FL teacher suspended after refusing evaluator paid with Gates money, said not qualified.

[madfloridian]

Hillsborough County is one which took hundreds of millions of dollars from Bill and Melinda Gates. They have done their policies in accord with Gates' wishes. After all, money buys influence. No one reads much about any problems there, but I hear through the grapevine that many teachers are upset.

In fact last I heard at least 370 teachers in that county alone were seeking early retirement.

They were not happy with the system. Here is a teacher who got suspended for speaking up about it. May I say I don't blame him. The chosen evaluator is out of his field, and it is not fair.

From the St. Pete Times:

Teacher suspended after defying Hillsborough school district's evaluation system

A veteran teacher was suspended Thursday for rejecting the evaluator chosen for him under a Gates-funded initiative that is revolutionizing the way the Hillsborough County School District assesses its teachers.

School and union officials believe this is the first such act of defiance under Empowering Effective Teachers, a complex system of mentoring and evaluation funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

.."Joseph Thomas, 43, a social studies teacher at Newsome High School, said he refused to schedule a peer observation because he feels the evaluator, Justin Youmans, is not qualified to judge him.

Youmans, 29, has his experience teaching elementary school and sixth grade, according to his school district biography. "He thinks like an elementary school teacher," said Thomas, a teacher for 18 years.

He is suspended with pay pending investigation. I gather one does not defy the edicts of Gates.

Here is more about how the Gates plan works in Hillsborough County

It's interesting that the county is getting money from Bill Gates to pay their teachers.

It would seem to me that it crosses an ethical or legal line somewhere. I know, I know...it's all okay if you are trying to get rid of teachers...anything goes.

But think about it. The Gates money is paying for merit pay for some teachers while teachers with tenure are being fired, hundreds of them. I wonder how much input that foundation gets into who gets fired, what tenured teachers need to go? Oh, wait, it doesn't matter, it's only teachers.

And get this part:

In their application last year for the Gates grant, Hillsborough officials told the foundation they expected to fire at least 5 percent of the district's 8,500 tenured teachers each year for low performance, once a new evaluation system is established. That would amount to around 425 tenured teachers dismissed or counseled out annually, nearly two for each school in the district."

In Florida it takes 3 long hard years of being observed to even get tenure. Yet this county will use Bill Gates money to fire 5% of those tenured teachers.

Where are the political leaders speaking out for these teachers??

Good luck to Joseph Thomas of Newsome HS.

[Downwinder]

1. Just out of curiosity. Do coaches get evaluated?

[madfloridian]

2. They do, but it varies in different counties.

I read somewhere, will have to find it again, that art and music teachers might have to be evaluated on some other teachers' test scores. Not sure what the final determination is. If the school as a whole fails the FCAT they all fail and can be turned into a charter.

[EFerrari]

3. I've noticed that at several different general assemblies

of the Occupy Wall Street movement, whenever a speaker identifies him or herself as a teacher, they are always cheered and applauded. That is how people feel, nothing like the constructed and catapulted propaganda we get from the Obama administration, the Beltway bottom feeders or the corporate media.

[Kurmudgeon]

4. That is disturbing.

[mrdmk]

5. First of all, if you donate money to a cause, that person donates because they believe in the cause

Mr. Bill Gates learned the wrong lesson before dropping out of college. That wrong lesson is you do not buy something out of existence, then market the hell out of it. That is how MicroSoft got started, and that is their business plan to this day!

[BOHICA12]

6. A Little Red Herring with the 370 .....

....more related to Rick Scott and the change in the State of Florida Retirement System than anything Bill Gates proposed.

Joseph Thomas sounds more like a 3 year old that doesn't want to try broccoli .... wonder what evaluator would meet his approval.

[Angry Dragon]

12. ..............

[madfloridian]

14. " Joseph Thomas sounds more like a 3 year old that doesn't want to try broccoli"

That's really a very rude remark. I am finding that teachers are often talked about in that tone here.

It's a shame.

[PutOurKidsFirst]

36. Joseph Thomas just saying what many teachers should be saying

Joseph Thomas has been teaching for 18 years, his "peer" evaluator is 29 years old. How long do you think he has taught? How is he possibly an equal peer? Also the peer has only taught elementary school, how can it be fair for him to evaluate a high school environment?

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[liberalhistorian]

22. Umm........how about an evaluator who's actually

in Mr. Thomas's field and has a degree and experience in that particular field? Teachers are not "interchangeable", there are specific methods, factors and knowledge for each particular area and type. The "evaluator" was an elementary teacher, while Mr. Thomas is a secondary social studies teacher. The two are quite different. It would be like having a cardiologist or neurosurgeon evaluate an OB-GYN. Or a civil engineer evaluate a chemical engineer. Etc., etc.

But too many people have such little knowledge of and respect for teachers that they lump them all into the same group interchangeably and have little consideration for the fact that it is a PROFESSION with specific criteria for each area. And that's not even getting into the fact that the "evaluator" is 29 and barely any experience himself.

