GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

1. 

   Leonie Haimson

   November 19th, 2009 8:28 pm

   The press release from the Gates foundation implied that parents support their research. I have yet to hear from a single parent who wants their child’s teacher evaluated solely on the basis of “student performance” or “student achievement” which has become the euphemism for results on standardized test scores.

2. 

   Tom Carroll

   November 20th, 2009 8:03 am

   “New York has a law explicitly banning the use of student data in tenure decisions, though the law is set to expire next year and many predict it won’t be renewed.”

   This law was adopted in April 2008 at the urging of NYSUT and UFT. If indeed the law will not be extended, when it expires on June 30, 2010, then the governor and state legislative leaders should make this explicit right now.

   The uncertainty about whether that law will be extended will be a major negative factor when the U.S. Department of Education considers New York’s application for Race to the Top dollars. The uncertainty should be cleared up now, and it would be easy to do so.

   What’s at risk?

   The final Race to the Top guidelines indicate that states in the top tier — California, Texas, Florida, and New York — are eligible for between $350 million to $700 million in discretionary federal dollars. The federal guidelines even allow states to apply for amounts even higher than these proposed ranges.

   In the midst of a serious fiscal crisis, in which state education dollars are at peril, this is a lot of federal money to blow off.

3. 

   GGW

   November 20th, 2009 12:57 pm

   Leonie, I didn’t see that Gates Foundation is proposing that teachers are evaluated solely on test scores. It might be interesting to do a survey of parents.

   “Parents, which would you prefer for teacher evaluation:
   a. Status quo. The principal does an observation. 99% of all teachers are satisfactory.
   b. Same as above, but with the top 10% of teachers getting bonuses, and the bottom 10% getting help for a year, and then getting let go.
   c. Like b above, but in addition to principal’s evaluation, there would also be test scores showing how much the kids learned since last June.”
   d. Like b above, but in addition to the principal’s evaluation, there would also be an evaluation by another teacher in the school.

4. 

   insiderknowledge

   November 21st, 2009 9:25 am

   How do you evaluate this scenario? I’m currently teaching seniors in a small school who were misprogrammed and becauseof this will be sitting for the global regents for the first time this january. They are collectively a bright group of kids and I’m confident that there will be a high pass rate on the test. Conversely in the spring I will have the pleasure of teaching the sophmores and getting them ready for the regents in the spring. This group as a cohort is failing most of their classes, have attendence and behavior issues amongst others. The outlook for their success is not good.. The pass rate will be much lower when they sit for the exam. So who am I? Am I the teacher who in January got 90% of his students to pass the global exam or am I the teacher who in June got 50% of his students to pass the exam. Using data to evaluate me I went from hero to zero in one semester. All based on who I had taking the test.

5. 

   norm

   November 22nd, 2009 12:00 am

   Might as well add e. Let the students do the evaluation. Any kids above pre-k, at least.

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