A question occurred to Schechter recently when he was preparing testimony to give before the Massachusetts Board of Education, which will soon hold hearings on whether to base teacher evaluations on students’ standardized test scores — and if so, to what extent. best forex broker

The question was: How do the schools serving the children of President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan handle this important school reform issue? He decided to find out.

The issue of linking a teacher’s salary and pay to how well students do on a standardized test has come to dominate the national education debate.

With the Obama administration’s support, more states are passing laws to connect teacher pay and test scores, even though experts on assessment say it is a bad idea.

The tests being used today were not designed to evaluate teachers (and they don’t do a good job of assessing students, either).


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/teacher-evaluations-at-the-schools-that-obama-duncan-picked-for-their-kids/2011/04/15/AF1S1cwD_story.html?postshare=7991440757262555

by Peter Smagorinsky, professor at the University of Georgia

I used to play a lot of basketball when my body was younger. One court where I played every night was at the local high school gym, which could be divided into two so that two full-court games could be played simultaneously. One court was dedicated to the older, more serious, and more skilled players; the other was for younger players of lesser talent.

I was good enough for the high-intensity court, which used the “winners” system in which the winning team got to play the next game against a new pickup team. Often, teams had to wait several games to get back on the court, which placed a high value on winning once you got a chance to play. Losing teams might have to wait a half-hour or more just to get another shot.

Dear public school teachers in Georgia:

Congratulations on surviving another year in the classroom.

As you take a moment to catch your breath and enjoy a brief respite before you start the process all over again, I hope you will reflect on the good you do, the impact you have on young people, your ability to make a difference. Yours isn’t a job. It is a calling.

Many years ago, I was part of an advisory board at the Grady College of Journalism at the University of Georgia. The board members were pre-eminent in their field: Newspaper publishers, editors, a network television president, the head of one of the nation’s largest advertising agencies and business leaders from across the country.

At the end of one of the meetings, the discussion got around to school teachers. It turned out that each person in the room could name at least one teacher that had been influential in their life and could recite why. I never forgot that experience. That is when I realized that teachers are sculptors. Only you don’t work with clay, you shape future generations.