[dotymed]

24. Absolutely.

You can become an Elementary Teacher ( I was interested because I enjoy children) much easier than a secondary education Teacher. They are taught entirely different skill sets. I think that if you are going to be evaluated (because a wealthy person said no evals no money) then it should be done by a person whose skill set is the same as yours. It is sickening that money can buy an individual the "right" to decide anything.

[saras]

25. It's the Dunning-Kruger effect

Most people are so ignorant they don't even know that there's a field they're ignorant of, with skills, specialties, and techniques.

And I suspect something the teacher was careful not to say anything about was the ATTITUDE of the evaluator.

Of course, if the "evaluation" amounts to checking whether the person evaluated followed a large number of petty rules to the letter, then pretty much anyone can do it, and skill or knowledge isn't required.

[Cid_B]

32. Only one who has his exact experiences, education and standards...

Anyone else is just unfit to judge him.... apparantly

[BOHICA12]

33. Apparantly

;)

[Viking12]

34. Ironic.

A guy that can't even spell 'apparently' baggin' on teachers.

[Cid_B]

35. Ya know...

Most of the time I find a post I can disagree with there is usually some sort of grammar or spelling mistake.

I'm always tempted to point it out in an attempt to make the other person look dumb. Then I realize how small and petty that would make me and I should make whatever point I have instead of being a little grammar nazi baby.

It's nice to see that you aren't troubled by such meaningless inhibitions.

Cheers

[xchrom]

7. recommend

[MadHound]

8. As much as I despise what Gates is doing,

I find this teacher's reasoning to be condescending at best. A sixth grade teacher is fully qualified to evaluate a teacher at the secondary level, as much as an English teacher is qualified to evaluate a History teacher.

Having degrees in both Elementary and Secondary education, I can say with authority that most of the same skills that you need to teach high school students you also need to teach elementary students. For Thomas to be so condescending and assholish doesn't help matters at all.

That being said, Empowering Effective Teachers and other such programs definitely need to go.

[MedicalAdmin]

10. To add to your post.

I agree that gates is a rich fool and a dangerous one. And i agree that teachers are taking it in the shorts these days.

However the OP teacher is wrong. It doesn't matter if the evaluator is unqualified, if ukirnpupervisor orders you to do something that is in hour contract duties then you do it and file a grievance or other legal remedy. He opened up the suspension for refusing to do what he is required to. He could have handled this better and he should have called a union lawyer first.

[madfloridian]

16. When merit pay is in the picture, evaluators DO matter. A lot.

I notice when teachers assert their rights, they are judged here pretty harshly.

[MedicalAdmin]

26. I hadn't considered that.

Back when I taught merit pay wasn't part of the picture.

What are your thoughts on peer based review generally.

[madfloridian]

28. I believe teachers recognize good teachers.

Most teachers are good teachers overall. I have reservations about overuse of that method because it would tend to bring out some petty stuff .....stuff that has not been there ordinarily but would now exist because of merit pay.

One year the school secretary...yes, I said secretary.. was given the power over the summer to change students around from class to class. The principal was gone for the summer out of the city, and she stupidly thought her secretary would play fair.

I did not have a good relationship with the secretary. I was fairly new to the school, and I had crossed her because I did not know that one never crossed her.

I had a lot of parents requesting me, and my class midsummer when I was there to do some inservice was a good one. By the time school started I had a nightmare class. The parents who requested me had been moved elsewhere, and I had multiple ADHD, several severe, and 3 of the worst behavior problems in that grade. I was given 3 emotionally handicapped in addition to the ADHD. I managed the class, but nothing on earth could make it possible for those students to do well on a standardized test.

The other teachers sympathized but they were not about to speak up for me. They had good classes, why should they?

We did not have merit pay then, and we did not have peer review. But they were looking out for their own best interests. I was left to sink or swim.

With merit pay, there will be jealousies that have never existed before. The "merit" will of course depend on how fairly classes are divvied up, and whether teachers take up for and support each other.

Teachers in our area have been evaluated by principals, asst. principals, county personnel, and so on. We have been observed over and over, announced and unannounced.

All of this merit stuff based on one standardized test is a train wreck waiting to happen.

[PutOurKidsFirst]

37. Hillsborough County Schools Sold Out

I've been teaching 25 years, and I think Hillsborough County Schools SOLD OUT to the highest bidder. Bill Gates now owns The School District of Hillsborough, and is playing with not only with my life, but also the lives of all our children. I feel there is a plan in place to rid our school district of highly experienced teachers because we cost too much money. Granted, Mr. Gates is an excellent business man, but has he ever taught children? Does he understand that our products are human beings who come from all backgrounds? The real losers will be our children. In all my years of teaching, I have never once been considered anything less than highly qualified and always had exemplary evaluations. Under the new Empowering Effective Teachers system, evaluations are opinions of the "peer" evaluator. On my last evaluation, there were a few marks that my evaluator even stated were his opinion and could have been done differently. His opinion cost me valuable points and will effect my final evaluation score. I don't feel comfortable having my career and faith left up to someone I've never even met until now. Who knows if he had a fight with his wife, or kid or some other arbitrary event the day he came to observe me? I teach at a very specific type of school, with very specific children. Evaluators should be from the school, familiar with the student population and understanding of issues, conditions and circumstances that may very well be specific to that school population. I will say that the new evaluation is so opinion based, that I will not consider extending my career past my 30 year retirement date, even though I will only be 55 and will have to seek other employment.

