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Teacher allegedly disciplined because her students' scores are too high

Beaudreaux

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Dan Prochilo Jul 1, 2014, 3:54 pm

Teacher allegedly disciplined because her students' scores are too high

East Rockaway instructor fights her removal from the classroom

An East Rockaway teacher has accused the school district of ousting her from the classroom because her students' strong performance on standardized tests has backfired.

Voula Coyle, a veteran fourth grade teacher at Rhame Avenue School, said her strong teaching skills have dragged down her school's state rating.

Coyle alleged she has been falsely accused of misconduct after she brushed off administrators’ calls for teachers to do a lackluster job in order to rig the state's ranking system.

She said in an interview with FiOS1 News that district has engaged in a campaign of harassment and intimidation against her and has fostered "a divisive environment where the children are suffering.

"They are not putting their concern where it needs to be: with the children and the taxpayers," said the 17-year instructor at the grammar school. "And they are destroying my reputation in the community."

Coyle and her attorney Vincent White of White, Ricotta & Marks PC in Queens, say they are considering filing litigation against the district.

Coyle, who was reassigned from her classroom to a clerical job at the end of April, said her students have consistently scored above average on state tests, winning her the highest possible rating on the pupil performance section of the state's Annual Professional Performance Review.

But her students' solid work has become a problem for Rhame Avenue School teachers at the next grade level and for the school as a whole, according to White.

The New York State Education Department's performance rating system is designed to reward instructors and schools when students show academic improvement from one grade to the next, White said.

But Coyle's students’ scores either don't improve or get worse while they are in fifth grade. As a result a few fifth grade teachers have been rated as less than effective and the school's entire score has been pulled down, which could pose a threat to state funding, according to Coyle.

...

Story here

If this is true...
 
"Let's rate teachers and punish the ones who do badly" they said

"It will be good for the students" they said

It would not seem to be the fault of the kids, since they proved in her class that they can learn and want to learn.

If she can get her students to learn and do well in class, why can't the fifth grade teachers as well? Seems that if this story is true, which I haven't found anywhere else, that it is the teachers that are the problem. And, if not for what you stated above, we never would have known. So...
 
Ironically, at the collegiate level the tragic trend is toward "student success." I'll let everybody translate that phrase....
 
So the bottom line is: Teach your children to be mediocre. Well... that's about right.

Same with the Pasco County School District in Florida who feels the achievement of valedictorians and salutatorian are "unfair" to the other children.

Yahoo News said:
"We started looking at the diversity of pathways that a student can take… Many students take advantage of the Pasco virtual school, and it's not an even game anymore," said Amelia Larson, the assistant superintendent at Pasco County Schools. "Many students close out of a class after the GPA is calculated. It's just so complicated."
 
It would not seem to be the fault of the kids, since they proved in her class that they can learn and want to learn.

If she can get her students to learn and do well in class, why can't the fifth grade teachers as well? Seems that if this story is true, which I haven't found anywhere else, that it is the teachers that are the problem. And, if not for what you stated above, we never would have known. So...

Just to be clear, I didn't say it was the kids fault. Obviously, there's blame to go around (teachers, administrators, etc) but not to the kids.

My point is that simple sounding solutions to complex problems often have unintended consequences.

If a school is having problems, the last thing that should be done is to cut their funding. We're the only industrialized nation that does that. In other developed nations, schools with problems get extra help, not extra punishment.
 
So the bottom line is: Teach your children to be mediocre. Well... that's about right.

Same with the Pasco County School District in Florida who feels the achievement of valedictorians and salutatorian are "unfair" to the other children.

No, teach your children that that are great in any endeavor and that if they are not, it's somebody or something else's fault.

Yes, mediocrity will be the result of lowering the bar...and the far-reaching consequences are yet to be seen.

I've posted this bit before, but I think it's appropriate here to repost it:

Excerpt on Education from The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

"…the spirit of I'm as good as you has already become something more than generally social influence….The basic principle of the new education is to be that dunces and idlers must not be made to feel inferior to intelligent and industrious pupils. That would be 'undemocratic.' These differences between the pupils--for they are obviously and nakedly individual differences--must be disguised. This can be done on various levels. At universities examinations must be framed so that nearly all the students get good marks. Entrance examinations must be framed so that all, or nearly all, citizens can go to universities, whether they have any power (or wish) to profit by higher education or not. At schools, the children who are too stupid or lazy to learn languages and mathematics and elementary science can be set to doing the things that children used to do in their spare time. Let them, for example, make mud pies and call it modelling. But all the time there must be no faintest hint that they are inferior to the children who are at work.. Whatever nonsense they are engaged in must have--I believe the English already use the phrase--"parity of esteem."

…"In a word, we may reasonably hope for the virtual abolition of education when I'm as good as you has fully had its way. All incentives to learn and all penalties for not learning will vanish. The few who might want to learn will be prevented; who are they to overtop their fellows? And anyway the teachers--or should I say, nurses?--will be far too busy reassuring the dunces and patting them on the back to waste any time on real teaching. We [the demons of Hell] shall no longer have to plan and toil to spread imperturbable conceit and incurable ignorance among men. [They] themselves will do it for us."
 
