Comments on: Progress reports could prove a double-edged sword for Klein

By: pressure pump

pressure pump — Sun, 23 May 2010 10:40:00 +0000

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By: Michael M.

Michael M. — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:01:07 +0000

Well said, FTT.

Re School Progress Reports, either they’ll have to:
a) dial back on the weight of the “progress” metric to provide more weight to the “performance” metric,
b) gerrymander the curve’s cut points further, or
c) brace for many good schools getting mediocre scores.

It’s simply not reasonable to expect more than a year’s worth of progress at already-good schools year in and year out. Especially when the proficiency-oriented tests are easily maxed out. (Average plus one lucky guess gets you a Level 2, but perfect minus one boo-boo drops you out of Level 4, etc.)

The average lifetime speed of a Porsche and a Yugo may be different, but the average lifetime acceleration is the same.
I’m preparing for regression to the mean, or, a meaningless mess.

By: Fort Tryon Teacher

Fort Tryon Teacher — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 03:09:50 +0000

Here’s a quote from Steven Brill’s (wildly biased) New Yorker article on teacher evaluation:
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In seven years, Klein has increased the percentage of third-year teachers not given tenure from three to six per cent. Unsatisfactory ratings for tenured teachers have risen from less than one per cent to 1.8 per cent. “Any human-resources professional will tell you that rating only 1.8 per cent of any workforce unsatisfactory is ridiculous,” [Dan] Weisberg [of the New Teacher Project] says. “If you look at the upper quartile and the lower quartile, you know that those people are not interchangeable.”
——————————–

Time to turn that criticism on its head: Joel Klein’s progress reports are already tending toward the “ridiculous.” I can’t believe that 80 percent of schools in New York City deserve an A or B. Schools are graded on a curve, and Klein and his ever-growing “accountability” office decide what that curve is. Guess what: the same way that union pressure (and a screwed-up system) is bloating teacher ratings, political pressure from the mayor and others are bloating progress report grades.

I’m probably generalizing a bit unfairly there, but I think the gist is true. And the DOE’s inability to create a decent school evaluation system leaves me skeptical of their ability to create a decent teacher evaluation system. I support the Gates Foundation move, but teachers and our union have got to be diligent in creating a system that works. Otherwise, we’ll get whatever “ridiculous,” politically-motivated system the DOE is pumping out.