work together to educate the masses, hold hands and sing "We Are the World", but we work in the real world of public education and that does not happen.   The system is also flawed in that it takes parents, students and in the case of administrators, non certified employees opinions on administrator performance and assumes that these raters will be reflective in their ratings. 

While I applaud the state of Georgia for giving students a voice in the quality of the teachers instructing them, many have argued that students are not the most reflective people either!
If you have ever worked in a group situation, you know that not everyone responds well to constructive criticism.  The same is true in regards to the TKES and LKES survey ratings.  If a teacher is demanding, students tend to rate them not as well as teachers who are less demanding.  Hey, its easier to give good marks to Suzy Sunshine than Task Master Tina.  In my personal experience as a teacher and as a student, the Suzy Sunshine teacher does not get the performance that Task Master Tina can get.  Intellectual development can be hard and students are like grown ups in that its hard to admit that your not awesome.  Sit a kid down to rate a demanding teacher using a bunch of questions... well I don't know if that's helping a teacher be reflective of teaching practices, or just giving them a way to know if kids like them. 

The same is true for the administrators' rating scales.  There are at least 30 questions and my staff had to rank three of us.  After survey three I'm not sure how reflective or engaged an educator is when they have a million other things to do!  I know when I was ranking administrators as a teacher I would be very serious, but I watched several of my colleagues just click through things.  My own ratings from my teachers are decent, but there was one teacher that ranked me poorly. It's not hard to figure out which teacher it was.  We are encouraged to not try to figure out people who would rate us badly, but really? That struggling or unprofessional teacher that you wished would leave on their own, or that teacher that is just caustic to everything around them, can wreak havoc on an administrator's scale.

What Assistant Principals Do On Vacation

A AP created chorus outfit!

I'm a fairly new AP, so I doubt I've mastered a whole lot in administration.  Most days I have to remind myself that I am the person in charge.  I'm not sure of what authority I do have and what authority I don't have.  I know that I watch the other AP's leave the school for break with nothing in their hands, the intention of having a school free week off with their respective families.  I'm afraid we can add that to one more thing the new AP has not mastered because, I took home nine infinity scarfs and nine floor length skirts to make for our chorus girls.  When you work in a small school, you get tasked with lots of jobs but this one I volunteered for.

It started pretty innocently when I was called down to the chorus room, yet again, to inspect the ladies outfits before they left for a concert.  See, the chorus program was my idea and our poor music teacher was tasked with making a program from nothing!  NO middle school feeder program, NO budget, NO students (okay I sent him one, my daughter but I'm not sure that really counts).  We started with an announcement at the beginning of the year for anyone that was interested in chorus to sign up.  No music talent required.  If we could make it work in your schedule, we did.  Nine ladies started this year's chorus program.  One could read music, and the rest are learning as they go.  There are some great voices in there and they are learning to sing together.  In fact, they are learning so quickly that people are asking them to come and preform.  Hence, my call down to the chorus room to check on outfits before performances.

Actual outfit (minus sparkle shirt)!

The standard chorus attire when you don't have gowns is black and white.  Male chorus teacher, all female chorus don't always like to have attire discussions.  Newsflash, neither does the female assistant principal, but that's what I get paid to do. How hard is it for nine girls to wear black pants and a white top?  More difficult than you would think.  ENTER the Christmas Performance.  There was no way that I was doing a repeat of "your shirt is too tight and too low!" SO, I volunteered to make scarfs and skirts for the girls.  This happens when your chorus director tells the girls that they will be in formal attire.  If we couldn't master black pants and white tops, there was no way I was taking a chance on what teen girls would wear for formal wear.

I have spent my Thanksgiving break making skirts and infinity scarfs.  I even found white shirts with some sparkles for the girls.  I'm even making special name tags for the hangers said chorus outfits are on.  I hope the girls like them and that the chorus teacher is pleased.  I know the AP will be happy not to have the "appropriate dress" conversation before the Christmas Chorus performance!

To Ride or Not to Ride Part 1

Before last year, I was a special education teacher for 16 years.  That's nine years than the national average.  My mother has been teaching special education for the last 30 years.  She REALLY has passed the national average.  Most special education teachers leave teaching special education within the first 5 years of teaching.  I know this because I sometimes get contacted by graduate students writing thier thesis on special education teacher turn over who tell me teachers with as much tenure as I had were not the norm. 

What is shocking is the way teachers come to ride the short bus for their educational careers.  I have sat in too many interviews with other administrators for special education positions where a lack of understanding and a need to fill some other roll in the building takes precedent over a candidates knowledge of educating students with disabilities.  So, I've created a list of where we administrators usually go wrong in hiring special education teachers (or opening the door to the short bus). Here are the first three!