"Let's rate teachers and punish the ones who do badly" they said

But this doesn't appear to be a case of the "bad one" being punished. This appears to be attempting to punish a "good one" because they're good.
 
This is disgusting. We need more teachers like Mrs. Coyle, not less. Standardization is holding this country back.
 
But this doesn't appear to be a case of the "bad one" being punished. This appears to be attempting to punish a "good one" because they're good.

Yes, that's true but the motive behind punishing the good teacher is the policy of punishing the bad teachers and schools. Particularly the latter.

If something is punished, then those subject to the punishment will try to discourage (with punishment) anyone or anything that presents a threat that they will be punished.
 
Yes, that's true but the motive behind punishing the good teacher is the policy of punishing the bad teachers and schools. Particularly the latter.

Actually, taken at face value, it seems the motive behind the punishing of the good teacher is attempting to CIRCUMVENT the policy of punishing bad teachers and schools. At best that's a negative on the part of those trying to circumvent the policy, at worst it's an indictment that the methodology of the policy if flawed. But in no way is it an indication that taking action against BAD teachers is somehow bad which seems to be your implication here.

I mean, seriously...what are you arguing? That poor performing people will act unethically to attempt to hide their per performance is proof that we shouldn't attempt to decentivize poor performance?

There's no reason to suggest this would be any different if it was a policy focusing on positive re-enforcement instead negative. Instead of punishing a teacher for doing well, which "causes" another to be punished for doing worse...it'd instead punish a teacher for doing well, which "causes" another to not be rewarded for doing better.
 
There has to be more to this.
 
Actually, taken at face value, it seems the motive behind the punishing of the good teacher is attempting to CIRCUMVENT the policy of punishing bad teachers and schools.

That's what I was saying. But they wouldn't have a motive of trying to circumvent their punishment if poor performing schools and teachers weren't punished.

At best that's a negative on the part of those trying to circumvent the policy, at worst it's an indictment that the methodology of the policy if flawed. But in no way is it an indication that taking action against BAD teachers is somehow bad which seems to be your implication here.

It is if there is not "methodology" (I prefer the term "implementation") can guarantee against these kinds of circumventions. I don't think there is such an implementation, because we've seen this sort of thing before with "high stakes testing", which is profoundly entwined with this policy. It has encouraged some teachers, and schools, to tell their students the questions and the answers before the test.

I mean, seriously...what are you arguing? That poor performing people will act unethically to attempt to hide their per performance is proof that we shouldn't attempt to decentivize poor performance?

There's no reason to suggest this would be any different if it was a policy focusing on positive re-enforcement instead negative. Instead of punishing a teacher for doing well, which "causes" another to be punished for doing worse...it'd instead punish a teacher for doing well, which "causes" another to not be rewarded for doing better.

I would suggest that we not punish poorly performing teachers and schools, but instead ensure they have adequate resources and assistance from their better performing colleagues.
 
Just to be clear, I didn't say it was the kids fault. Obviously, there's blame to go around (teachers, administrators, etc) but not to the kids.

My point is that simple sounding solutions to complex problems often have unintended consequences.

If a school is having problems, the last thing that should be done is to cut their funding. We're the only industrialized nation that does that. In other developed nations, schools with problems get extra help, not extra punishment.

It isn't the industrialized nation of the United States of America, but rather that Democratic paradise called New York State that will cut their funding; according to the story: "New York State Education Department's performance rating system is designed to reward instructors and schools when students show academic improvement from one grade to the next..."

I don't disagree, and in fact fully agree with you, that the school shouldn't suffer by having their funds cut, and by extension, hurting the kids. What should happen, is the poorly performing teachers should either be given remedial training to improve their performance, or be released from duty, or both if the remedial training is not successful.

I have no proof from the OP article, however, I would hazard to guess that these teachers are part of a teachers union, and that the union and tenure are preventing the school from the release of poorly performing teachers.

Teachers, like every other employee of any employer, should have a realistic evaluation process to gauge their performance. It would appear, that one of the evaluation processes that could be used, is exactly what the state of NY is doing - see if the students improve or at least maintain their performance level from one grade to another. However, again, it should be the teachers not the students that should be on the receiving end of any punitive actions. And, reducing the funding to the students education in this or any other school is in fact punitive to the students, while the teachers that do badly keep their jobs and the one(s) that excel receive punitive actions by the school.

It's bass-ackwards.

We should not be concerned with protecting funding or poorly performing teachers (which was the take-away from this story) but rather be solely concerned with teaching the kids in a way in which they actually learn and excel. The teacher in the OP article has shown that she is a highly capable teacher that not only cares about her job and her students, but also is able to get kids in a very poor neighborhood to perform above and beyond the standards.

I know this area. I spent many months working in the Rockaways. They were ground zero for Hurricane Sandy's NY landfall. East Rockaway adjoins Nassau County on the south shore of Long Island, in the Borough of Queens, New York. That area is lower middle class to lower class and a poverty ridden area. This teacher has shown, IMHO, that kids can overcome their environment and rise up and out of their current conditions. She should be teaching the other teachers how she did it, not being demoted and then fired.

