How will rationally behaving K-12 teachers behave if their pay is tied to standardized test score

[bluestateguy]

Well, I have some ideas.

All classroom activities, lessons, readings and assignments will be organized around preparation for the Great Test. No creativity, no innovation and no originality. Just rote memorization and drill in preparation for the days of the Great Test. Students' grades will be based upon assignments and classroom tests that are designed around the preparation for the days of the Great Test.

You'll also see teachers trying to discourage poorly performing students from taking the tests at all. Like maybe telling them they don't have to come to school on test days, or reassigning them to independent study for a couple of days to get them out of the classroom.

Or perhaps teachers and administrators will find creatively drummed up reasons for having bad students expelled, or for the older students, encouraging them to drop out.

Teachers are like any other paid professional who will do what they have to do to earn a living.

And, BTW, I could certainly see older more sophisticated students who dislike their teacher conspiring to fail the tests so that their hated teacher gets slammed in the pocketbook. It could happen.

[Davis_X_Machina]

1. If they were profit-maximizing....

...rationally-behaving homines oeconomici, they wouldn't be teaching in the first place.

So there will only be some cheating and gaming of the system.

[SharonAnn]

19. They will avoid teaching in low income areas since that's where the low scores usually are.

They will schools/classes with spcial education students, English learners, etc. All of these conditions mean lower test scorese.

[SoCalDem]

2. Teachers will be retiring as soon as they are eligible.. n/t

[Dappleganger]

5. Many of my FL teacher friends are retiring as soon as possible.

They're afraid there won't be anything left by the time Gov. Voldemort is through with them this term.

[MadHound]

3. This is already happening to a large extent.

One of the reasons that NCLB was, and is, such an abomination is that it forces teachers to teach to the test, and only the test. Issues, ideas, concepts that aren't related to the test are dropped.

An example from one of my practicum classes three years ago, fifth grade. The test is scheduled for early April, covering math, science, reading, writing. Notice, nothing about History or Social Studies in there.

Thus, even though Missouri Grade Level Expectations state that a fifth grade student must go through American History, from Colonial era to end of Civil War, that simply didn't happen. The students in that class didn't start in on studying history until after The Test. As a result, when my practicum ended, with less than a month to go in the school year, the students had only gotten into the American Revolution.

Subjects such as Social Studies, which includes Civics and History, are being dropped by the wayside, as are Art, Music, and anything else that isn't directly related to the test. You can already observe the results. Question any high school graduate of the past three-four year on subjects and concepts that weren't on The Test. They're clueless for the most part.

And now this administration wants to put this NCLB system on steroids, with more and more testing on a very limited range of subjects.

We are doing a grave disservice to an entire generation and more.

[WinkyDink]

4. NOW you're seeing the Game Plan. "Creative thinkers" are not needed for "GLOBALIZATION" & low wages.

[dkf]

6. What they don't understand is that bad test scores have put their jobs and pay in jeopardy already.

That is why there is lack of support for more funding for public education. Why pay more for bad results? Why not try privatization? It's all a good alternative to a system that isn't producing the results the public pays for.

[MadHound]

10. What most people don't understand is that standardized tests simply don't reflect

How well a student learns.

This has been shown in study after study, which are ignored time and again by those hell bent on privatization of schools.

Students are mass produced models who do all things equally well. Many, if not most, students simply don't do standardized tests well. Test anxiety, differing learning patterns, differing intelligences, the list goes on and on. Which is why good teachers provide for a variety of assessment methods for their students.

Judging results based on a single method of assessment goes against all psychological and educational sense. But standardized tests are good at one thing, creating the false impression that our teachers aren't teaching well.

[dkf]

15. They may not dictate how well a person learns but they show a student has the foundation to build on

This is what we are realizing about the great test scores coming from Asia. It doesn't necessarily provide the innovation, but creates the foundation so that innovation can take place. Our kids don't even know the basics. How can they get to the creative part when they have no knowledge of basic principles?

[MadHound]

24. No, really, for a sizable number of students, they simply don't show any such thing

As far as Asian test scores go, the reason they're so great isn't all about better "innovation", but rather better demographic manipulation by the government education departments.

[roody]

14. Any test results make billions for the test industry.

[Smarmie Doofus]

7. I can see all that and MUCH more.

Remember, they're not justing offering $$$ for top test scores; they are tying EVALS to test scores.

2 bad performance evals in a row will get you canned in the system that NYC is phasing in.


The whole thing opens up a god-damned Pandora's Box of school-based corruption.

So who's going to reform the reform that the reformers are presently creating?

[dkf]

9. When you say teachers will cheat aren't you slamming their morals and character?

Isn't that a broad based slur?

[ejpoeta]

11. it's not really cheating. it's forcing teachers to move in a certain direction.

first of all, the fact that the private and charters skim off the best students and leave the troubled kids and ones with learning disabilities already handicaps the public schools. then you force them to test these kids for something that isn't really a measurable thing. if the tests focus is on knowing x,y,z, then you are forcing the schools to only focus on x,y,z. that is not cheating. and kids all learn in different ways and at different paces. While one student excels, there will be another who struggles. This hurts both students and the one who excels isn't going to be challenged enough because the next student needs that time to figure it out. There are so many variables involved here. And putting the ownness on the teachers in all of this is ridiculous. just makes it easier for the parents to claim no responsibility.

[dkf]

16. Deliberately trying to exclude low testing students isn't cheating?

It is to me if the purpose of testing is to make sure low performing students improve their scores.

Saying that someone else does it never justifies things either.

Where is the support for getting educators to focus on improving low testing students? Have we given up on them?

