What Happened To Vouchers?

A while ago, I speculated that there may be some friction between the various factions in the New Jersey reformy world. I'm wondering if we're starting to see another rift emerge.

Yesterday, I offhandedly asked whether vouchers were part of the B4K agenda for "reform." Curious, I went to the B4K website and looked up their view on the matter:

... B4K supports the implementation of a targeted scholarship program that focuses on low-income children in the lowest performing of the former Abbott districts, such as Camden and Newark, or districts with similar conditions, as it would give children the option to attend a participating public school that opts into the program, or a private school approved by the Commissioner of Education that offers the same testing, reporting, and transparency for parents that B4K supports in its broader reform agenda. [emphasis mine]

Now that's odd: I would have expected an outright endorsement of the Opportunity Scholarship Act (OSA), the voucher scholarship bill that has been stuck in the Legislature for a long time. I can't find an endorsement or a rejection of OSA on B4K's website; however, when Tom Moran interviewed B4K funder David Tepper for his hagiographic piece, Tepper's endorsement of vouchers was more than a little weak:

Tepper’s views 
at a glance [...] 

Vouchers: He supports a pilot program in failing districts, as envisioned in the pending Opportunity Scholarship Act, but believes it should be tried in only a few districts at first. “It’s a good idea that got out of hand.” [emphasis mine]

"Got out of hand"? Not exactly the sort of ringing endorsement that OSA supporters would want, especially since the bill is tied up again and is reportedly stalled until after the elections - right at the same time B4K's agenda is being taken up. And it's more than a little odd that B4K isn't behind OSA, because, until very recently, the state's biggest voucher cheerleader was B4K's current Executive Director, Derrell Bradford.

Before he took the job at B4K, Derrell was actually the CEO of Excellent Education for Everyone (E3), the state's largest pro-voucher group. In fact, after his post-college stint writing for a nightlife magazine, Derrell went right to E3 and cut his teeth in the reformy world as its "poster boy" for OSA:

Bradford is a poster boy for the group he represents. He grew up in a poor Baltimore family and attended a prestigious prep school,  thanks to a merit scholarship. His “pish posh” high school education, followed by a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania, catapulted him into what he calls “the really fabulous life I now am fortunate enough to lead.”  

  At Penn, he befriended the daughter of E3’s founder, Peter Denton,  and he’s worked there since 2002. E3 advocates for publicly funded school vouchers for private schools and access to the best academic environments for children in urban areas.  

  Bradford favors the Opportunity Scholarship Act, which would give tax credits to New Jersey businesses that fund low-income students in underperforming public schools who want to go to private schools or better public schools.  

  Bradford predicts the state will see more charter schools, private school choice, teacher quality reforms and more accountability in 2011. A shift is evident already, he said: “There are thousands of kids in New Jersey and throughout America that are what I was, and the one thing they need is a chance to go to a school that makes their learning and their lives a priority,” he said.

Bradford was happy to use his life's story to promote OSA when he was at E3:

A long path from southwest Baltimore: A scholarship landed him at the prestigious St. Paul’s School in Baltimore, that helped him into University of Pennsylvania, where he became friends with the daughter of Peter Denton, the man and the money behind E3. "I went to this hoity-toity high school and it saved my life. All I want is other people to have the same opportunity as me."

I don't know what prompted Bradford to leave E3 for B4K. He clearly made a good buck at E3 (six-figures even before he took the big job, according to IRS reports at Guidestar ; sure beats teaching!). Maybe he got a better deal.

But I - and, I'm guessing, many of the people he used to work with at E3 - am left wondering how he feels about OSA these days.

What do you say, Derrell? Is B4K behind the OSA as it stands now? I'm sure many folks are very curious to know.

ADDING: Did this happen? From June of 2011:

Excellent Education for Everyone (E3), the group that has championed the bill for nearly a decade, has plans for what executive director Derrell Bradford called an “intensive” campaign in the lead-up to the legislature’s extended summer and fall election break.

I must have missed that, because I really don't remember anything coming out from E3. And then, ten days later, Derrell walked out the door.

Huh...

Let Them Think They Won

Let's just do this:

Change the name of "National Board Certified Teachers" to "Merit Pay Winners." Then bring the NBCT program to New Jersey and pay the teachers who earn certification a bonus.

That way, they can claim victory and hit up billionaires for more money.

I'm only half-joking about this...

Would my wand hafta be "board certified"?

