The following are comments from Joshua Starr, Superintendent of Stamford Public Schools. I decided on this format - as opposed to a traditional article - to allow the Superintendent to present his thoughts to readers directly, without any interference from me. These remarks were made during my interview with Dr. Starr as our conversation shifted from curriculum to teaching. Previous articles in this series dealt with IB, the state of Stamford schools, and curriculum. Now, the Superintendent on topics of local and national interest:
Joshua Starr, Stamford Superintendent of Schools (Photo: Bob Luckey/Stamford Advocate)
On the role teachers and schools play with regard to student achievement:
“We know how to teach kids how to read. We know how to teach them how to write and do mathematics and whatever else. It’s essentially a willpower issue. The fact that it’s not being done is related to how you feel about it not being done. If you believe that it’s somebody else’s problem and somebody else’s fault…Some people feel like ‘I teach the curriculum,’ and some people feel like ‘I teach the kid and I’ve got to modify and adjust.’”*
On the national discussion concerning teachers and educators:
“I’m really disturbed about the rhetoric that I’m hearing out there against teachers and educators. There’s no doubt that we all have to get a lot better at what we’re doing. Educators have a body of knowledge that nobody else does. Whether it’s enough or whether they’re good at doing it is a different issue. But we’re actually the only ones who know what to do with a kid for five periods a day or five hours a day or whatever it may be. It’s just a body of knowledge that we have that other people don’t. I think that we can find a middle ground between some really disturbing rhetoric out there and the fact that we know something that other people don’t. The bashing of teachers, of educators, of principals, I don’t really get. Which doesn’t mean that I don’t think we have to get a lot better at what we do.”
On standardized tests:
“The standardized tests tell you when something’s wrong, they don’t tell you when something’s right. If kids aren’t performing well on standardized tests you know that something’s wrong there and we have to fix it. But just because kids are doing well doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re good enough. The test makers tell you this and all the statisticians tell you this: It’s one indicator of student achievement. It’s one single indicator. It’s not the only indicator. It’s not necessarily the best indicator. It’s one narrow, limited indicator and it should not be used for high-stakes purposes.”
On evaluating teachers based on test results:
“If you’re only using standardized test scores, how do you capture all the other people in the system? When I was in New York City doing the value-added work, we realized that if you looked at value-added scores it would only capture a third of the teachers. There are some real constraints there. You need at least three to five years of data (for evaluation purposes). Yes [teachers] should be accountable, but it shouldn’t be just solely on test scores.”
On best practices for evaluating teachers:
“Teachers need to be accountable for student performance, and I think that needs to happen in a couple ways: Our theory of action with our (Stamford’s) Strategic District Improvement Plan is that first adults need to learn stuff, then they need to practice it, and then the student achievement will happen. We have to teach people how to do it, we have to monitor and support them and make sure that they’re doing it right, and then expect the outcomes. Too often the rhetoric out there is ‘just tell them to do it and if they don’t do it tell them they’re out.’ First you have to account for, is the teacher doing what they’re supposed to be doing? Do they have the opportunity to learn – whether it’s in professional learning communities, which is one of the core tenants of our reform work. Do we have good data to give them? And then, when they’re not getting student achievement as measured in multiple ways, whether it’s looking at student work, whether it’s looking at student test scores, or whatever else, do we have the avenue to correct that? We’ve got to think about accountability as developmental, not as ‘gotcha.’”
*Starr was referring, in part, to the work of the late Ron Edmonds, a 20th century leader in education reform.
[...] Starr: I think we can find common ground – 2/22/11 [...]
Comment by Buh-Bye Jerry, Hello Josh « The "More" Child — April 25th, 2011 @ 10:32 pm