An Open Letter to President Obama by Charlotte Wellen

As a National Board Certified teacher, with 34 years of teaching in American public schools and international schools in four different countries,  I have a lot of questions to raise about value-added assessments of teachers.  For instance, how many teachers are still in top-down management situations, so that they are afraid for their jobs, or afraid of losing respect from administration for a low evaluation?  How many teachers get a chance to have input into how the systems of their schools are working and to suggest changes and transformations?  How many teachers get time to work together in teams to improve instruction, to share ideas, to learn from one another's mistakes and successes?

In my experience, the answers to these questions are often that teachers are afraid of their administration's evaluations.  They do not get input into how the system works in the school.  They rarely have time to share with their colleagues in a non-threatening environment.  They suffer from fear and become anxious if there is a problem in one of their classes.  They are reluctant to admit problems exist because they worry that it will hurt their administration's assessment of their skills as teachers.

These fears indicate what Dr. William Glasser calls a "system problem."  This means that the problems in the system are not due to individuals who are not doing their jobs.  He believes that 95% of all problems are with the system that has been set up and that those problems can be fixed when the individuals involved begin to work together as teams to transform the system so that it alleviates problems instead of adding to them.

I teach in a Glasser Quality Public High School where we do not have these system problems.  Teachers are not assessed from the top down.  We are not in fear of our jobs.  We suggest at the beginning of the year the places we want support in our ongoing personal education as educators and we are given that support, without judgment.  In fact, asking for that support, for that input from our colleagues, demonstrates our caring for the work that we're accomplishing together.  When there is a problem in one of our classrooms, teachers do not have to fear for their jobs.  They can simply request help.  We consider that that is a professional way to handle the inevitable problems that are bound to arise in any classroom.

For instance, at Murray, if there is a problem with a class of students getting along with each other, or with the teacher, any member of the class, including students (who we consider to be teammates as well)can request a class mediation.  This means that a mediator (usually me, but could be several other trained staff members) will schedule a time to come to the class.  All class members are asked to respectfully list what is working in the classroom.  We all agree to come up with at least one thing that is working.  Once this list is made, usually, tensions subside immediately.  It's almost as if, because of the struggles going on in the room, everyone had forgotten there were great things happening, too.  Next, the mediator asks for suggestions to improve the way class is being run, or students/teachers are behaving in class.  These suggestions also need to be told in a respectful way, using what Dr. Glasser calls "Connecting Behaviors" or behaviors that tend to bring people closer together, like negotiating, sharing, listening, trusting, respecting.

When this list of suggestions is made, the mediator helps the students and teachers choose a few of them to focus on for two weeks.  A written plan is made to give specific things that will be done differently because of the mediation and descriptions of how life in the classroom will be if this plan is working.  This plan is posted in the room and in two weeks the mediator comes back to see if life is better for everyone.  If not, a new mediation is scheduled and a private conversation is organized with the teacher, the mediator, and the teachers' mentors or anyone else the teacher feels would be helpful to add to the teacher's strategies for handling the class so that they feel happier and the students feel happier. 

At a Glasser Quality School, we would not at all believe that because of these conflicts, a teacher is to be assessed as lacking.  We would appreciate it that a teacher cared enough, that the kids cared enough to want to have a happy class where everyone is having fun learning together.  That's our goal.  That's why we have the highest scores in our county on state-mandated testing, with an at-risk population, and with a large percentage (capped out at 40%) of special education students.

Our teachers are not afraid.  They are relaxed and feel supported by a professional environment that is based on the idea that we are all in a very tough job, but together, we can succeed and help our students remember that they love to learn and are smart enough to graduate and go on to college.

We believe that any teacher assessment method that frightens teachers, that comes from top-down management, that is related to whether or not a teacher gets to keep his/her job, or that divides teachers so they hunker down in their classrooms, is a large part of the problem, a SYSTEM problem, not a solution in any way.

So, if we, at Murray, received the statistics that value-added assessment will give, we would rejoice to get the information.  We would not then add it to some teacher's evaluation.  We would sit down as a PLC (professional learning community) and figure out if our system needs some tinkering so that our students do better year after year.  That's part of our system, that tinkering.  It isn't directed at individual teachers, because that would shut down the conversation, but tinkering is directed toward the system and how it can be improved so that we are all evolving and learning, both students and teachers.

At a Glasser Quality school, all students and teachers agree to accomplish at least one quality product each year.  A quality product is some work that we've done from joy and intellectual, artistic, and/or scientific excitement. No one has to tell us to keep working on it.  No one has to tell us it isn't good enough yet.  We KNOW when it's done because we WANT it to be as close to perfect as we're capable of making it.  We carry it around to share with others because we're so proud of it.  We believe that quality products cannot be achieved at all in an atmosphere of fear.

Teachers need to feel supported, relaxed, and happy in order to grow in their practices, in order to be open to try new things.  If errors are punished in some way, many teachers will often choose all the "safe, traditional" methodologies and will be far less wiling to explore or expand their thought.

President Obama and Secretary Duncan, I believe  would be well-advised, from our research and experience, to improve the SYSTEMS of America's schools and how teachers and students are treated in the schools.  Once respect and professionalism, and even love, are in place, then there will be no need at all for value-added assessment.  Value-added statistics will be welcomed as the professional staff supports each other in the quest for excellence because there will be no fear attached to the statistics, only a professional eagerness to have the data necessary to improve the system for everyone.  Students and parents, too, will be happy to have the value-added information so that they, also, can take ownership of how they are learning, so they are part of the system that leads to success as well.