NYC To Release Teacher Evaluation Data Over Union Protests 557
langelgjm writes "Bringing a lengthy legal battle to a close, New York City's Department of Education will today release detailed evaluation reports on individual English and math teachers as a result of a request under public information laws. The city's teachers union has responded with full page ads (PDF) decrying the methodology used in the evaluations. The court's decision attempts to balance the public interest in this data against the rights of individual teachers. Across the country, a large number of states are moving to evaluate teachers based on student performance in an attempt to raise student achievement in the U.S."
So, the teacher wants to hide the report card? (Score:3, Informative)
I've taught in the military, public schools, and private industry. As a teacher, I know that evaluations of my technique can help me hone my skills and become more effective. The public teachers in NYC should take the critique and act upon it to make them better at their jobs.
Re:boo frickin hoo (Score:5, Informative)
Oh, wait, no they're not.
Re:Frist Psot! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:How do you evaluate teachers? (Score:5, Informative)
Is that perfect? No. Is that a good indicator? Yeah, especially when you have teachers that literally did nothing all year vs some that raised -all- of their students by several grade levels, in the same school with similar starting students.
The study addresses all these points, and is very clear about saying that they are not trying for an absolute rank, they were trying to just use the data to identify teachers that were working vs those that were not.
Yes, "teaching the test" is bad, but looking at the data, it is clear that some teachers werent even doing that, their students literally learned close to nothing in that year.
Progress is all that matters. In your example of a "bad" district, it still matters that we teach the highschool dropouts as much as we can while we have them. -No- one is blaming teachers for failing students, especially this study. We (they) are blaming them when they fail to teach.
Re:Before the rants start... (Score:5, Informative)
WHAT? [nytimes.com]
ABOUT THIS? [thedailybeast.com]
No, seriously. The people that claim that unions only protect lazy teachers have no idea what the current system of education in the USA looks like, except through what the major news organizations feed them. If your job required not just you to perform, but also to raise 30-40 humans because their parents won't, pay for your supplies out of pocket, and require 10-12 hour days 6 days a week, would you be willing to go with 'the next big movement'?
The problem is that teachers are jaded. Everything 'good' that comes along is usually just a rehash of what has been done to them in the past, or an excuse to privatize education
Oh, and Michelle Rhea was, in my opinion, just a shill for privatization, so her buddies could get their hands on that sweet, sweet Department of Education money. But, that's just my opinion
Re:So, the teacher wants to hide the report card? (Score:2, Informative)
The university I got my PhD at (large unselective state school) made instructor evaluations publically available. Turns out people who pay tuition directly are a little pickier than taxpayers.
Re:Won't someone think of the children? (Score:5, Informative)
One of the fundamental mistakes you make is not realizing that the one factor that predicts test scores most significantly is the child's family income. Everything else, including the teacher, has a smaller predictive value.
Teachers with high test scores are being rewarded for teaching rich kids.
Oh, yeah, so you say correct the test scores for family income. That's the problem. The NYC evaluation system is trying to do that. That's what that complicated formula is trying to do. The problem is that, when they tried to validate it, they found it doesn't work.
They're trying to calculate where teachers rank on a 100-point scale. The ranking has a range of error of over 50 points. You might as well rank teachers with a pair of dice.