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Teacher evaluations at the schools that Obama, Duncan picked for their kids

8/30/2015

 
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
We don’t tie teacher pay to test scores because we don’t believe them to be a reliable indicator of teacher effectiveness.
-- Statement from the schools that Obama and Duncan picked for their kids

Should schools follow competitive or cooperative models? Can they be both?

5/30/2015

 
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.
If power corrupts, then systems that make power a central aspect of participation produce corruption among its members, with coercion from the top often producing unethical conduct all the way down. Just ask the Atlanta teachers headed to prison on racketeering charges for 5-20 years.
-- Peter Smagorinsky

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[VIDEO] The problems with our current standardized testing system

5/17/2015

 

A sincere ‘thank you’ to Georgia’s public school teachers

5/16/2015

 
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.
I realized that teachers are sculptors. Only you don’t work with clay, you shape future generations.
-- Dick Yabrough

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A Yelp for teachers

4/20/2015

 
Yahoo! News | Let’s have a discussion this week about transparency and accountability. No, I’m not talking about Hillary Clinton and the server that lives in her attic. I’m talking instead about teachers’ unions and their fight to keep classroom evaluations secret.

In exurban Loudoun County, Va., about a half hour’s drive from Washington, a parent named Brian Davison is suing the state because it won’t release the ratings that public school teachers get based on the test scores of their students. The Washington Post reports that the Virginia suit is part of a growing national debate over new, data-based ratings in the classroom.

The question Davison and other parents are asking is why the schools won’t share these numerical evaluations with us. The question that occurs to me, though, is exactly the reverse. Isn’t it time that parents shared their own evaluations with everyone else?

Read more:
https://www.yahoo.com/politics/testing-testing-getty-images-lets-have-a-114042212171.html

Florida Student Speaks Out on Standardized Testing

4/9/2015

 

AP: 11 former Atlanta educators convicted in cheating scandal

4/3/2015

 
In one of the biggest cheating scandals of its kind in the U.S., 11 former Atlanta public school educators were convicted Wednesday of racketeering for their role in a scheme to inflate students' scores on standardized exams. The defendants, including teachers, a principal and other administrators, were accused of falsifying test results to collect bonuses or keep their jobs in the 50,000-student Atlanta school system. A 12th defendant, a teacher, was acquitted of all charges by the jury.

The racketeering charges carry up to 20 years in prison. Most of the defendants will be sentenced April 8.

Read more:
http://www.walb.com/story/28695750/11-former-atlanta-educators-convicted-in-cheating-scandal

Hall insisted she was innocent. But educators said she was among higher-ups pressuring them to inflate students' scores to show gains in achievement and meet federal benchmarks that would unlock extra funding.

Video: Vouchers Divert $ from Public Schools

3/28/2015

 
The Southern Education Foundation has conducted extensive research regarding Georgia's Tax Credit Scholarship (Voucher) program and the number of minority students attending public schools.

Pro-Charter Advocacy Group Seeks to Turn the Classroom into a Political Machine

3/27/2015

 
EmpowerED Georgia Exclusive | Imagine if traditional public school students were given an assignment to write letters in support of their public schools to their legislators telling them about the negative impact of budget cuts. Imagine the thousands of letters and emails state officials would receive talking about increased class sizes, shortened school calendars, and limited course offerings.

Most Georgians (and legislators) would support students getting engaged in the political process but not at the expense of taxpayer dollars and precious instructional time.

Though sympathetic to the cause, there would be public outcry that teachers would pressure their students through class assignments or even grades.

In an email, a pro-charter advocacy group...asks charter school students to reach out to their legislators...this effort crosses ethical boundaries

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School testing still not making the grade

3/24/2015

 
by Michael Moore | In a few weeks, much of the nation and Georgia will commence student testing. Where exactly are we nationally and where are we particularly in Georgia with its new testing program the Georgia Milestones Assessments? Are we ready?

Here’s what we know so far.

Georgia’s Milestones exam is provided by McGraw Hill, the company that also published the CRCT and our high school graduation tests, and has provided Georgia’s tests for the last nine years (since 2006). Georgia entered into a contract with McGraw Hill after dropping out of the PARCC Consortium. We dropped out of the PARCC Consortium because we thought the price per student was too high.
"strongly urge departing from test-focused reforms that not only have been discredited for high-stakes decisions, but also have shown to widen, not close, gaps and inequities."
--
Open Letter to Congress by 500 education researchers around the country

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