Truly Confounding Data
Can somebody help me? I can’t make heads or tails of this little bar graph I put together. It’s obvious that we have an unfortunate concentration of Bad Teachers in Wards 7 and 8. That’s the big story here, but is there anything else?
PLEASE HELP!!
Note on the data: School data is average combined proficiency in reading and math for all traditional public schools in each ward of the city (no charters) on the DC CAS, our ‘state’ NCLB test. This average combines elementary and secondary schools and does not weight for size of student body. Poverty data is the average percent of children living in poverty in each ward from 2005-2009.
Sources: DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education; Neighborhood Info DC (Census Data, Urban Institute)
Blame teachers for everything. That is what we do. Doesn’t matter that the graph doesn’t present enough information to be useful. We should still blame teachers.
I am no statistician, but there does seem to be a striking correlation between the percent of students living in poverty and the percent scoring proficient in reading and mathematics. Of course, this could also be due to the terrible teachers in wards 7 an 8 as you hypothesized as well. Do you have access to the teachers’ VAM scores in those wards? I’m sure the VAM rankings will confirm your hypothesis that those teachers suck.
Obviously the teachers in wards 3 and 2 should go to ward 7 and 8 to tech those BAAAAD teachers a thing or two.
The teachers in ward 3 and 2 need to go to wards 7 and 8 to teach those BAAAAAAAD teachers a few things.
Are you an idiot? How can you make an assumption about anything ever using data that comes from a school?
And, it’s pretty clear that the kids in wards 7 and 8 have pissed off their formerly good teachers who clearly went to wards 1 and 2.
These data have more to do with student dissatisfaction with their teachers than the interaction of performance and poverty.
Learn to read.
And, what’s with ward 6? They buck the trend, slightly. Surely there must have been some early transfers or other anomaly that accounts for the irregularity.
The teachers, who, as research shows, are incredibly overpaid, all live in Wards 2, 3 and 4.
Teachers with children live in wards 3 and 4, and secretly tutor their own children at night. Ward 2 has some teachers living there, but they don’t have children of their own, and as data confirms, teachers are out to make sure everyone else’s children become miserable failures.
Way to go overpaid teachers, who would have thought you had that much power (or pay).
I really wished I worked somewhere in which data, that four-letter word, is NEVER mentioned and has little meaning and/or no value.
Give me a job that pays 3/4 of what I make now and I’m out faster than you can say data-driven instruction.
Also, my research shows that there are thousands of high quality teachers standing on the street corners of Wards 6,7 and 8, only to be repelled from the schools by the powerful force fields set up by the unions.
My best guess is that the higher the proficiency rating and the lower the poverty rate, the more likely it is that teachers in those wards have little experience or training. You would probably find a higher percentage of Teach for America teachers in those high-achieving, low poverty wards because we know that new teachers with five weeks Teach for America training are experts at closing achievement gaps (for the two years they teach). In the schools with higher poverty and lower achievement rates, there are probably more long term veteran teachers sitting around reading their union contracts and drinking coffee, just coasting to their fat retirements since there’s no way to fire them now that Michelle Rhee is gone. That’s too bad, because if Michelle Rhee were still in DC, none of this would be happening. It would be 100% proficiency and 0% poverty in every ward b/c she would have fired all those awful veteran teachers by now.
The only thing I would quibble with is the part about getting rid of poverty. We should keep it around because it provides the opportunity to demonstrate the awesome power of good teaching. We know what works! It’s just not working yet…for some reason. Time for more of the same, but faster and harder! No Excuses!
You’re right about the need to keep poverty around to show the value of good teaching. We really do need to see high poverty with high achievement b/c that’s the only way to show narrowing gaps. I keep forgetting about that because I used to think poverty was sort of a bad thing, but now I know better than that. I was also wrong about the idea of Teach for America being in the low poverty schools because I do think they only place their recruits in high poverty schools. I don’t think wealthier districts have a need for recent college grads with 5 weeks classroom training–they seem to be doing just fine with more educated and experienced teachers, despite the unions.
And I guess if we worked to fix the economic gap between rich and poor, we would not be able to work on fixing the achievement gap. We can only do so many things at a time. Focusing on poverty instead of achievement (which rely on poverty rates for measurement) would be a huge disservice to the testing, publishing, software, and charter school companies that help provide so many non-unionized private sector jobs and create wealth for hedge fund managers and venture capitalists. These companies and their people are the true heroes of education reform by keeping our most impoverished students at the forefront of our country’s educational goals. As they keep reminding us, education is the civil rights issue of our times. We all know that the bankers, realtors, and others like them have always been key players during every important civil rights battle in this country. Just look at Citizens United!
Now I am going to revise my guess and guess that the lower-achieving wards are probably not teaching to the test enough. They probably need to hire a good company run by a few former Teach for America recruits to come in and do intensive professional development to get those scores up. It would be good if the company’s board is composed of at least a few people from Bain capital or Walmart.
It’s really not that hard. Smart people and hard workers make money and produce children who are smart and/or work hard and do well on standardized tests. Dumb people and lazy asses end up in poverty and produce children (lots of them) who are also dumb and/or lazy and don’t do well on standardized tests. The best teachers in the universe can’t fix that. And why would they want to? We get paid the same crappy salary whether we teach calm well behaved rich kids or kids who pull knives on each other.
