WASHINGTON – It’s not often that employees favor evaluations and accountability over a free rein. But some educators did just that this week.
Speaking during the American Federation of Teachers’ annual conference, AFT President Randi Weingarten criticized House Republicans’ Student Success Act as “a historic abandonment of disadvantaged children.”
The bill, approved on House floor Friday, would eliminate a federal mandate in the current law for states to conduct teacher evaluations. While the lawmakers argued that this would provide more flexibility for effective evaluation systems, some education experts fear it would simply take away teacher accountability.
“Teachers have no problem being evaluated. They want feedback. They want it to be a constructive exercise,” Weingarten said at a press conference Monday.
AFT member Susan Farb, a Dorchester, Mass., teacher who was evaluated this year, said every teacher should be evaluated.
“There should be excellent, top-notch support if a teacher does fall a little bit below the category. It’s a good decision making process for teachers of whether or not they want to stay in the classroom,” Farb said.
Weingarten and many other educators oppose the general tone of the House bill – eliminating federal footprints at the risk of education quality, especially for the vulnerable students.
As a reauthorization to the No Child Left Behind Act passed in 2001, Friday’s bill would largely reverse NLCB, which encouraged states to improve education for disadvantaged students in return of federal education funding. The law, created under the Bush administration, requires states to set standards for schools and test them regularly to get federal funds. It also requires teacher evaluations. Critics have said the law has too many that result in too many tests and pressures on students and teachers.
The new bill would change the funding plan to block grants to states and lift the mandates. Opponents argue this will lead to a lack of accountability from states and schools, leaving teaching quality poor and the disadvantaged students unprotected.
The bill passed the House without a single Democratic vote, and the White House has warned that President Barack Obama would veto the bill if it came to him.
“This bill will starve children and schools of resources and support, and does nothing to address the pervasive over-testing that is draining the joy from teaching and learning,” Weingarten said.
Some teachers at the AFT conference said a middle ground is needed in the testing, accountability and evaluations debate. Vangie Mattfield of Floodwood, Minn., said federal involvement is needed because of the large education quality gaps among different states.
“If there is federal standard, we all have to be at least at some point,” Mattfield said. “I think some federal involvement needs to take place. But does it need to be – you have to teach this, this and this way? No.”