Kay Wong Fong

Kay Fong's Response:

I am a retired 3rd grade teacher, but was still teaching during the "value-added" years. I do not think that publishing/ or using the test results is a true basis for teacher effectiveness. Unless each third grade teacher is given children of the exact abilities , attention spans, comfort levels when taking a test, etc., the individual teachers should not be penalized by value-added scores. My experience of 41 years in LAUSD gave me the opportunity to interact with children of many different language and economic backgrounds. Many children are just as gifted in the arts and social interactions, but do not necessarily do well on the structured tests which are presently being used. I found that in my last years of teaching, it was all about the tests and it became less of an opportunity to encourage creativity and to be a creative teacher.

I acknowledge that there are teachers that probably need to be in another profession, but an update in evaluations by principals would certainly help.

What happens when the teacher data is published and only 30 children can be in "Mr. Most Effective"'s class? How will the other parents/teachers feel? Will there end up being a lottery to see who gets into "Mr. Most Effective"'s class? Many teachers are quite gifted and encourage children to thrive in important ways other than taking a standardized test. Some type of middle road needs to be in place which includes some testing and some on teacher observation.

I feel that principals should be given a better/faster way to root out the teachers that aren't suited to teaching. They have tremendous obstacles to face just to remove an ineffective teacher, often taking a whole school year before the teacher is "transferred".

Where is the parental responsibility to help encourage children to do homework, pay attention, respect for teachers, etc.? All these factor in to how well a child will do in school and on any test.
Thank you.
Kay W. Fong

Thank you.
Kay Fong