Kenneth Brown Billups

Kenneth Billups's Response:

I agree there is value in seeing trends in your students' scores over a period of time. I annually use my test scores to reflect on the job I'm doing and, even more so, where I need to improve. I also agree this is one way of assessing those among us who truly are a detriment to student learning. As with all professions, everyone in our profession is not qualified.

I have a problem, however, with the rubric used by the LA Times' reporters to "grade" our profession. It is SIGNIFICANT to note that the value-added measure of performance is only ONE of MANY ways a teacher can and should be evaluated. Whereas the Times dedicated 2 full pages of negative perceptions of teachers, it only provided ONE SENTENCE about the Obama Admin. stating value-added measures should be only 30% of the evaluation. Yet, the whole soon-to-be published "grade" will be 100% totally based on this one measure of competence! How unfair. What about the other 70% of our evaluation process??????!!!! You totally ignored it, intentionally, and it's obvious. Do you really believe parents will notice that sentence and give it its significance??? This was a blatantly unfair assessment of thousands of honest, hard-working, dedicated teachers.

The message sent to teachers is clear - teach to the test! THAT'S what the Times will grade you on and publish for all to see. No longer will teachers such as myself engage their students with more enriched, challenging, critical thinking, real-life activities beyond the standards. Such won't be on the test, and according to reporters at the Times, nothing else matters. Soooo, I'll scrap my 8 week Wonderful Body Machine lesson that has my students TEACHING parents and the student body on 8 systems of the human anatomy in a culminating auditorium presentation. I'll also scrap my 8 week BIZWORLD lesson, where students form corporations, write business plans, design, manufacture, market (Powerpoint presentations/video commercials), and sell their company's products as they compete for Small Business of the Year. Yes, I'll scrap my 5 week Computers-Inside-and-Out lesson, where they learn both the hardware and software technology of computers prior to disassembling and reassembling parent donated computer mainframes. I'll, of course, scrap my Advanced Math program, where my 5th graders willingly sacrifice their lunch play-time to learn middle school algebra and geometry. None of this will be tested! None of this will matter to my bosses at the L A Times news department.

Yes, it will expose the weak among us, and that's good. However, the repercussions will open up a pandoras box of chaos for principals and teachers. Too many parents will use and abuse this as ammunition to blame teacher after teacher for their child's academic deficiencies, taking no accountability themselves or placing any on the child. Parents are such a vital component in the academic progress - or lack of such- for their child. Yet, the Times chose to literally place all of the blame, once again, on the teacher in the classroom. The teacher with limited supplies, textbooks, disruptive students, etc. etc., etc. That, of course, is a whole different topic best not stated in this teacher bashing hit piece. First, we give up two $700 deductions in our monthly paychecks to cover for the district's incompetence in budget matters to save fellow teachers' jobs. Of course the ones at my school were laid off anyway.

Now this. If we are the "single most important" tool to learning, why not support us instead of constantly berating us. Will you push for salary increases for the Most Effective? Of course not. A lose-lose predicament for us. How shameful.

No, how disgraceful.