For Information: Darren Allen
802.223.6375 (office)
March 16, 2010
Vermont-NEA President Rebukes Process, Calls for ‘Timeout’
MONTPELIER – The Vermont Department of Education’s admission that its list of the state’s 10 neediest schools was riddled with mistakes calls into question the usefulness of such evaluations in measuring student achievement, the president of the state’s largest union said today.
“This mistake clearly illustrates why an approach of identifying so-called low-achieving schools based on narrow criteria won’t lead to better student learning,” Vermont-NEA President Martha Allen said. “Simply put, the Department of Education failed – failed the administrators, teachers and other educators at these schools, failed the communities that support these schools and, most importantly, failed the students who were led to believe they aren’t making the grade.”
The list – which the department corrected this morning – was mandated by new Obama Administration regulations. The requirement to identify “persistently low-achieving schools” is particularly distressing for Vermont ’s schools, which consistently outperform almost all other schools in the country, Allen said.
“The commissioner was correct about one thing last week when he said that none of the schools identified on the list would have been included on such a list in any other state because of their levels of achievement,” Allen said, referring to Education Commissioner Armando Villaseca. “Too bad that these students and teachers had to be put through needless anxiety and humiliation.”
That the department mistakenly included schools last week makes this week’s new list even more dubious, Allen said. “This example of underperformance by the very department charged with evaluating the performance of our public schools is troubling,” she said. “This is no way to evaluate student achievement.”
The mistake-riddled list comes during a week in which some policy makers in Montpelier and Washington are furiously trying to impose their will on all aspects of local public education. Perhaps those policy makers – eager to prescribe easy fixes to score political points – should take a time out and learn how best to improve upon Vermont’s already top-tier public education system, Allen said.
“For years, Governor Douglas has complained about a school system’s costs that have grown slower than those of his own state government; for years, policy makers here and in Washington have bemoaned schools that, in Vermont, rank in the top 10 of all national measurements; and, in recent weeks, some at the Statehouse are busy working to impose their will on teachers and students,” Allen said.
“We need to call a time-out until we abandon this top-down system where we emphasize punishment and shame in favor of an approach where we not only expect a lot from our educators, but empower them with the tools to be the professionals they are in order to get the most out of every student.”
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