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This would be a good time for Chancellor Walcott to at least release them with a grain of salt saying the data set is no longer being accumulated and may have errors

 Maybe we can also release the teacher’s addresses and phone numbers? 

When the state produces its teacher eval system, will the results for teachers statewide be available thru FOIL? 

And thank you to GS, for standing firm and rejecting this madness.

Thanks to Gotham Schools for not participating in the publication of individual teacher ratings.

After this, who would ever want to teach in New York City. You think it was hard to attract qualified teachers a few years ago, just wait for the shortage of teachers down the road.

If one can prove that the data in these reports is factually inaccurate and at times outright wrong, would the individual teacher be able to sue for libel?

I think that was the point of guests question–often the data is completey wrong–teachers listed as teaching classes they didn’t have, inclusion class charged to one not both, wrong subjects,etcetc,etc–how does that change the libel issue?

You’d also have to prove that the incorrect information was published maliciously — i.e. with knowledge that it was false or with a “reckless disregard” for the truth that rises above mere negligence.  And damages would be a huge hurdle.  You’d have to show how the publishing of a TDR based on incorrect data harmed you specifically, in a concrete way.  

Of course, it doesn’t seem to concern anybody that the lackey Mr. Klein made an agreeement with the UFT that these ratings would only be used internally to help see if such a system might be realistic and assist in the improvement of instruction and then when it came out that all his and his boss, Emperor Michael I, a man who just doesn’t believe term limit laws should apply to him depsite the fact the public twice voted vfor them, had been uysing phony statistics to try to show they had improved instruction in the city and had narrowed the achievement gap, suddenly they changed their mind and pushed to have the statisdtics released.  What kind of low lifes are these pople?  How can anybody trust anybody who gives his word and then goes back on it?  The data is worthless and should have been destroyed, of course.  It is full of mistakes and everybody knows it.  But then again, what else would anybody expect from low lifes such as Klein and Bloomberg, totally intent on destroying the public schools of the city as their legacy.  Just incredible that these lack of integrity has been swept under the table. 

I’m wondering when we will get the equivalent job performance data for other public employees

nyfd fitness test results
complication rates for surgeons at public hospitals
number of civilian complaints against nypd officers

Check out this Juan Gonzalez essay from the NYDN 10/22/10 for a truly under-covered angle on what 1-1/3 years and two chancellors later is the city’s pending… Valentine’s Day (ahem) still-premature release:

“Such a hearing will undoubtedly reveal that the very consultants who
designed Klein’s rating system warned it should not be used to judge
teacher performance.

Their support of the “value added model,”
those consultants said in an Aug. 29, 2008, report, was “limited to the
technical quality of the work” and to its potential to assist “in
teaching and learning.”

They specifically refused to endorse
“any particular use [of the method] for accountability, promotion or
tenure” of teachers.

“Test scores,” they warned, “capture only
one dimension of teacher effectiveness, and . . . are not intended as a
summary measure of teacher performance.”

The consultants’ report
was supplied to the Daily News by Leonie Haimson, director of Class
Size Matters, who obtained it under a Freedom of Information Request
that Klein’s people took 15 months to answer.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/schools-chancellor-joel-klein-release-data-12-000-teachers-article-1.189051

My comment at the time:

“Hmm…..
and how long did it take DOE to respond to the (com)Post’s FOIL request
to expose the data? Two months.

15 months for the critics vs.
two months for the shills. Got it.

In short, an entire year went
by in which Klein, leading a parade of others on the national stage,
was fraudulently hyping “Polly want a value-added”, while knowing good
and well that the methodology was not even endorsed by its AUTHORS for
the purpose of the hype.

And that’s on top of knowing that the
NYS Assessment scale scores were inflating relative to national NAEP
scores.

All to build a case for Bloomberg to overturn term
limits.

Because our kids can’t live without them.

Got
ETHICS?”

http://gothamschools.org/2010/10/22/rise-shine-citys-value-added-team-said-not-to-use-it-to-judge/

Hey, my report fluctuated 50 points in the course of one year. Hope they release both so people could see the discrepancy. Though wish they’d release none because of that little thing I have… what was it… dignity.

Liked again.

 Actually I’m not so sure it’s cut and dried. Individual teachers with incorrect data (knowingly incorrect since the UFT did try to bring this to the attention of the courts) will be subject to public ridicule based on false information published about them. If the UFT hadn’t brought up the errors, I’d say there’s no case. But as individuals bringing a class action suit for libel, defamation of character, etc., I’m not so sure there won’t be some attorneys willing to go for it on your behalf. The question is, how many teachers know the data is wrong. From what I’ve seen, accuracy in terms of actually matching correct students to their teachers is under 80%.

 Getting kids who are 3′s and 4′s isn’t the trick. In fact getting 4′s is harmful because  the scores are heavily biased against high scoring kids. Prior to this past year in middle school, you get more than a point off you lost your 4. Was MUCH easier to get 4′s below grade 6. Still is.The key with value added is to realize that since you never really know what an individual child is predicted to get until after the fact, there’s little you can do to do well other than a good job or cheat. And a good job is absolutely no guarantee as anyone who’s spent real time in the classroom can attest.

There are lies… there are damn lies.. and there’s  statistics…

Samuel Clemens

Best of luck, Paul.  God knows there’s no shortage of firms willing to file class action complaints on any issue. 

Is there any evidence there have been “wholesale firing[s] of the teaching corp in favor of ‘newbies’”?  My understanding is that firings of tenured teachers are still exceedingly rare; that until the last few years, tenure was granted almost 100% of the time; and that most teachers up for tenure are not over forty.  

One of my tdr’s contained only 6 of my kids and 7 unknown students out of a class of 30 ?  Go figure  Does this count???