Who's Failing Now?

This upcoming school year, NYC teachers will be measured against eight elements of Danielson (down from Mulgrew's work-gumming 22 of the 2013-2014 school year) to compile the 60 points of their MOTP score, or Measures of Teaching Practice.  In schools which pilot student surveys, elements of Danielson will count for 55 points and the student surveys will count for the other five points.  State and Local Measures of Student Learning will count for the 40 points, most likely including mainly standardized test scores in most schools.

The eight elements of Danielson will be weighted in the following manner:

1a:  Demonstrating knowledge of content and pedagogy, 5%
1e.  Designing coherent instruction, 5%
2a:  Creating environment of respect and rapport, 17%
2d:  Managing student behavior, 17%
3b:  Using questioning and discussion techniques, 17%
3c:  Engaging Students in Learning, 17%
3d:  Using assessment in instruction, 17%
4e:  Growing and developing professionally, 5%

Teachers will still have Option 1 and Option 2, as per the Commissioner's decision last year, 6 informal ("snapshots") or 1 formal (full period) and 3 informal observations.  In addition, there will be a new Option 3 for Highly Effective teachers which entails 3 informal observations for evaluative purposes as well as 3 non-evaluative observations by colleagues (and I'm not sure of their duration; this may be negotiable or debatable), scheduled by the principal and the teacher choosing Option 3.  

There will still be IPCs (Initial Planning Conferences)  as well as "Summative End of Year Conferences" (SEYC; since this last one doesn't seem to merit its own acronym, I invented that one for the hell of it!)  Teachers will have the "sole discretion of setting professional goals" during the IPC (MOA, Memorandum of Agreement, p. 15).  Artifacts are no longer required, but some of the categories for observation seem to beg additional evidence (1e and 4e, for example). So, we'll have to see how this plays out.  

Teachers, it seems, will still be placed under the microscope whether they are new to the profession or have many years of experience with proven success.  Sadly, some of the most meaningful contributions a teacher can make to a student's life will never be measured in the evaluation formula.   It's ironic that people who know very little about the profession and would never "sink so low" as to actually make a career of it, feel totally justified in dictating policy and profiting from it.  It should be noted, however, that Danielson, although she profits from the use of her rubric, is not strictly among this group.  She has spoken against the manner in which her rubric is currently being used.  If these self-same reformers who impose VAM upon us think to make teaching a more attractive profession for highly qualified people, as they say, then who's failing now?