It is obvious to me that the teachers in wards 7 & *8 don’t care enough to ensure the success of their students. If they faithfully attended meetings and carried out the myriad of initiatives generated from said meetings, if they had walls that talk, if they gave their students more formative assessment and rigorous summative assessment, if they simply gathered MORE DATA, then they too would have successful students. Shame on them.
Speaking of data, I thought that others might like to know about an interesting book dealing with another facet of society that is “failing”. “Best Care Anywhere”, by Phillip Longman, is about the author’s search for the best form of health care in America. It’s relatively short, and written for a general audience, and could even be used in high school classes for discussion. The author’s findings are rather surprising.
The schools in my district that earned Cs, Ds, and Fs on last year’s state exams also had the highest percentages of students on free and reduced lunch; the schools that earned As and Bs had the lowest percentages of students on free and reduced lunch.
Poverty = unstable homes = shitty students = shitty test scores. Wealth = stable homes = good students = good test scores… This is of course an oversimplification, but for the most part it’s true, and has always been true, and probably always will be true.
A teacher’s worth should be based on the quality of the classroom experience they provide; or, in other words, the quality of the opportunities they give to their students to better themselves and learn something about the world. A teacher’s worth should not be based on whether or not their students take the opportunities presented to them, as this is out of the teacher’s control. The NCLB tests (which do not align with one another on a state by state basis) do not measure this. All they measure is whether or not a kid can answer a specific type of multiple choice question.
S’all bullshit…
CLEARLY the teachers in Wards 7 and 8 have not formed effective Professional Learning Communities, embraced common assessment, or written professional growth plans based upon both quantitative and qualitative data which align with their School Improvement Plans.
The poor instruction in wards 7 & 8 certainly is a concern. But, I think it is even more important that we investiage the means by which these teachers in wards 7 & 8 are impoverishing the families. Is their electronic fraud involved. Are these teachers part of an organized crime ring that is extorting money from the families? I am certain that we will find the answer if we drill down further into the data.
OMG I had not even thought of this level of conspiracy, fraud and larceny. You are so darn clever, no wonder you are anonymous. I believe we have got to the bottom of this now!! Congratulations!!
Hey, I got out of teaching and am very happy. I always found myself reading these articles instead of grading papers:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-10-unhappiest-jobs-in-america.html
MF, congrats!!! Care to share what it is you do now? I’m planning on getting out too. Just trying to decide on a practical alternative. I have a few ideas, but the more ideas the better…
I passed my first two interviews with a huge company this summer but pulled my application because I am moving out of state. I didn’t want to waste our time. The job was in corporate training. Teachers have transferable skills!I just wish we would all realize that and take a walk from this scripted profession. We have value. I was looking forward to being treated like a professional…and an adult!
I passed two interviews with a major corporation this summer but pulled my application because I’m moving out of state. I didn’t want to waste our time. The point is, I got a call and interviews. There is hope of getting out of our scripted profession. It was in corporate training. We teachers have transferable skills. I was looking forward to being treated like a professional…oh, and an adult.
I think people would be interested to hear more about your escape if you wouldn’t mind sharing. How did you get the job?
I didn’t follow through, Mr. Teachbad, because my house is on the market and I’m moving out of state. Hopefully I can leave in January. I didn’t want to waste her time or mine. But for everyone else…I geared my resume to reflect my skills in training. We’ve all done a staff development or a parent training (or you can say you did), created curriculum, managed a group of people (kids), etc. You get your foot in the door and then you bring in your work samples or curriculum and research training topics and create training manuals. We are all educated and more patient than most people. I’m trying it again after I move. Good luck to everyone!
I just left teaching because I couldn’t take it any more! I was a hs math teacher and now I work as a contractor for a large company doing data analysis. I am paid by the hour, only work 40 hours a week, and after 8 years of teaching, got a big raise. My eye stopped twitching a week ago.
Ruth-
I’m thinking of compiling a little database of stories like yours. I think there are a lot of people out there who want to know that there is life outside of teaching, but they don’t know how to get out. I’ll ask you again later, but for now, please feel invited to describe how you got out. What was your resume strategy? Did you have a contact who helped you? etc…
Yes, the sharing of stories can be helpful to those of us (like me) who want out and bad.
I think much of it has to do with what situation you are in. I think factors like being younger (in your 20s), single, and not having too many years in, can play a major factor in the decision to leave, or at least when.
I’m 40, NOT single, and as each year passes and my pay goes up, it makes it harder and harder. I’m sure there are others in a similar boat. My wife is a great, understanding person, but for me to turn around and say “Honey, I want to quit my career and work a job in which I would make half the money. Would you mind?” would be a problem.
I currently do have a plan, however, but it’s one in which I am going to pursue a trade (that does not require trade school) and do it part-time. I’ll see how it goes. If the right things happen and the pay justifies quitting teaching to pursue this full-time, I’m OUT….faster than you can say differentiated instruction.
Back to what Mr. Teachbad said, however, success stories (just leaving teaching is half-success right there) would be inspiring to others, not to mention generating ideas for others, especially those who are not so young, etc.