Massachusetts released teacher ratings, and lo and behold, all the best teachers seem to be in the most affluent districts.
In Boston, the lowest ratings went to old and minority teachers. The highest ratings went to central office administrators.
EduShyster did not use the phrase “makes no sense,” which is the headline of this post.
Actually, the teacher evaluations do make sense. They are doing what they were designed to do. They are bogus. This is the regime imposed on the state by Jonah Edelman and Stand for Children. Firing old and minority teachers is the civil rights issue of our day? When wil there be accountability for the people who push these demoralizing ideas? Other countries support and develop teachers, helping them improve. We rand and rate and humiliate them to force out those whose kids don’t get high scores and to make room for young college graduates who want to try their hand at teaching for a while until something better comes along.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Firing old and minority teachers is the civil rights issue of our day? ”
A fantastic observation.
If there is a disparate effect based on those categories, then one would expect that the affected classes would file grievances and head off to federal court for judicial intervention. I can’t believe that the BTU would tarry.
Accountability will come via the fear of litigation.
The BTU has not tarried. A grievance has been filed.
Very little makes sense any more. This is the United Stasi, a country who is drunk on being #1, whatever that means. We sure are at the top of the rung with regards to ichild poverty among developed nations. Shame on this country.
I moved out of the state to get away from Massachusetts schools, and I lived in one of those “affluent districts”. Massachusetts is the great Oz of education in the U.S. (pay no attention to that man behind the curtain).
I was once a celebrated teacher. I was such a good teacher because I had (for the most part) well fed motivated students from intact families. I harbor no illusions about my magical abilities. I would have had a tough time with tough kids. I don’t know any teachers who believe they are magicians.
I will take credit and blame in equal doses.
To each her own. I liked my poor urban kids best because they were very real, strong, loving human beings who placed their teacher just below Mama on the importance scale. The times I taught wealthier kids I found them stuck up and manipulative, as were their parents.
Wow! You said it perfectly. This is exactly what happens. First the for-profits rape the public coffers, then they will destroy free public education and move on to the next target. We will be left with the devastation unless we work to stop it now.
Let’s not forget that they are enabled and masked by the so-called non-profits funded by billionaire malanthropists.
Reblogged this on Naked Teaching.
Yes, and it needs to be seen as a civil rights issue and discrimination due to age. Any professional, career teacher over the age of 40 who is being harassed and who knows she is good, especially if she has gone to the trouble of getting an advanced degree, needs to file a lawsuit for age discrimination. A few of these and I think the systems would say WHOA! We have got to stop doing this.
Who will replace all these non-effective teachers in MA? Will they be subject to the same evaluation methods? And how will all this affect MA’s current PISA ratings right up there with Shanghai?– oh, wait, I know. MA, like Shanghai, will only do PISA tests at the ‘best’ schools…