Can Louisiana Teachers Make the Grade?

BATON ROUGE, La — This year, Louisiana’s teachers are focusing even more intently on their students’ success on standardized tests. The Bayou State is joining “Race to the Top” (R2T) winners—Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Rhode Island, and Tennessee—in implementing one requirement from the federal education grant program—“value-added” teacher evaluations. Even though Louisiana didn’t win any R2T money, the state’s Act 54, passed by the legislature in 2010, says half of a teacher’s grade will be based on their students’ achievements on standardized tests.

It’s something that doesn’t sit well with Joyce Haynes, president of the Louisiana Association of Educators (LAE)–one of the state’s two top teachers’ unions. Although it’s termed a “pilot project”, the evaluations are being done statewide this year. Haynes says, “They’re moving forward with something that is totally flawed.”

Haynes has been very open about her opposition to the state’s increasing reliance on standardized test scores as the measuring stick for students, schools—and now, teachers. She says, “I think we’re turning it into an absolute pass-or-fail, for both the students and the teachers.”

Teacher evaluations aren’t a new idea in Louisiana. In 1989, then-Governor Buddy Roemer asked lawmakers to start requiring them. Then, the idea was met with howls of protest from teachers’ unions, and was defeated. But in 2000, the state passed a law directing principals to assess teacher performance every three years. Brigitte Nieland, vice president of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI)—which pushed for the new system–says the old evaluation system has been problematic

“Many teachers complained that these evaluations were very subjective; that principals tended to have favorites, and that they really didn’t get a meaningful evaluation,” according to Nieland.

But Steve Monaghan, president of another teachers’ union—the Louisiana Federation of Teachers (LFT)—says the new evaluation system cannot be applied equally, and therefore won’t yield meaningful information, either.  Not every grade takes standardized tests, and not every subject is covered.

“What will be the instrument for art? What will be the instrument for music?” Monaghan asks. “Two-thirds—right now—of the teachers in the state are not affected by the 50 percent because they’re not in the tested areas.”

LABI’s Nieland, who serves on the state’s Advisory Council on Educator Evaluation, says Louisiana’s Department of Education psychometrics chief, Dr. George Noell, believes knowledge of any subject matter can be tested. She’s listened carefully to Noell, who is also a psychology professor at LSU.

“Dr. Noell, I’ve heard in a presentation say, that you actually can create a value-added model for just about every subject, every grade,“ Nieland says.

But the teachers’ unions say state education officials aren’t creating the new tests—they’re asking the teachers to do it.  The LAE’s Haynes takes issue with that methodology, asking, “Where will you get your validity and your reliability and all that comes with the standardized test? And when you don’t even have your course standards ready, will these tests be valid?”

Some teachers in grades and subjects covered by well-established standardized tests are also displeased with the “value-added” component of the new evaluation system. It looks at each student’s scores for the prior two years, then makes a “target” prediction of what score the student should get this year. Monaghan of the LFT says it’s keeping his phone ringing.

“For instance, I had a call just recently of a teacher who said 82% of her class were high performers, and did very well. But her value-added score was low because they didn’t grow as much as they were supposed to grow. They didn’t reach the ‘target’.”  Monaghan adds, “Johnny was supposed to grow by two grades this year. He only did one and three-quarter grades. So therefore, you didn’t meet the target. Therefore you’re not as good as you thought you were.”

The new evaluation system ranks teachers as “effective”, “mildly effective”, or “not effective”, and gives teachers a three-year window for improvement before their jobs are forfeit. Nieland says the whole purpose is giving students the best possible education.

“Data for years has clearly shown that there’s no better predictor of a student’s success than an effective teacher in the classroom. And we just feel that every child in this state is owed an effective teacher in every classroom.”

But Monaghan says there’s more to effective teaching than test scores can ever show. He gives an example: “You know, the physical education teacher. It may not be the teacher that you can measure, right?  But that may be the one that stops and talks to you in the hallway that certain day, and changes your life.”

Louisiana’s Advisory Committee on Educator Evaluations has to submit its final report on the pilot project to state lawmakers by January 25th. Both teachers’ unions say they’ll press the Legislature to scrap permanent implementation of this particular evaluation system.

About Sue Lincoln

Sue Lincoln is a veteran reporter who knows her way around Louisiana's often colorful public arena. She has covered everything from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics to hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike. She started out in broadcasting as KMGG's Southern California events reporter, and--after her family moved to Louisiana in 1989--went to work for KYKZ radio in Lake Charles. Moving to Baton Rouge in 2000, she served as the Capitol Bureau chief and assistant news director of Louisiana Network, covering statewide issues for that group's 75 affiliates for a decade. In the past year, she took over the Regional Desk duties for MetroSource, producing daily stories from Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, before picking up the reins of LPB's Southern Education Desk.

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