One Charter Summit conference participant wrote “John Deasy rocked” on her conference evaluation form. Who is John Deasy anyway? Dr. Deasy is the recently hired deputy director of education for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and former superintendent of Prince George’s County Public Schools in Maryland. He was an afternoon speaker at Santa Clara County Office of Education’s Charter School Summit.
Deasy validated my belief that the choice between charters and traditional public schools is a false choice at best. Essentially the message he conveyed is student success is directly proportional to teacher effectiveness. The manner to which we compensate teachers today is harmful to the goal of raising student achievement, Deasy asserted.
The Gates Foundation has invested over $2 billion in the last decade to learn about school policies and practices that lead to increased student achievement, graduation rates, and higher skills for college/career readiness. For their generous investment I think Bill and Melinda Gates would even admit they have been only moderately successful…until now.
Deasy said there is a “currency of privilege” for those parents in the know and with the highest education levels to have the ability to make certain their children receive the best teachers in the school at each grade level. This practice obviously flies in the face of equity for all. Students who live in circumstances of poverty do not get the best teachers. SJ 2020 take note.
Deasy said we know who the best teachers are in each school. The most effective teachers, about 25% of a school’s faculty, get more than a year’s growth per student for a year of study. We must turn schools into a culture of performance rather than one of compliance, Deasy opined.
In order to make this critical transition we must change the manner to which we use public money to fund teacher salaries. Those teachers with highly successful skill sets for increasing student achievement for all their students are not compensated well enough in today’s salary structure practices.
It will not take more money to be poured into the system of public education, but a reallocation of the way we currently spend our bucks. For example, Deasy said $8.4 billion dollars nationally goes into compensate teachers with a Masters (MA/MS) degree yet there is no relationship between a MA degree and increased student achievement. Of course, we also compensate teachers based on the number of years of experience and the number of units accrued beyond a BA degree, yet there are no corollaries to increases in student achievement for either. School districts spend 1.5% of their certificated salaries for what is called “step and column” movement each year.
Deasy said we must completely re-conceptualize tenure with a dramatic change in compensation and accountability. Most charters do not offer tenure. All traditional public schools must offer it after only 2 years of teaching, if teacher is evaluated satisfactorily. Dismissing ineffective teachers who have received tenure is a cumbersome and costly practice.
Deasy said the Foundation is looking at large law firm practices when an attorney moves up to partnership level. To make someone a partner is to compensate them on much higher levels once the other partners agree to offer partnership standing. Deasy believes a similar model could work well in public education. So whether one earns tenure in 5, 6 or 7 years, once tenure is reached compensation should double with a commensurate increase in accountability, including becoming a mentor to new or struggling teachers.
Three large urban school districts and one consortium of five charter management organizations have recently received $335 million in Gates Foundation grants to explore teacher-evaluation systems that are data-oriented. Hillsborough County Public Schools in Florida received $100 million, Memphis City Schools in Tennessee $90 million, Pittsburg Public Schools in Pennsylvania $40 million, and the five CMOs in Los Angeles $60 million. “We are convinced that in order to dramatically improve education in America, we must first ensure that every student has an effective teacher in every subject, every school year,” said Melinda Gates in the Foundation release.
In order for these reform efforts to work the union president and board president must be present at every conceptual meeting. If not, Deasy agrees, the meeting should be postponed. There is significant similarity in this new work being supported by the Gates Foundation and the Race To The Top funds allocated by the Obama administration. I think they are on to something that will pay rich dividends for the future of education in America.
James Carville once said, “It’s the economy, stupid” and placed s sign reading the same above the Clinton “War Room” in the 1992 election year. Every superintendent, principal and school board member should have a sign above their offices stating, “It’s the teacher, stupid”.
> In order for these reform efforts to work the union president and board president must be present at every conceptual meeting.
Bill Gates spent $2 billion dollars to come up with this?!
“In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then He made School Boards.”
— Mark Twain
In order for ANY reform efforts to work, START by grabbing the union president by the scruff of his neck and seat of his pants and throw him out of the meeting. Then, do the same to the school board president.
Then, do the same with ANYONE who has a Ed. D. degree, and ANYONE who has tenure as an ed professor, school administrator, or teacher.
I could have told Bill Gates this for only a billion dollars, saved him a billion AND improved the chances of real education reform.
Good article until the last paragraph and not discussing California Teachers Association’s strong political opposition to teacher / student performance measurement
Do not agree with – Every superintendent, principal and school board member should have a sign above their offices stating, “It’s the teacher, stupid”.
Public school’s main problems has been
– teachers focus on work conditions, part year school year, salary, tenure, and pensions
– rather then – above grade student achievement for every student and year round school year to improve performance
The sign should read – It’s above grade student achievement for every student, stupid.
California Teachers Association political opposition to any teacher measurement of student achievement and getting rid of poor performing part school year tenured teachers is – major political problem
that Legislature taking millions in teacher’s campaign contributions will not address.
Only a State Proposition for Education Reform to require teacher compensation – tied to above grade student performance will change California schools in our lifetime.
In meantime, put your child or grandchild in student performance focused private or charter schools and parents and grandparents should be involved in their education and schools.
Many people and communities do not want to deal with poor school problems now, so will have to deal with adult children’s ” no skills or education ” unemployment or criminal justice problems – Bad Choice, Stupid
We know pretty much everything we need to know about the Gates foundation by noting that the first requirement for eligibility for one of the coveted Gates Millennium Scholarships is:
“Students are eligible to be considered for a GMS scholarship if they:
• Are African American, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian and Pacific Islander American, or Hispanic American.”
http://www.gmsp.org/
Maybe this explains why children of white don’t get scholarships.
White self-loather Bill Gates excludes them from his scholarship competition, so they can’t go to Harvard or Stanford.
And when they go to the University of Idaho, they are condemned as narrow, backwoods hicks who congregate in “all-white” schools.
Re: “It’s the teacher, stupid”.
Looks like L.A. is taking the hint:
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14372651
The money quote:
> State law requires the district to lay off tenured instructors based on seniority, not performance.
This explains a lot.
Joe DiSalvo and his colleagues who whooped it up at the “Achievement Gap Summit” undoubtedly represented a lot of education “seniority”.
Some more on Dr. Deasy:
Last month, the Courier-Journal in Louisville reported that Deasy had been awarded a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Lousville in 2004 although he had only completed nine credits, or about a semester, there. He had completed more than 70 credits at other universities, according to published reports.
Typically, a doctoral candidate would have to be at Louisville for one year and complete twice as many credits while in residence there to get a degree.
Deasy’s academic advisor at the university was the dean of education, Robert Felner, who is now under a federal investigation, the paper reported, for his possible misuse of federal funds.
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/education/blog/2008/10/prince_georges_says_goodbye_to.html
and
Deasy left Santa Monica-Malibu right when an investigation discovered discrimination against Latino students under his direction. I warned Prince George County about him to no avail. He now exits another school system at just the right moment. When will it stop?
Posted by: Former Principal under Deasy | October 23, 2008 9:25 AM