P.S. 51, the Bronx school relocated over toxin concerns, will be investigated by the state. (Daily News)
In the wake of cheating scandals, the College Board is toughening SAT exam security. (Times, AP, WSJ)
Michael Goodwin: The city’s list of verboten test words underscores Bloomberg’s “no” mentality. (Post)
D.C. is considering a policy to close charter schools that don’t report suspensions. (Washington Post)
Vote NO!
I am in agreement with publicizing the teacher evaluations. It will be the quickest way to getting the law repealed. I don’t like the idea of municipalities, and unions being allowed to ” railroad,” and fire teachers under the “cover of darkness”. If this law is so good, let the public see how it is “weeding out” all of these “ineffective” teachers.
SickofBloomberg
Since neither Cuomo or Bloomberg are certified teachers, educators or in any way qualified to work in a school they, and the rest of the legislators should have NO SAY in whether teachers’ privacy can be violated. Just because teachers are employees are employees of the city or state does not mean that they are not entitled to privacy.
All legislators are public employees too, so maybe their financial information, all business dealings, and criminal records should be printed in the newspapers every year.
Jo Dama
What about evaluations of FDNY and NYPD?
KitchenSink
State tests are being delivered to schools this week. Do the DOE and state ed have the resources to make sure that when they are administered in two weeks, they are still in their shrink wraps until the morning of the test at each school? Even random monitoring “sampling” would deter this kind of behavior.
All this cheating talk is making me realize how easy it is for schools to open, review and provide vacation practice packets for kids that mimic the questions on the state test.
Nycdoenuts
It’s important to note that the WJS says only that Cuomo supports the release of teacher scores to parents -not necessarily to the entire public. While (to my knowledge) this will be the first profession where the people who benefit from a service can see the performance review score of the individual provider of that service (the teachers), it’s still a far cry from releasing those scores to the whole public. The issue is whether or not these scores can be released to the public, not just to parents. Cuomo side-stepped that question (in a rather Clintonian way).
So I guess I’m still wondering where Cuomo stands on the matter of releasing teacher scores to the press in general.
Guest
You’re not a municipal or state executive, legislator, or school administrator and you have no experience running a school system, and you are totally unqualified to comment on these matters. Limit your comments to your subject matter and observation about classroom teaching practices.
bee
Nonsense.
Mr. Flerporillo
“The issue is whether or not these scores can be released to the public, not just to parents. ”
I think that’s a smart distinction. I think parents have a strong interest in seeing information about individual teachers’ performance. The public’s interest is far more attenuated, too attenuated in my view to outweigh privacy concerns. Of course, any information released, even just to parents, should be reliable and useful.
Michael M. (parent still)
Odd distinction to me. As if 1.1 million kids’ parents are going to sign non-disclosure agreements.
All of which sidesteps the core question — whether the teacher scores are worth a hoot.
SickofBloomberg
I’m sorry, and your qualifications, other than an overinflated sense of self worth, are…? You have absolutely no idea what my experience or knowledge is but I assure you it greatly outweighs yours.
Mr. Flerporillo
That view could support an argument against any disclosure outside the DOE. It also could support total disclosure of all ratings to the entire public. I’d prefer a sensible middle ground rather than tossing up the political football and seeing where it ends up. But I suspect we’ll end up playing football as usual.
SickofBloomberg
The ratings of teachers are based on a THEORETICAL determination of where students SHOULD be performing at a certain time. In other words, the people determining the validity of the ratings have devised a system in which their OPINION of what each and every student SHOULD do is the determining factor of whether a teacher is successful.
Let me repeat, the DOE decides what a student should do based on purely theoretical criteria and then decides a teacher’s fate based on meeting a theoretical target.
In fact, a student may make significant progress in academic matters, but if they do not meet the theoretical target the teacher has failed. This is true even if the student, the parents, and the teacher are all satisfied and comfrotable with the student’s progress.
I am hard pressed to find another country that uses such a foolish system to evaluate academic achievement.
This only goes to prove that releasing teacher ratings is a purely political tool, has no academic value whatsoever, and is a punitive measure against teachers.
Only in a time when failures such as Duncan, Cuomo, Rhee, Bloomberg and Klein are perceived as authorities on anything educational could such a ridiculous system merit consideration and debate.
Guest
What does it matter what my qualifications are? You are already certain that your qualifications are superior to mine. Right, I’m the one with the ego here . . .
But since you’re so proud of yourself, please, tell me about your amazing experience and knowledge. I can tell already that you’re much more worldly and much smarter than Andrew Cuomo and Michael Bloomberg. Probably smarter than Obama and a long list of others.
SickofBloomberg
“I can tell already that you’re much more worldly and much smarter than Andrew Cuomo and Michael Bloomberg. Probably smarter than Obama and a long list of others.”
When it comes to actually educating children in a classroom in a school as opposed to using my questionably earned wealth to further my personal political agenda, yes I am significantly better informed and much more of an actual authority on what is and is not effective.
Just ask the thousands of students I have effectively educated.
How many have Cuomo, Bloomberg et. al. actually educated to back up their meaningless rhetoric?
Michael M. (parent still)
I think we each know where the other stands. Not sure what a “sensible middle ground” would be when standing on quicksand. Next ballgame….
Mr. Flerporillo
Vote NO!, why on earth are you using quotation marks for “railroad,” “cover of darkness,” and “weeding out”? You’re not quoting anybody, and there is no risk that a reader will misunderstand you by taking those words at face value, as it’s impossible to even imagine how somebody could literally “railroad” someone (except arguably in a game of Monopoly), or literally “weed out” anything other than a weed.
No offense intended, but I again beseech you to use quotation marks properly. Please!
Guest
Ah, you’re a teacher — well that is rare experience there. You certainly are more qualified than Cuomo or Bloomberg to manage a school system. I assume that makes you more qualified to manage a budget, too. If our Governer had teaching credentials and was in favor of disclosing teacher ratings, I’m sure you’d be in total agreement!
Mr. Flerporillo
I strongly suspect we don’t each know where the other stands, as usual. I’m against the release of the TDRs and against the public release of any teacher evaluation reports in the future.
Michael M. (parent still)
Oops. My bad. We’re defending the same goal line. No squishy middle ground in sight.
http://nyceducator.com/ NYC Educator
I hate it when teachers give packets like those to my kid on breaks. If they have to do test prep, why can’t they do it during class time?
On your broader topic, when schools put guns to the heads of teachers and administrators to get better scores, cheating is inevitable, and we have seen only the tip of the iceberg. However, at every school in which I’ve ever worked, sealed exams are kept in a vault. I’ve never known anyone, teacher or admin, to release test questions early.
To me, it’s kind of like copying the homework–ultimately unproductive because there’s no possibility anyone will learn anything (except perhaps the few teachers or administrators led away in handcuffs on the six o’clock news).
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