Teachers: Could The CEI Cost You Your Job?

Got your attention, didn't we!

Thursday, the Dallas Independent School District Board of Trustees may vote on one of the most important issues that has ever been put before them: metrics for measuring a teacher's performance--and rewarding the best ones.

But is the method, the Classroom Effectiveness Index (or "CEI") a complicated political stunt, or is it the best thing to happen to the District and its stakeholders in decades?

"Our core mission is to graduate students," is what many if not most DISD administrators will say when asked.

Indeed it is.

In order to graduate students, those who are most at risk must constantly trend upward. The problem is identifying teachers who constantly move students toward the goal of a successful graduation.

It is a problem facing (and being tackled by) school districts nationwide.

On Monday, Dr. Robert Mendro outlined the District's plan for board members Jack Lowe and Leigh Ann Ellis.

The problem, of course, is that there is no simple way to explain the technical side of the process. As a matter of fact, it takes a Ph.D. in statistics just to begin to grasp the calculations and methods.

But is the layman's explanation really all that difficult?

As it turns out, it isn't.

Think of it this way: students are categorized and sub-categorized (oops, getting complicated isn't it--bear with me) by several criteria.

For instance, ethnicity, achievement levels, socio-economic data, free/reduced lunch, language barriers, gender, school size, etc. might be some of the factors used.

Then students are individually baselined, conditions for data validation are established and a hierarchical linear statistical model with multi-stage linear regression is produced (oh no, really complicated now--but bear with me).

OK, let's simplify it: students are compared to how other students "walking in their shoes" are doing. Kids from like backgrounds in like circumstances are compared to each other.

How these students progress collectively, over time, before and after exposure to specific teachers is analyzed.

The question: "how do teachers 'trend' students" is answered.

Let's get even simpler: the question "who are the good teachers and who are the bad teachers?"

Who are the teachers who move the kids in their classes ahead of similarly-situated kids in other teachers' classes?

The CEI ranks teachers in five groups--"1" identifying the worst 20%, and "5" being the best 20%.

Ironically, if you ask students, parents, principals and (yes) even other teachers, you could probably get a fairly subjective opinion that in many cases would be close to target!

But Dallas has never before used a metric to identify and address the issue. And it's making a lot of teachers nervous.

According to Mendro, the data shows "there is no correlation between experience and [teaching] effectiveness." So, according to data, teachers don't necessarily better over time.

Data from other school districts around the country seems to confirm this.

"Beginning teachers [score] slightly lower for the first 2 or 3 years," explained Mendro. Then, according to Mendro, they settle into a pattern of effectiveness.

Teachers with alternative certifications, according to Mendro, score slightly lower as a group.

According to Superintendent Michael Hinojosa teachers who consistently score low in the CEI have little chance of getting better.

"What does that say about our professional development," commented Hinojosa?

"We probably have some teachers we [will need to] get rid of," added Lowe.

Some students, parents and (yes) other teachers probably agree.

As for "keeping it fair," and keeping the politics out of it: maybe that's what some of the rest of us are here for!

We'll obviously live-blog Thursday's board meeting, and have more comments about the whole process in an upcoming story.