Stephen Dyer · October 23, 2012

‘Blame the Teacher Movement’ a Union Thing

In last year’s budget bill, a provision was inserted that required core subject teachers in buildings that scored in the bottom 10% on the Performance Index to be re-tested. Schools can then use these re-tests in personnel decisions. This spring the law was updated by SB 316. Now, the re-test requirement only applies to “teachers (who) have been rated ‘ineffective’ on evaluations for two of the three most recent years.” However, legislators and the governor actually approved the language of the budget bill, so in this post I put forward an examination of what lawmakers in Ohio actually voted to do and the consequence that action would have. There is no guarantee they won’t do this again. Looking at the new Report Card data from last week, a total of up to 8,600 teachers would need to be re-tested in 35 districts under the budget language. It is difficult to know how many exactly would have been re-tested because the Cupp Report, which lists the number of full-time teachers, does not break them out by core and non-core subject teachers. The teachers listed there are the teachers who conduct “instructional service delivery of regular education to non-special and non-career tech education students.” If all the teachers listed in the Cupp Report had to be re-tested, it would be 8,617. Some districts could have had more than 3 out of 4 teachers subject to testing, according to the data. Is it really possible that all those teachers are to blame for low test scores, or even the fewer that will be tested post-SB 316? How about the fact that the average poverty rate in those 35 districts is about double that of the average Ohio district? The data and research indicate it is, in fact, poverty that drives test scores. Take Warrensville Heights. More than 77% of that district’s teachers could need to be re-tested. In Cleveland, 69.4% could need re-testing. In Akron, 40%, and in Richmond Heights, 51%. I include the list of districts, with the numbers of teachers in each eligible building, at the bottom of this post. The number required to take the test would have likely been less, but most teachers listed in the Cupp Report are, in fact, core teachers — especially in early grades. So it won’t be a huge difference. The bottom line is this: Public school teachers get hammered for producing Performance Index Scores that are in line with what one would expect, given the demographics of the district. This “Blame the Teacher” movement is truly poisonous. Think about it. We expect teachers during the course of the day to serve as teachers, therapists, police officers and parents. And if the children don’t score well on a test whose outcome is all but assured given the district’s demographic makeup, then it’s the teachers’ fault. Or it’s the union’s fault. Really? So whose fault are the pitifully low scores of the non-union Charter Schools? Their average Performance Index score is worse than all but 5, or 0.8% of school districts. Since there’s no similar outcry from the state’s leadership about Charter School teachers, I’m thinking that this isn’t really a teacher thing. It’s a union thing.  

District	Number of Teachers Potentially Re-tested	Total Number of District Teachers	% of Districts Teachers Potentially Re-Tested	% of Children in Poverty
Warrensville Heights City	101	131	77.1%	60.17%
Cleveland Municipal	2155	3107	69.4%	100.00%
Lima City	198	298	66.4%	80.83%
Dayton City	653	986	66.2%	92.51%
Columbus City School District	1785	2939	60.7%	81.86%
East Cleveland City School District	138	231	59.7%	88.47%
Youngstown City Schools	264	464	56.9%	91.87%
Lockland Local	27	50	54.0%	62.92%
Lorain City	275	514	53.5%	84.51%
Western Local	24	45	53.3%	81.57%
Jefferson Township Local	19	36	52.8%	5.26%
Warren City	190	368	51.6%	75.19%
Richmond Heights Local	24	47	51.1%	52.98%
Euclid City	154	375	41.1%	66.03%
Springfield City	174	441	39.5%	76.27%
Akron City	669	1704	39.3%	84.70%
Garfield Heights City Schools	78	205	38.0%	64.74%
Maple Heights City	79	233	33.9%	70.79%
Toledo City	518	1560	33.2%	76.65%
Cincinnati City	643	1970	32.6%	69.70%
Bettsville Local	4	15	26.7%	56.57%
New Lexington City	29	114	25.4%	58.23%
Canton City	154	645	23.9%	80.61%
Mansfield City	44	280	15.7%	84.05%
Winton Woods City	35	230	15.2%	57.70%
Painesville City Local	27	183	14.8%	75.94%
Cleveland Heights-University Heights City	64	466	13.7%	61.25%
Trotwood-Madison City	21	158	13.3%	81.93%
Whitehall City	23	175	13.1%	75.69%
Coshocton City	14	121	11.6%	59.70%
Athens City	20	215	9.3%	34.06%
Barberton City	24	259	9.3%	70.65%
Groveport Madison Local	22	318	6.9%	57.98%
Middletown City	27	427	6.3%	71.53%
Princeton City	20	377	5.3%	58.61%
Grand Total/Average	8617	19687	43.8%	70.04%