No one has been more active in opposing untested evaluation methods than high school principal Carol Burris.
Burris was a key figure in organizing New York principals to oppose the state’s test-based evaluation system, which has never been validated or worked anywhere.
Burris has written articles frequently. She is tireless.
I visited her school, South Side High School in Rockville Center, Long Island. It is an excellent and beloved community school that serves all the children of the community. it has no tracking. It has a strong IB program.
Carol went to the first public hearing of the Cuomo commission, but was not allowed to speak. When the commission held hearings on Long Island, she got her chance. She got a standing ovation.
Please read her testimony.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“I ask you to recommend that the millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars used for multi-day testing, test security and shredding, APPR and the creation of student data systems be dedicated instead to wrap around services for poor children and to fund excellent pre-schools and to the classrooms of New York that need it the most.”
Thank you Carol for your articulate testimony, which was full of reasoned requests. This one, for me, goes to the heart of the testing issue.
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Superb!! TY! Neal
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
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What evaluation system was replaced by this flawed test based system? Was it a review by administrators or something like the PAR system?
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Who says there neds to be an evaluation “system”? What evaulation “system” do we use to evaluate doctors, lawyers or other professionals? Maybe just the fact that they’ve graduated with multiple degrees, passed all required exams and been certified by an accrediting body that they are qualified to practice their profession? Maybe just the fact that they have supervisors and colleagues whom they work with every day who evaluate them in action? Why should teachers be treated any differently than other professionals?
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I would be all in favor of peer evaluation. I am formally evaluated be my peers annually, and that largely determines the size of any raise and my continued employment. The evaluation process for promotion of tenure stream faculty is, of course, far more involved, and includes peers at other institutions.
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Who says there neds to be an evaluation “system”?
Depends on how you read this, but Ohio’s Supreme Court demands “clear accountability:”
“After an exhaustive review of the record, I am also convinced that it is time for the General Assembly to set education standards and to require performance of the education establishment, with rewards when they meet the standards or severe corrective action when they do not. This should include mandates for cost cutting (additional money is not the only answer) and cost containment with clear accountability.”
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Unfortunately, the preponderance of research says the judge is out of his depth.
Diane
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I am just pointing out that regular evaluations that determine employment and salary are the norm for doctors, lawyers, and other professionals. To make salary decisions based on evaluation of performance is to treat teachers the same as other professionals.
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She rocks!
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FYI – The Thomas B. Fordham Institute has posted a positive review of her most recent book – Opening the Common Core: How to Bring ALL Students to College and Career Readiness.
http://www.edexcellence.net/commentary/education-gadfly-daily/common-core-watch/2012/do-we-need-a-new-charter-revolution.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20flypaper%20(The%20Education%20Gadfly%20Daily%3A%20Ideas%20that%20stick%20from%20the%20Fordham%20Institute
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Where we work, we are not as blessed to have such a thoughtful leader. So Carol we look to you for inspiration and feel hopeful that not every leader has swallowed the Leadership Academy Kool-Aid. Many thanks for fighting the good fight.
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One of the biggest myths (after the one where teachers are overpaid and work so little) is the one about us not wanting to be evaluated. Come in, observe my teaching, look at the growth my students make in the course of year by analyzing their work, but please don’t give my 7 and 8 year-olds reams of bubble sheets to fill out and tell me that will assess what I’ve taught. That would only work if I actually had them sit and color in bubbles in booklets all year long, which I would never do.
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I know I shouldn’t be shocked anymore, but the head of the Education commission is the former head of a bank?
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