Ever since Governor Snyder signed the new law, now known as Public Act 102, changing the accountability levels of teachers and creating a council to create the assessment tool for teachers, we have been waiting patiently to hear who will sit on this committee. The final appointee to the Governor's Council on Educator Effectiveness was made today. Here's how it looks: the governor gets to appoint three people, the House and Senate each get to appoint one person, and the state superintendent gets to appoint one person.
Governor Snyder has appointed Mark Reckase, a professor at Michigan State University and expert on measurement and quantitative methods. Professor Reckase has been conducting research on computerized adaptive testing. One can assume that this appoinment is to assist with the student testing piece that will tie student test scores to teacher effectiveness. Ugh! More testing and data collection. It makes me want to scream!
Snyder has also appointed Nicholas Sheltrown of National Heritage Academies of Grand Rapids. National Heritage is a for-profit charter school company that runs charter schools in Michigan and seven other states. Mr. Sheltrown also has a background in "performance technology" as he is listed in the staff directory for Grand Valley State University as a Performance and Technology Specialist. Looks like another "bean counter" type to make sure the teachers are doing their jobs. The fact that this guy works for a for-proft company makes my stomach churn!
Snyder's final appointment was made today. He appointed Deborah Ball of the University of Michigan School of Education. She has been an elementary teacher, and she specializes in math instruction. It looks like Snyder wants us to get those math scores up! While I don't really have any reasonable objections to this appointee, her math focus makes me ponder.
The others members of the council are Senate appointee, David Vensel, principal of Jefferson High School in Monroe. The school's website didn't have much information about him at all. I think that maybe in these fiscally tight times, the district hasn't put a lot of effort into their website. Maybe this guy has teachers' interests at heart, maybe not?
The House appointtee is Dr. Jennifer Hammond, principal of Grand Blanc High School, and president of MASSP. In other words, not a friend of teachers. The MASSP lobbied heavily for the new teacher tenure laws, and they got what they wanted! She is "one of them."
The state superintendent's office has appointed Joseph Martineau who works for the Michigan Department of Education in the Bureau of Assessment and Accountability. Again, another math person. As far as I can tell, no one on this council has any English or social studies background. Sorry all you English and social studies teachers out there, I guess we are out of luck!
I only hope with all my heart that these people do nothing to further damage the public school system in Michigan. Well, I can hope, can't I?
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