Carpetbaggers

Have to love it when B4K, the hedge-fund moneyed group that just decided just this year to get involved in "reform," shows "cautious" optimism toward the NJEA's proposals:

Finally, our antennae are alerted by the NJEA’s reversion to its traditional defense of tenure as it has always been (before we all apparently agreed that reform was needed): asserting that, first and foremost, it’s a defense against politicization and patronage. Predictably, the NJEA then simply asserts that the governor’s tenure reform proposal will "undermine" tenure and enable patronage and politicization. Our view is that a clear, transparent, objective teacher evaluation system that is open to parental and other scrutiny, upon which personnel decisions like tenure are based in a clear and certain way (along with mutual consent for teacher transfers), are the best insurance against politicization and patronage. [emphasis mine]

Oh, and I'm snarky?

Listen, I don't always agree with the union, but NJEA was in this game long before you boys were, and they've done a lot more to help struggling teachers and improve student learning over the years than running TV ads that kiss Christie's kiester and handing out backpacks. I know education "reform" is the shiny new object billionaires are playing with right now, but there's no guarantee they'll stay in the game; teachers and their unions will.

So you'll forgive me if I don't cotton to the tone of B4K feeling like they've earned the right to judge NJEA's proposals. There's an aroma of musty carpetbagging that makes me "cautious."

As to the substance:

- Tenure: Look, as much as these folks may try to dismiss the notion, tenure is taxpayer protection against cronyism and nepotism; look at Elizabeth. And as long as you keep the appeals process in district, you are taking that function away.

I really don't see what the problem is: just cap the time the process takes and have dedicated adjudicators.  Simple, and ultimately a lot cheaper than the lawsuits that will inevitably come if these folks get their way.

(Oh, speaking of Elizabeth: Derrell, when are we going to hear from B4K about this? Where's the unequivocal condemnation of using teaching positions for political gain? And where's the call from you for Rapheal Fajardo to step down from the teacher effectiveness task force that you serve on? Unless you think what went down there was OK...)

- Merit Pay: Stuff like this shows you that these guys are neophytes. National Board Certification - which has been around for years - is basically the equivalent of what we're talking about here. It's not the same as "hey, you get a bonus for raising test scores and/or 'cause we like you!" And it's silly to pretend that it is.

- Teacher Evaluations:

But first, we must remember that the National Education Association, the parent union of the NJEA believes that a “valid,” “well-designed” standardized test does not yet exist, so we are back to square one about using them at all. Moreover, the NJEA remains explicitly against "overemphasis" on standardized tests and criticizes the current DOE pilot plan that bases 50% of the evaluation on student performance because it “intends for standardized tests to make up much or all of that measure." In point of fact, the DOE plan mandates that only about one-third (35%) of a teacher’s evaluation be based on standardized tests. This is all very troublesome given that the new teacher evaluation pilot program is underway right now, and the NJEA’s positions appear to impede rather than facilitate the pilot process. 

The NEA doesn't believe that there aren't decent standardized tests; they believe that even good standardized tests are not appropriate instruments to evaluate individual teachers.

Seriously, fellas - we've been over this again and again and again. The evidence is overwhelmingly stacked against you. Why are you so hellbent on doing this? I really don't get it.

And, as has been explained to you time and again: it may be 35% percent of the evaluation weight, but it becomes 100% of the decision. This is Stat 101 stuff. If you can't come up with a real answer, just concede the point; it's becoming embarrassing.

As to the "pilot" - if it were really a "pilot," Cerf wouldn't have rushed it, so he could do real due diligence. And I won't consider this to be a true pilot until the NJASK used is released publicly so independent researchers can check it for reliability and validity. Can we all at least agree to pressure Commissioner Cerf to do that?

Anyway - even with the snark, the tone toward the union is getting marginally more civil. So I'm prepared to adjust mine as well. At least Tom Moran will be happy...

ADDING: Hey, why isn't there anything here about vouchers? Wasn't that always Derrell's baby? Come to think of it, I don't hear much about vouchers from B4K at all these days. Hmm...

Merit Pay Follies in TN

One of my great commenters, jcg, clues us in on what's happening with merit pay in Tennessee:

First, understand that the evaluation system is NOT about improving education, it's about the drag on profits from human capital.

The state of TN paid millions to the Milkin family of Wall St fraud for their TAP/TEAM evaluations system that scores teachers on a 5 point rubric. The national trainers indoctrinated, I mean, trained all evaluators that a score of (3) is "rock solid". If there are "too many" high scores the trainer asserted that evaluators were gaming the evaluation tool. 