Again, it's just bass-ackwards.
 
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Sounds to me like an allegation of cheating on the test, as opposed to doing too good of a job of teaching.

May be, but there's no evidence whatsoever of that. From the attorney for the teacher fired, it had to do with her not complying with her instruction to lower the scores of her students (insubordination).

Again, there's no evidence to point to anything else.

I do wish that either me or someone else could find another article about this so we could read another perspective.
 
It isn't the industrialized nation of the United States of America, but rather that Democratic paradise called New York State that will cut their funding; according to the story: "New York State Education Department's performance rating system is designed to reward instructors and schools when students show academic improvement from one grade to the next..."

I don't disagree, and in fact fully agree with you, that the school shouldn't suffer by having their funds cut, and by extension, hurting the kids. What should happen, is the poorly performing teachers should either be given remedial training to improve their performance, or be released from duty, or both if the remedial training is not successful.

I have no proof from the OP article, however, I would hazard to guess that these teachers are part of teachers union, and that the union and tenure are preventing the school from the release of poorly performing teachers.

Teachers, like every other employee of any employer, should have a realistic evaluation process to gauge their performance. It would appear, that one of the evaluation processes that could be used, is exactly what the state of NY is doing - see if the students improve or at least maintain their performance level. However, again, it should be the teachers not the students that should be on the receiving end of any punitive actions. And, reducing the funding to the students education in this or any other school is in fact punitive to the students, while the teachers that do badly keep their jobs and the one(s) that excel receive punitive actions by the school.

It's bass-ackwards.

We should not be concerned with protecting funding or poorly performing teachers (which was the take-away from this story) but rather be solely concerned with teaching the kids in a way in which they actually learn and excel. The teacher in the OP article has shown that she is a highly capable teacher that not only cares about her job and her students, but also is able to get kids in a very poor neighborhood to perform above and beyond the standards.

I know this area. I spent many months working in the Rockaways. They were ground zero for Hurricane Sandy's NY landfall. East Rockaway adjoins Nassau County on the south shore of Long Island, in the Borough of Queens, New York. That area is lower middle class to lower class poverty ridden area. This teacher has shown, IMHO, that kids can overcome their environment and rise up and out of their current conditions. She should be teaching the other teachers how she did it, not being demoted than then fired.

Again, it's just bass-ackwards.

My mom worked in the schools system (not as a teacher) and was childhood friends with Sandra Feldman, who went on to lead the UFT. I grew up around teachers.

An extremely large portion of the bad teachers do not need to be removed. They do it themselves. It's a tough job, even for someone who is committed to the kids. For someone who isn't, it's absolute hell. I'm not saying there aren't any bad teachers. I've had one or two myself. However, I don't think that's what lies at the core of the problems our educational system has. In addition, I think the problems are overstated and sensationalized. IMO, a large majority of the schools do a pretty good job. The problem is that we have a sizeable minority of schools that are doing an abysmally horrible job, and they tend to be the ones that serve lower-income populations
 
May be, but there's no evidence whatsoever of that. From the attorney for the teacher fired, it had to do with her not complying with her instruction to lower the scores of her students (insubordination).

Again, there's no evidence to point to anything else.

I do wish that either me or someone else could find another article about this so we could read another perspective.

This is one of the stories you look at and say, no, can't be. There has to be more to the story than that. No one is fired for doing too good of a job, but they are fired for cheating.

Well, farmers sometimes are punished for doing too good of a job when they create an over production of something and lower the price so that profits vanish. I've seen that happen around here, but that's another story.
 
This is one of the stories you look at and say, no, can't be. There has to be more to the story than that. No one is fired for doing too good of a job, but they are fired for cheating.

Well, farmers sometimes are punished for doing too good of a job when they create an over production of something and lower the price so that profits vanish. I've seen that happen around here, but that's another story.

Like I said, that very well may be. However, I seriously doubt she would be suing the school if that was the reason she was fired. Unless more surfaces, we'll just have to wait for the civil trial to find out.

This seems to be a story that Fox News would be all over. Since I don't watch Fox, maybe someone here that does can let us know what they are saying. Also, if anyone in the NYC area can watch Channel 12 Long Island, or Newsday, I'm sure they'll cover it as well.
 
Damned if you do, damned if you don't...

Talk about being between a rock and a hard place.

Hopefully outstanding clerical skills won't get her reassigned to the janitorial staff.
 
"Let's rate teachers and punish the ones who do badly" they said

"It will be good for the students" they said
Its sounds like the 4th grade teacher would rate pretty high, its good for her students, and the 5th grade teachers arent capable of elevating their game and building on what they have already been taught.
 
The motto of today's public education system is "strive to be average". The schools are actually worried that those children who excel will be a factor of demoralization to the dullards trapped within those same walls. Public school is the epitome of conformism. It's to the point where they want 30 automatons in every classroom, alike in every way. Robotic, almost.
 
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