Michael Corey Lyon

Michael Lyon's Response:

From an early age, my upbringing and schooling have led me to set high standards for myself. When I have failed at something (as a child I was downright terrible at playing little league baseball) I have tried to figure out how to excel in some other area (by my teens my tennis ability and communication skills allowed me to make valuable contributions to my high school winning state championships in varsity tennis and interscholastic debate). While there have been times when I have felt unfairly judged or categorized, my firm belief is that we learn more from our mistakes and shortcomings than we do from our successes. Though I strongly disagree with the decision of The LA Times to publish an evaluation of my teaching through what many feel to be a “value-added” methodology at best imperfect and at worst deeply flawed, that the paper has chosen to associate words like “average,” least effective” and “less effective” with my performance relative to my students’ abilities to choose the right answers on the CST suggests to me that I have the opportunity before me to reflect on my teaching practice, to learn something useful, and perhaps one day excel as a teacher in raising student’s standardized test scores. Standardized test scores are not what I remember most about my elementary school years. Nor is the promotion of standardized test growth the reason I became a teacher in the first place. But to the extent that many of the powers that be value that measure of instruction more than the areas of education that most inspire me (e.g., creative arts like music which have led me to learn how to play the violin as an adult; being the kind of role model who encourages children to grow interpersonally and become willing to listen to and respect one another; and so forth) I certainly owe it to my students to do a better job increasing their scores. If given the chance, I publicly promise here to try to learn from where I have fallen short and give this endeavor my best effort.