A teacher pushed to the edge

[Hannah Bell]

Suicide rarely has a single cause, and usually follows a long chain of complicated, though socially preventable, adversities. But in Ruelas' case, we know one adversity he was deeply distraught about: the August 14 publication in the Los Angeles Times of an article called "Who's Teaching LA's Kids?"

Ruelas' brother Alejandro told KABC-TV that "he kept saying that there's stress at work" since the publication of the article. According to parents and some staff at Miramonte, the principal had been pressuring Ruelas intensely since the publication of the article to improve his students' scores. Ruelas' family is boycotting the Los Angeles Times.

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) officials claim that they sent a memo to principals stating that the use of test score data for disciplining teachers is against the union contract, but there are reports that some principals are ignoring this...

The problem is that there is no evidence that VAMs (value-added measures) are an effective way to rate teachers. In a briefing report issued on August 29, the Economic Policy Institute surveyed current research on VAMs, concluding:

"One study found that across five large urban districts, among teachers who were ranked in the top 20 percent of effectiveness in the first year, fewer than a third were in that top group the next year, and another third moved all the way down to the bottom 40 percent. Another found that teachers' effectiveness ratings in one year could only predict from 4 percent to 16 percent of the variation in such ratings in the following year. A teacher who appears to be very ineffective in one year might have a dramatically different result the following year."

TWO WEEKS after the Times article "Who's Teaching LA's Kids?" appeared, the Los Angeles School Board met August 31 and voted--with just one dissent from board member Marguerite LaMotte--to accept a proposal from the newly installed Deputy Superintendent John Deasy for value-added measures on tests to account for 30 percent of teachers' evaluations....

http://socialistworker.org/2010/10/01/teacher-pushed-to-the-edge

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. As a culture , we are awash in mindlessness.

Privatization ...masquerading as "reform"... is the latest example. And one of the most *grotesque*.

Kick for later read.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. I am about over these hateful evil principals.

Sick bastards.

[sabrina 1]

3. I hope his family does more than boycott the L.A. Times

(which is a good idea for everyone to do). I hope they, and other teachers sue them for what they did.

Since this teacher was called 'ineffective' by the L.A. Times, based on test scores only, while his students and colleagues considered him to be very effective, seems like there is a basis for a lawsuit.

Not just because of those testimonials, but because by all measures, there is no way test scores can or should ever be used to rate a teacher's effectiveness. It has to be the most failed method ever of doing so.

If you have a student who comes from a bad home situation, drugs, violence, poverty, just getting that student into the classroom every day, would be a challenge. Once there, if s/he has not eaten breakfast eg, or slept well the night before, making sure they get some food into their stomachs, would constitute 'being effective'.

And if the teacher cannot get the parents to take an interest in speaking to them about their children, the teacher is left alone to try to keep that child attending school, fed and feeling safe, at least at school. Added to that, if the child does not speak English, there is another challenge. All these issues and more, must be dealt with by teachers before they can even begin to think about test scores. To put such a, (by comparison), trivial issue ahead of all the others, is only setting the child up for failure and will negate any success in those other areas, and for what? It is cruel, bordering on child abuse.

Clearly the scum who have come up with this method have never been around a classroom full of children whose backgrounds demand far more than test scores just to get them to school every day before even considering all the other factors involved in educating them.

To use the same standards for teachers who work in such environments as are used for teachers in wealthy districts, in just plain stupidity and borders on criminal ignorance.

It is clear what is going on here. Instead of trying to help those teachers by providing them with the resources their particular circumstances require, they are being set up by some 'method' emanating from some ignorant bureaucrats somewhere, to fail. It is class discrimination of the worst kind since it involves children.

How sad to lose a teacher like Mr. Ruelas, so difficult to find people who are as dedicated to their students as he apparently was. Sad for his family, his students and colleagues, all for some political agenda and ultimately for money.

Shame once again on the L.A. Times for not researching the subject of education before becoming involved in the witch hunt against teachers.

[LWolf]

5. +1

[Starry Messenger]

6. +2

[Sixathome]

4. A national agenda

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/teac-o01.shtml
It is a bigger issue , it's the education of the masses at stake. Make the issue the teachers not- why can't johnny get to school safely,or why is jane not fed so she can learn. The working class must be kept for fodder , that is why NCLB made specific recruiter's access to school records.
I am sad for this man and his family. The Times should be held on charges of slander, manslaughter or bullying.