TN Commissioner of Education, TfA grad Kevin Huffman bloviates to media outlets that previous teacher evaluations inflated the scores and that "too many teachers were overrated. 

The Milkins have a fix for that problem. Since the scores of TEAM/TAP teachers follow a Bell-shape distribution (according to their non-peer reviewed research), only 15% of teachers will achieve scores above (4) or significantly above (5) expectations and 85% will perform at or below expectations. 

What does all of this mean on the ground? First, teachers scored at or below expectations means no tenure for beginning teachers and a loss of tenure for tenured teachers. 

Second, mandates are trickling down from Broad Academy superintendent, Jim McIntyre that Knox County Schools supervisors and principals would "be in trouble" if they gave too many 4's or 5's. 

Finally, the TEAM evaluations don't recognize differentiated instructional practices, nor does the scoring metric credit teachers for differentiating learning levels. There are a fixed number of behaviors needed to obtain a single score making it difficult evaluate varied levels of instruction needed for children in classes at acquisition, fluency, or advanced learning levels. The assumption from such fixed indicators is that every child learns the same content at the same rate, using one set of standardized procedures. In mixed ability groups there are multiple ways to scaffold learning that fixed data metrics such as TEAM cannot identify.

This is a snapshot of the warped mindset of our education "leaders". These 1%ers think nothing of enriching a convicted felon with tax dollars, and who themselves attended private schools where students came from privileged backgrounds, classes were capped at 12 - 15, and no one with a disability need apply. [emphasis mine]

If you read Todd Farley's Making the Grades, you'll find the same approach to data: they know the result they want, and they'll game the system to get it. It's the way psychometricians work, and it's completely inappropriate for any employment or compensation decisions.

And jcg makes another great point: there is no research to back up a claim of a standard distribution of teaching effectiveness; mostly, I suspect, because it's nearly impossible to quantify what makes a "good" teacher. There are so many problems with VAMs and SGPs that we clearly shouldn't use them - but that won't deter our "data-driven" overlords.

I keep waiting for the lawsuits. Again, we have many corporatist judges on the bench now, but this stuff goes so far that I can't imagine any of this standing up in court. It's an impeding disaster.

But even if that doesn't happen, I can absolutely guarantee you the teaching profession is going to be damaged so badly that it will literally take decades to repair it. Again, I ask every one who backs this sort of "reform": would you ever consider entering teaching on these premises?

Finally: as this shows, it all comes down to the details. The snappy poll-driven sound bites might work on talk radio, but when these people actually have to put things in practice...

Many, many thanks, jcg, for the post! You're starting your own blog when? ;-)

ADDING: Diane Ravitch makes my point, only better.

More on Merit Pay = Cutting Teacher Pay

In my earlier post on merit pay, a commenter points out that Gates was adding extra money for the Memphis merit pay plan, which means merit pay wasn't being used to bring down the overall teacher payroll. How, therefore, could I accuse merit pay supporters of advocating for cutting teacher pay?

It's a fair point; allow me to elaborate:

From article I referenced about the program:

"MCS is taking steps now to help ensure the long-term sustainability of their effective teaching work, even in the face of difficult economic times."

Since August, MCS has nixed the 8 percent raises it planned for new teachers and halted retention bonuses, whittling the load it has to carry without Gates to $34 million.

A new compensation plan, Hamer says, would allow the district to pay its most talented teachers what they are worth but save money by weeding out less effective ones at the top of the scale.

"Here's what I know from our analysis. We currently have large numbers of teachers at the highest level of the (union) step salary from whom we are not getting a year's worth of student growth or gain," he said.

"We're paying a lot of money to a lot of people who have been in the system a long time and are not getting student gains."

The new teacher evaluation process will "flag them" he said, "and give us the ability to help them." [emphasis mine]

"Large numbers." How large? Why even ask? Trust me - they don't know, because they don't even have numbers for the vast majority of those teachers. And they want to "help" their senior teachers? More like "help" them find the door.

See what's happened? Gates gave Memphis the money to start the merit pay program, then took it away. Now, to make up the difference, the district is cutting programs that would have lifted the salaries of many, if not all, of the teachers.

And they're shifting the blame on to experienced teachers, who are paid more. By firing senior teachers, and institutionalizing a churn at the entry level of the profession (where half of teachers leave after five years already), the districts are clearly aiming to reduce their overall payroll. The merit pay bonuses they are offering are a small price to pay for the greater savings that come from turning teaching into an entry-level stepping stone to another profession.

