What if Newspaper Editors Were Assessed on Their Job Performance the Way Teachers Are?

Over the past two days, I have read two editorials by newspaper folks who are vastly off-base when it comes to student testing and the Common Core. In the first, Glens Falls, NY's Post-Star newspaper editor, Ken Tingley, minimizes the opt-out movement to whiny parents and thug teachers in his weekly column Opting out of Common Core reaches hysterical proportions. A day later, we're treated to Gannett's USA Today education blogger, Jim Ryan Jr.'s, diatribe, When our children are the losers, which reads like a more nuanced version of Tingley's column.

Ryan's reductionist view can be summed up in this statement:

The new accountability standards being pushed by Governor Cuomo is a tough pill to swallow for teachers that have grown accustomed to a myriad of union protections insulating them from performance-based measurement, whether the virtual guarantee of lifetime employment or the compensation system based on seniority and not student achievement. Given that change is painful, the union led teachers are fighting back and have no doubt encouraged parents to fight as well. But in this fight it is the students who will suffer the most collateral damage.

In both cases, reducing the argument to a selfish and self-serving claim is used to minimize the importance and strength of the opt-out movement and the role of teachers in education policy in general.

There is a very powerful and highly organized movement in our society to condemn public education as being the source of many of our economic and social ills. The forces include testing and other media related corporations, anti-union "Right to Work" groups, hedge-fund investors and other charter school advocates, and an array of school choice proponents. These groups regularly engage in unwarranted assumption fallacies that rely on false information to make broad and inaccurate conclusions. 

But what if these editors, reporters, columnists and bloggers had to live by the same legislated APPR effectiveness standards as teachers? What would that look like and how equitable would they find their working conditions? After all, the print media has been experiencing an unprecedented and massive decline in subscriptions, revenue and readership. THIS AMOUNTS TO A NATIONAL CRISIS! Surely our democracy, our capitalist economy, and our entire way of life are threatened.

Here's the evidence:

Newspaper revenues and public knowledge of newsworthy facts continue to decline. In Pew's bi-weekly "national survey of 1,052 randomly selected adults, Americans answered an average of 6.3 out of 13 questions correctly, including 1% who got them all correct. By contrast, those who have taken the quiz online so far have averaged 9.7 correct answers, with 9% getting perfect scores."

Check that again- The general public scored 48% correct in a two week sampling of current events. However, those who took the poll online, presumably those who are wealthier and more educated, scored 69% correct. Still pretty unimpressive. Even American student assessment scores don't look that bad!

With those declining numbers, let's commit to holding newspaper editors accountable for the information their readers retain and understand. 

First, let's take a look at the proposed APPR laws for New York State teachers passed in the most recent budget. Here's how the system works for teachers. For the sake of argument, let's take a liberal approach to the Governor's proposed APPR scale. Either way, as Politics on the Hudson put it "the law makes clear that teachers whose students perform poorly on state exams won’t be able to get an overall evaluation score better than “developing” — the second-lowest score" (the actual percentages will be determined by NYSED and the Board of Regents at a later date):

• 40 points: Student growth on state assessments or a comparable measure of student growth using a Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) process for teachers in non-tested subjects. 
• 30 points: Observation by a school administrator.This is done using any number of concocted variations of Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching.
• 30 points: Observation by an independent observer/or other regional administrator from a neighboring school district presumably using the same framework.

 So here's what an APPR model for newspaper editors might look:

• 40 points: Consumer growth on state assessments or a comparable measure of consumer growth using a Consumer Learning Objectives (CLOs) process for editors in non-traditional subject matter sections- entertainment, lifestyles, the arts, Hometown, book review, etc. To do this, we will need to develop a testing model for assessing newspaper consumers. Once a year, we'll have behemoth and  profiteering corporate entity perform a series of three simultaneous 90-minute mandatory tests of the year's newsworthy events for all newspaper consumers in their circulation area. Newspaper editors will be assessed based on how well their customers can answer these "current events" quizzes. 

Based on the "Man on the Street" style Q & A's on display at the YouTube sites for several of the late night talk shows, I think the editor's may have some concerns. But honestly, don't newspaper editors bare some responsibility for their customers knowledgeable level and understanding in a democratic society?

• 30 points: Observation of the Editor's job performance by the newspaper's publisher or other corporate manager. In this case, we can use aspects of the Society of Professional Journalists' (SPJ) Code of Ethics and the Pew Research Center's Principles of Journalism. Editors will be scored on the same scale as teachers- Ineffective/Developing/Effective/Highly Effective using a rubric style matrix to assure uniformity. :
• SPJ's Ethics Preamble: Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. Ethical journalism strives to ensure the free exchange of information that is accurate, fair and thorough. An ethical journalist acts with integrity. 
• The Pew Research Center's Principles of Journalism are as follows: 
1. Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth 
2. Its first loyalty is to citizens 
3. Its essence is a discipline of verification 
4. Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover 
5. It must serve as an independent monitor of power 
6. It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise 
7. It must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant 
8. It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional 
9. Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience

From an anecdotal perspective, take a look at the information above and decide for yourself how well your local newspaper would fair. I can assure you that many editors will face low ratings- particularly in the areas of integrity, verification, and independence.

• 30 points: Observation by an independent observer or other local newspaper professional using the same standards and codes. 

Can you picture this one? A neighboring and perhaps rival editor taking a day to observe and review the target editor's professional practices. How many editors would be willing to have their performance assessed by a peer? Especially one they either don't know or know well enough to fear their conclusions. And if they don't want to go that route, they'll have to shell out some big bucks to pay for annual independent observers. I'm sure that would go over well with investors.

Let's face it, this is an absurd way to assess any profession be it newspaper editor, dentist, contractor or restaurateur. The Governor claims the changes are necessary to counter the high rate of "Effectiveness" ratings (up to 95%) for New York's teachers. But ask any one of the professionals mentioned above if they believe their workforce to be effective and they will most assuredly answer "YES". Doesn't the editor at the local newspaper believe that his staff is highly effective across the board; even as his revenues, sales and subscriptions fall? Of course he does. Why? Because he knows there is no causal relationship between the hard work he and his employees do to report the days events and the outcomes that are realized on the current events assessments.

Overall, newspapers, and the media in general, serve a pretty lofty purpose and should maintain high standards. They play an important and valuable role in educating a democratic populace. In order for the public to be knowledgeable, it is imperative that media outlets report on the news in a way that reflects the true essence of the debate while adhering to industry standards. Unfortunately, neither of the pieces referenced here rise up that standard. They're short-sighted and intent on masking the real problems and solutions by scapegoating parents and teachers. Our communities deserve better.