Teacher Quality Assessment: Open letter to Patrick D'Amelio, president of Alliance For Education.

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[Blog note:  Alliance For Education.org (A4E, alliance4eduction.org) is a local foundation that is supporting efforts by the School Board and the Superintendent (and other external entities) to reform Seattle Public Schools.  Recently, A4E hosted a presentation by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), a reform advocacy nonprofit.  This comment was submitted October 18, 2009 to alliance4education.blogspot.com, in response to the blog entry entitled: "Final Thought For Friday."   http://alliance4ed.blogspot.com/2009/10/final-thought-on-friday.html?]




Joan NE said...


Mr. D'Amelia, please favor me with a reply to the questions and assertions contained herein

(not to mention the numerous thoughtful, relevant--and as yet unanswered--questions and assertions submitted to this blog site).

How is A4E assisting the District in moving toward a TQ assessment system, other than hosting the NCTQ workshop Oct 13, 2009?

Please rebutt the following assertions:

With respect to current efforts within SPS and its (business) Community Stakeholders ("partners" to "public-private partnerships") to design and to PREPARE to put in place a TQ Assessment System, two purposes are

1) to create data-based decision making infrastructure/exostructure [see note at end of comment for definition of term] that anticipates the District's overcoming teachers' union resistance to incentive, merit pay, and ending of seniority-based placement/promotion/retention/etc. policies;

2) to provide another entry point for private business to earn income by providing contract services to the District.

Let's suppose we could suspend, for a moment, the second purpose as a priority.

Now, let's put our creativity, insight, intelligence, and research skills into contemplating this question:

What are appropriate objectives for any TQA program?

Can we conceive of a sensible, cost-effective, meaningful, and respectful TQA system which serves well the intended objectives, and which is likely to be well-received by teachers, principals, Directors, and the public?

I suggest that the answer would not look like a Reformist-friendly solution--such as NCTQ (a Reformist advocacy group) might propose--, because Reformist solutions must satisfy additional objectives, the most obvious being these:

--Provide an opportunity for business income.

--Maximize the potential business income.

I look forward to and welcome a response to my question, and a rebuttal of my assertions.

Sincerely,

Joan Sias ("Joan NE")
Note: I use term "exostructure" to mean the outsourcing to private business entities functions that will be required to support data-driven TAPPPS (Teacher Assessment,Promotion, Pay, Placement System), including technology-based assessments, data archiving, data-analysis, and Instructional Leadership professional development (for training principals to coach and monitor teachers for fidelity to core-curriculum objects).

October 18, 2009 1:25 PM