This is from the same playbook corporate reformers have used to get rid of pensions: short-term fiscal gains at the expense of long-term savings. Because districts, until now, haven't had to pay teachers much at the start of their careers: the younger teachers knew if they hung in there, they'd be rewarded later. That has saved districts money, but those savings came only if the schools upheld their end of the bargain and paid teachers more at the end of their careers. Like the pensions, that promise is now being broken.

And just like the pensions, this destruction of the current arrangement is only to give the current political class a short-term fix to their fiscal problems. The real price will be paid when young people decide that they really aren't interested in a profession where pay fluctuates wildly based on error-prone measures, and they won't make more than they made starting out. Of course, by then, the billionaires who are funding "reform" and their lackeys who push this nonsense will have moved on to destroying another one of this county's institutions.

Merit pay is the tool the corporate reformers are using to cur teacher pay. They are doing damage that will haunt us for years.

They must be stopped.

Premature Celebration

Star-Ledger Editorial, 10/9/11:

Memo to Washington: This is what happens when Democrats and Republicans stop sniping, stop campaigning and work together for the greater good. Last week, the state Treasury Department calculated that the reforms of public worker benefits, passed in June, will save local governments $267 million this year in pension payments.

New Jersey faced a $120 billion pension and health shortfall, one of the largest in the nation. Along with starving the state budget, those costs are powerful drivers of local property taxes. The reforms are real savings, and they didn’t come easily.

Star-Ledger Editorial, 10/30/11:

The unfunded liability — the difference between how much the pension system has and what has been promised to current and future retirees — dropped from $53.9 billion to $35.4 billion after the law was signed, according to state bond documents.

But it’s about to swell again. And that’s because both parties agreed to delay the day or reckoning by phasing in full payments over a seven-year stretch. That is the underbelly of this reform; they rigged the payment schedule to soften the blow in the short term.

So this year, the state should be paying roughly $3.3 billion into the pension fund, but will chip in only $468 million. Shorting the fun like that will cause the pension gap to swell to $58 billion by 2019, according to the state’s estimates.

In other words, the hole will get deeper before the state starts climbing out.

In fiscal 2018, taxpayers will have to make a $5 billion payment — more than 10 times what it is paying this year and one-sixth of this year’s total budget. Unless a cash-filled meteor crashes in Trenton, taxes likely will have to increase to make the balloon payments. 

Wow - isn't it amazing how this bill went from being the savior of New Jersey to being a millstone around its neck in less than a month?

Of course, we can just ignore how cutting public worker pay (which is what this is - don't let anyone try to tell you otherwise) will chase off well qualified people from a career in public service. That's a "crisis" the S-L can write about in a few years, when the facts of how it was created are long forgotten.

It's too early for a drink...

Merit Pay = Cutting Teacher Pay

For a long time, I've been asking a question of the believers in the Merit Pay Fairy: will your program decrease or increase the overall payroll of the teaching force?

Looks like they can't avoid the question any longer in Tennessee:

Two years into work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to improve teacher effectiveness, city school officials have determined that the financial outlook has changed so much that the effort will be unsustainable without a major retooling.

By revamping teacher salaries -- paying for test results instead of degrees or years of service -- Memphis City Schools leaders hope to find a big chunk of the $34 million a year it will take to keep going when the Gates money stops in 2015. [emphasis mine]

First of all, can we finally acknowledge that putting billionaires in charge of education runs the risk of having them withdraw their funds when they become bored and move on to the next shiny object that catches their fancy? (Some folks impolitely call this phenomenon "White people... destroy and leave." How gauche of them...)

Second, can we finally stop this nonsense from Arne Duncan and Chris Christie and Michelle Rhee and all the rest about how they want teachers to make more money? Merit pay is about cutting the teacher payroll. We're finding out about this in Tennessee because this is the first place they've tried this crap, but it will soon be the case everywhere else.

Remember: these people say every kid deserves a great teacher. Well, if their doomed plans somehow defy logic and history and magically come true, every kid will have a great teacher: what then? If they all deserve merit pay, won't we have to raise the total teacher payroll?

Or do they just plan to keep suckering folks into the profession - as if bright young people won't respond to the labor market?

Tennessee overhauled its teacher evaluation system last year to win a grant from the federal Race to the Top program. Now many teachers say they are struggling to shine, and that's torpedoing morale.

For Janna Beth Hunt, who teaches first grade at Norman Binkley Elementary in Nashville, it's been a disappointing process. Tennessee's new observations grade teachers on a scale of 1 to 5. Many are scoring what feels like a C, which under the system isn't enough to get the job security of tenure.