[LWolf]

20. You've given up on them if you expect this kind of "reform" to make a difference.

When you pit teachers in competition with each other, competition is what you will get.

You'll also get corruption, in the form of rosters. Teachers who have an "in" with admins will get rosters that will make growth no matter what the teacher does. Teachers who have opposed some administrative policy will get rosters that will not make "adequate" progress. We've known for many decades that the strongest predictor of test scores is not the teacher, but student SES.

That will leave teachers who won't ever buck the admins, for any reason.

Can you not see the inherent dysfunction and corruption in such a system?

In a system based on cooperation, on collaboration, on the other hand, a system that encourages teachers to collaborate for the good of all, teachers won't be competing for the students that learn the most easily. The vast majority of teachers come into the profession because they are called. They want to make a positive difference, and many of those teachers are drawn to the neediest students. Often, the strongest teachers are given a larger portion of the neediest students in a grade level, because they demonstrate the ability to connect with and move them. Often, teachers will choose to work at the neediest schools, in the neediest neighborhoods, because they are responding to that calling.

Surely you can see that our lowest performing students need teachers who WANT to take them on, regardless of their real or potential test scores, rather than teachers who will avoid them, because taking on the neediest students is likely to result in poor performance evaluations, low pay, or loss of job.

Knowing that, for the vast majority of students, the strongest predictor of test scores is student SES, a society that really wanted to address those low-performing students would address the source: poverty. Maslow's hierarchy is at work.

[ejpoeta]

23. the charter schools exclude them, not public schools. public schools can't.

the testing you speak of has nothing to do with getting educators to improve low testing students. no one has given up on them.... except schools like charters who can pick and choose who they accept. the problem is the tests themselves. there isn't really a way to measure improvement because every student learns differently. so instead of teaching to the students strengths a teacher has no choice but to try to make all the students fit into a round hole to pass these specific tests. It's great that they want to imrove scores but kids need a better education.... they cut funding for schools and then wonder why schools can't teach the kids. it also puts too much of the burden on the teachers when parents refuse to get involved and then of course just blame the teachers.

[Smarmie Doofus]

12. No. n/t

[Jim Lane]

25. It's known that SOME teachers have in fact cheated.

It's no broad-based slur to say that every barrel has a few bad apples.

This is covered in a chapter in Freakonomics. An economist devised a metric for detecting suspicious patterns in test scores. When the classes in question were retested, without the regular teacher being present or having any access to the test, the scores plunged dramatically. It seems that some teachers were coaching kids during the test or, after the papers were handed in, filling in answers to questions the students had left blank.

As the OP said, if you put this kind of economic pressure on teachers, they'll respond. Some of them will respond with borderline activities like trying to see to it that poor test-takers (who aren't necessarily poor students) don't take the test. A few will respond with outright cheating, gambling that they won't be caught.

[earthside]

8. And the evilness ...

... of this so-called "merit pay" type of system is that more and more kids will hate school because of the shear drudgery that comes from 'teaching to the test' and scores will decline and drop-out rates will increase.

It will mean fewer and fewer dedicated, sincere teachers join the profession and a decline in morale for those that feel compelled to stay for a host of 'survival' reasons.

THEN, with the 'proof' that the public education system is continuing to fail, well, guess what ... the complete privatization of our schools will be proposed as the only solution.

Sorry to say, but the Bush-Spellings-Obama-Duncan-Gates-Broad education agenda is designed to produce failure.

[msongs]

13. U get a smart class your pay goes up, you get a less smart class pay goes down nt

[B Calm]

18. I wonder if cops would like to be paid the same way. An area with low

crime = higher paid cops. High crime areas = lower paid cops.

[bluestateguy]

22. Actually, I think Rudy Giuliani had that sort of approach for NYC cops

Although, I think the emphasis was on trendlines and improvement of existing crime rates for each neighborhood.

[LWolf]

17. Some of that has already happened,

since NCLB threatens schools with "restructuring" that amounts to take-over by unfriendly forces.

It will only continue to increase, and continue to narrow our student's opportunities.

As for students conspiring to fail tests?

Some already do. Two years ago, my 8th graders, sick of the testing treadmill, deliberately blew their final round of testing in the spring. We have to test 3 times. Once in the fall, to determine that year's baseline. Once during the winter, for those that didn't "meet" benchmarks in the fall. And once in the spring for everyone, to show growth.

They were sick of testing. They had a statement to make. They answered every question randomly, and all finished in about 12 minutes. It's a damned good thing those scores weren't linked to my pay.

Frankly, I had a lot of sympathy for those who said, "We met the benchmark last fall. Why should we have to keep 'passing' the same test?"

I teach middle-school students. They are notoriously rebellious; a normal developmental outcome. Most of my students perform for me, and like me. Even if they don't like what I ask them to do. They view it as a sport; how can they challenge me, how can they distract me, how can they derail the business of learning for a moment or an hour? There's no hard feelings either way. I just develop a thick skin and an unrelenting determination to keep learning happening in the process.

For a few, though? The most dysfunctional, damaged students have well-perfected avoidance techniques. When I interfere with those techniques, when I prevent them from successfully avoiding their own learning or derailing others from learning, they can respond with outright hatred. Some will respond to my efforts to engage them, to support any effort they make to learn. Others will determine that they have something to prove: I can't force them to learn. (No kidding.) Those few, if they knew their failures would affect my evaluation or my pay, would fail in as gleefully rampant manner as possible.

And THAT show is coming soon to our local theater.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

21. My kids aced everything when they re-entered US schools

The testing mania was not yet upon us except for the silly ass MD history requirement. I would have allowed them to boycott the exams as a protest