[madfloridian]

15. I disagree. I was elementary. I never taught high school Different mindset.

I would not have known how to judge a teacher in high school. My mindset was entirely different than his.

I think he is willing to take a suspension to point out such inequities in evaluation. After all his pay will depend on it.

[ieoeja]

18. I got an evaluation process changed by voluntarily taking a hit once.

It was an "expectations" evaluation where management set specific project goals at the beginning of the year for each employee. The first year of this system, every project they originally planned for me to do that year was cancelled for more important things before I even got to start on any of them. So while I was doing work that was deemed more important than their original expectations for me, I got 0% on the evaluation as I did not complete any of those on the original plan.

They scrapped that plan the next year. But still withheld my raise and put me on a "corrective action plan" (which pretty much read, "keep doing what you are already doing").

So kudos to him. He may lose his job over it. But sometimes you have to do the right thing.

A teacher who places morality ahead of money? How incredibly ... common.

[madfloridian]

21. I agree. Besides he may lose his job anyway....they are firing tenured teachers now.

There is not a bit of job security in the field of teaching anymore. I think that does not sound good for the future...who in their right mind would decide to teach? Oh, I know....TFA teachers would because they get loan forgiveness and bonuses.

[XanaDUer]

9. I think it's just amazing how Bill Gates and his wife are

now the makers of rules and regs for all of America's schools. Really!

[Nay]

11. Indeed. In fact, the whole thrust of this school 'movement' is not to

improve the education of children, but to inject private business interests into all school systems in order that business hoover up even more money than they already are. The education of children falls waaaaaay to the back of the bus in this.

[ieoeja]

20. I think there are several reasons, one far more nefarious.

At the unimportant level, but ready to support these plans, are people sending kids to private schools who resent paying tax money for public schools that they and theirs do not directly use. This argument always failed them, however, because that would also exclude everyone who doesn't have a child. But this is still their main gripe even if nobody cares.

Then you have the facist economic model you posted.

But the "public schools are failing" argument pre-dates the American Revolutionary War and for far worse reasons than the preceeding two. Our John Adams first became reknown arguing against the appointment of a supreme justice (I forget the exact position or location though I recall it was somewhere in the vicinity of Nova Scotia) over all the North American colonies. His objection to this justice was that the justice advocated the closing of public schools. The justice and his coterie gave all the same bullshit excuses we hear today how private schools would do a better job.

When everyone involved was safely in their graves the justice's private correspondence was made public. Turns out his real opposition to public schools was that they were working too well. He feared that educated people would be less willing to listen to their "betters". In the don't-say-anything-if-you-can't-say-anything-good vein I suppose I should credit him for being correct!

Then we had our pre-Civil War south where the descendants of Norman aristrocracy dominated the political fold. While every northern state had public schools and an over 90% literacy rate, not a single southern state had public schools and were under 50% literacy rate. At least one southern state even made public schools illegal to prevent counties and towns from funding their own. They wanted to keep the peasants uneducated and it shows to this day. Regular folks in the south still largely judge a person by "success" even though more often than not that success was the result of brilliantly choosing to be born to rich parents.

So I have absolutely no doubt that the notion of keeping the people stupid to keep them in line is still prevelant today. The fact that the modern attack on public schools - and for that matter even private education is laregely held in low regard in the United States nowadays - came on the heels of the revolutionary '60s hints at this.

[Scruffy1]

31. Fascinating.

I think I would like to do some research on this.

[Ilsa]

13. Adds further credence to my opinion that people with extreme wealth need to be "watched".

You don't know what disruptive activities they can set in motion. I think some of them are a bane to democracy.

[madfloridian]

19. Why would they even WANT to ask an elem. teachers to judge a HS teacher?

Or vice versa. I know for a fact that high school teachers would talk really bad about those of us in the lower grades. They blamed us for so many failings of the students. Often things that were beyond our control.

It's a really strange thing to do.

[liberalhistorian]

23. Probably because it's a way to surreptiously get rid

of an experienced teacher who costs too much, when what they want are compliant, yes-men teachers who will do what they tell them to do no matter what.

[Nevernose]

27. My last AP was a former elementary teacher

He was actually a pretty decent evaluator. It did take him most of his first year to undergo the transition from "upper middle class suburb" to "impoverished inner city," but he did quickly become one of my favorite supervisors. He knew what he was doing, he knew what made a good teacher. The thing most holding him back was his staff, terrified of the fact that he would be totally in over his head.

[bertman]

29. Interesting as always. REC.

Today I spoke with a 20+ year teacher who expressed anger mixed with resignation at the state of teaching and testing. She just feels that the system is in place and that any teacher who speaks out is in danger of losing her/his job.

Privatization and Fear of expressing one's opposition to the demands of test-driven education top the list of this teacher's concerns.

Very sad and tragic.

[madfloridian]

30. She is right. Teachers can not speak out freely at all.

It's been that way for quite a while. Things have changed so much and so quickly. It's a shame.