"I definitely feel like I'm better than an average teacher. I'm not happy with a 3, but I told my principal that, and he knows that I'm a perfectionist and that I want a 5. It's just extremely difficult to get a 5," Hunt says.

Here's the rubric on which Tennessee's teachers are graded. It was clearly written by people who have no practical experience in the classroom and think the best way to raise morale is to nitpick every little thing out of context ("Wait Time" must be 3-5 seconds. Sorry, you waited for 8 seconds too often - no merit pay for you...).

Is anyone here prepared to tell me that this teacher doesn't have other opportunities in the job market? And that if, as Chris Christie says, she isn't satisfied with being hectored over inconsequential and trivial criteria for smaller pay, fewer benefits, and non-existent job protections... well, this probably isn't the right job for her.

These people are destroying the profession. The damage they are doing will haunt this country for years. It's disgusting, it's immoral, and it needs to stop.

And if you are so wedded to corporate "reform" that you can't see this, you are part of the problem.

ADDING: Eh, why am I so worried. We're obviously overpaid: just ask a bunch of people who don't teach! Everything will be just fine, because if anyone's in touch with reality of how labor markets work, it's conservative think tanks on the wingnut welfare gravy train...

Merit Pay Fairy Sighting in Trenton!

Believers in the Merit Pay Fairy get very cross when you tell them she doesn't exist. They claim she will come, but only if we clap harder!

New Jersey Senate President Stephen Sweeney says he could support merit pay in classroom so long as schools, not individual teachers, are rewarded.

The South Jersey Democrat tells The Associated Press a merit pay bill that rewards schools for exceeding educational expectations could be debated before the Legislature recesses for the winter holidays.

Don't worry that this has been tried before and has failed - MANY times. Just keep believing that this time, we'll get it right, and the Merit Pay Fairy will finally appear, waving her magic wand and making childhood poverty and income inequity magically disappear!

Whaddya mean, I remind youse of Sen. Sweeney?

A Challenge For Every NJ Newspaper:

So many of you are convinced that firing our way to better teachers is absolutely necessary. You even claim it will close the income gap (oh, Tom, I really am trying to be civil, but you make it so hard when you won't even attempt to answer my points). OK...

With whom will you replace these fired teachers?

Who is all teed up and ready to hit the ground running in these schools? Who's ready to go in and save our youth? Teach for America? You mean, the college grads who treat teaching like the Peace Corps - in for a couple of years before moving on to their "real" jobs?

Here's a thought: send some reporters out to some NJ colleges and see what the undergrads think about "reform." See if they are jazzed to go work in schools now that we've cut pay, benefits, and prestige. See if the best and the brightest are ready to go into Camden and Trenton and Newark under a testing regime that will evaluate them as well as rolling dice.

Until you convince me that there are plenty of competent teachers standing by, waiting to jump in and erase income inequity, I really don't want to hear your fantasies about firing teachers as our way out of the recession. And I especially don't want to hear you claim the governor can't do much else, even while he continues to give huge tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations.

Deal with that before you start complaining about all of these allegedly "bad" teachers - especially since you can't even tell us how many there are or how you will replace them.

Jazzman Estates Update

I had some killer stuff I was going to post today that would conclusively prove I am right about everything. And then the snow hit.

Here at Jazzman Estates, we are fortunate enough to have a generator from our Florida days. Funny, we never actually used it down there, but it's been getting a workout since we've come back to Jersey.

We have a bizzarre tangle of cords running through the kitchen and family room, powering the fridge and a rotating selection of electronics deemed absolutely necessary for teenaged life in the 21st Century. I'm tethered to a cell phone and a waiting for the current tank of gas to run out before shutting down for the night and bringing our neighbors blessed silence.

For those of you in other climes, let me tell you: I've never seen anything like this. The trees... it's really sad. Big, beautiful, tough oaks just falling apart. The leaves are holding the snow and the weight is just destroying them. Driving around today for provisions, it was really, really scary to see how much of our electrical grid is affected by this; but the damage to the trees... well, we'll be seeing this for years. Again, it's sad: Joyce Kilmer and all.

Don't know if we'll get trick-or-treaters tomorrow. Sucks for the kids: who wants to go out on Halloween with snow on the ground?

Obviously, blogging was curtailed this weekend, and we'll just have to see what happens tomorrow. Stay safe and stay warm. To all of my readers and friends who are in other locals missed this - think kindly of us over the next few days.