1. I need a coach! Yes you might need a coach, and you probably have a special education position open, but is your coach there for the athletics first and the education second? Can your coach break down a task as well as he can break down the Wildcat formation for the football team?  I have trained numerous coaches (mostly former PE  and or social studies teachers) to be excellent special education teachers.  How?  I take their knowledge of dissecting offenses and defenses and show them how to apply it to student behavior and curriculum issues.  I give them examples of good IEP's and then we practice before they ever sit down to run an IEP meeting by themselves!  If you don't have someone on your staff that can do this for a coach, you do the students and the professional a disservice letting them ride of the short bus until a better opportunity comes along, or a regular education position opens up!

2. They are politically connected!  Hey, I understand that it's good to have someone on your side when you go into a board meeting, or deal with the public, really I do.  The flip side of that is if you want someone to see where some of the smelliest, dirtiest laundry is at your school...well special education is a good place to start.  If this is one of your reasons for hiring someone for a special education position all I can say is be very, very careful!

3. They have a child with disabilities.  Hey, so do I and you know what that doesn't mean.... it doesn't mean I know anything about educating a variety of students with disabilities in a public school setting, or completing paperwork, or working with regular education teachers.  Many people get into special education because they have a family member with disabilities and often times their hearts are in the right place.  Here's the problem!  When your job is to be a parent your perspective, your advocacy and your role in the IEP process is very different than the role of the educator in the IEP process.  Some people can separate the two and some people feed information about all the things you don't do to special interest groups.  Double check that you hired an educator who has a student with a disability and not a vigilante trying to right an entire system!

I have a few more that I'll share in part 2 as well as what to look for when hiring special education teachers and some good questions to ask (whether they ride the short bus voluntary or if they get pushed on).

Marvelous Monday

Its Monday!  You know what that means?  Well for me its the last Monday of my two week summer vacation.  No rest for the wicked (awesome) assistant principal here! I am not a very good rester and have been spending the day trying to create a school based work program for students with intellectual disabilities.  You never miss the big city so much as when you are trying to find employers who are willing to allow students with disabilities to learn work skills in real life settings. Seriously, I use to take for granted taking kids to a restaurant to fold napkins.  Not anymore!

Actually this has been a project the special education teacher and I have been working on since April.  The wait list for the disabilities work center is months to years for most of our students, which means that if a student with an intellectual disability graduates, they won't go to work 6 months to a year after they left us.  This is way to long for a student to transition when when they graduate or age out of the services that the school provides.  The students deserve better!  

When your school is located in a rural, agricultural area, finding businesses that will let you train students is difficult.  Business which traditionally allow students with disabilities to come in and stock shelves, fold napkins, sort and clean hire people in the small town to do those things and those people need those jobs no matter how little they pay.  Many of my students don't have the physical stamina or dexterity to spend hours picking crops and again the families that still farm don't often hire workers to do jobs that machines can do.

Trying to find research of other schools who have created such programs has also proved difficult.  I've tried google, ARC, the closest town to the school disability resource center, and Vocational Rehab.  As more and more colleges are creating programs for students with disabilities to have a collegiate experience, it seems as though the rural areas of this country and work skills have been left behind.  The most honest answer I have received in my research was from the state Vocational Rehab specialists (who are supposed to help with such transitions) and that was if I want a work program in my school for students with intellectual disabilities, then I better plan on creating it.

So, here we are!  The second year assistant principal trolling the internet for suggestions of jobs that students with IQ's between 30-60 could do in our school.  I have already scheduled in office work, mail delivery, uniform washing service and working in the school gardens.  My special education teacher would like to run a store, or a business selling plants to the community.  Both ventures would interfere with our vocational classes for non disabled peers.  My bright idea is to have the students with intellectual disabilities and the non disabled students in the vocational classes work together.  This is taking more of a sell to the regular education vocational teachers and the special education teachers than I originally thought it would.  I've developed a train the trainee mode for higher functioning intellectual students, non disabled students and the more intellectually disabled students.  I'm open to suggestions!  I can't be the only school with such a problem so I'm sharing and will keep you posted on how the program goes in case it can help someone else!

On The Road

I'm starting the journey of educational blogging.  Yeah! Happy times!  Actually, I need to get one of my students to assist me with getting one of the pages I just created to show.  This should be easy, creating a blog.  I have a Master's and a PhD.  I'm a highly educated person and use technology on a daily basis, but getting my All About Me page to show... no dice!

I'm a big proponent of I teach you, you teach me.  There is always something to be learned.  Currently I'm learning to walk correctly so I can go back to running.  I'm learning about implementing Tier 2 PBIS at the high school level, and I'm learning how to do an educational blog.  I hope people want to read it (at least someone other than my husband who does not work at a school).  I'm not like some teachers who have to have complete control over the learning environment.  I encourage teachers to ask students what they want to learn and what the student has to offer to teach.  I think that a lot of educators forget that kids can be the best teachers.  If in doubt, ask one to help you with that new technology the system is implementing!

Now, where did I put my National History Day website student's phone number?  She'd have this blog looking professional in less than five minutes and wonder why I've been struggling to get a page to show for two days now!