Archives for category: Teacher Evaluations
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Matt Di Carlo Reviews TNTP Study of Rhee Reforms

By dianeravitch
November 11, 2012 //
9

Matthew Di Carlo of the Albert Shanker Institute always applies a rigorous analysis to any study or report he reviews.

Here he looks at the methodological issues raised by the TNTP review of the DC reforms. Among his concerns: the teachers who responded to the TNTP survey were a non-random sample, and those who responded might be different from those who did not; in addition, the “evaluation” is based on only a single year of data. Di Carlo concludes that the study isn’t very interesting because of its flaws.

When Gary Rubinstein reviewed the same report, he made the sensible point that TFA and TNTP have been recruiting teachers for the DC schools since 2007, so one must wonder why so many of their own recruits are found to be ineffective.

Or is it the veteran teachers who are ineffective?

Linda Darling-Hammond once memorably said that you can’t ” fire your way to Finland,” and nothing in this study indicates otherwise.

In fact, it seems from both Matt and Gary’s analysis that the fastest way to be labeled “ineffective” is to teach in a high-poverty school, and the best assurance of a bonus is to teach in a low-poverty school.

To me, the fundamental problem with this “study” is that TNTP, as Matt notes, is an advocacy organization with a strong point of view, not a research organization known for dispassionate perspective.

I don’t see how anyone can take seriously the research claims of an organization with a clear self-interest as well as conflict of interest.

Let them advocate all they want, and they will. But please, media, recognize that they have a point of view and are not putting evidence-first.

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Rhee, Michelle, Teacher Evaluations

The Lowdown on $tudents for Educational Reform

By dianeravitch
November 11, 2012 //
17

EduShyster has done the research and digging on Students for Educational Reform that has thus far eluded mainstream journalists.

(This should not be surprising since few journalists have paid much attention to Democrats for Education Reform, the Wall Street hedge fund managers group, which is able to direct millions of dollars to state and local political elections from a small number of very rich donors. Typically DFER is described in news stories as just another Democratic advocacy group interested in education reform rather than as a small group of billionaires who want to promote privatization of public education.)

EduShyster gives us insight into their $uccess, their board, their ties to the financial elites, and the current focus of their activities (demanding tougher teacher evaluations, a curious preoccupation for university students).

She invites readers to offer a slogan for them. One suggestion she offers: “Pawns of billionaires.”

Maybe you can think of others.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Industry, For-Profit, NYC, Students, Teacher Evaluations, Testing

Rhee’s Organization Vindicates Rhee’s Reforms: UPDATE

By dianeravitch
November 10, 2012 //
18

Michelle Rhee founded The New Teacher Project.* Subsequently, Rhee was chancellor of the DC school system for four tumultuous years. One of the people who worked for Rhee at The New Teacher Project was Kaya Henderson, who is now chancellor of the DC schools.

So if you want to get a truly rigorous, definitely independent study of Rhee’s reforms, what group should be hired to do the review? Obvious: The New Teacher Project!

Here is the not surmising conclusion of the study: Rhee’s reforms are working! Great teachers are retained, bad teachers are fired.

Surely, in a year or two, we will see dramatic improvement in the DC test scores now that there is a great teacher in every classroom. The black-white test scores gaps and the Hispanic-white test scores gaps–now the largest of any city tested by the federal government–will close. With a great teacher in every classroom, all children in the DC schools will be proficient. Maybe as early as 2014.

*After this post first appeared, a reader informed me that Rhee did not “found” The New Teacher Project, although she often claims that she did. My informant says it was founded by insiders at Teach for America, who then asked Rhee to run it. If you check her Wikipedia entry, you will see that she is credited as the founder. I will leave this to Wendy and Michelle to sort out.

Categories Education Reform, Merit pay, Rhee, Michelle, Teacher Evaluations

Duncan’s Weighty Responsibilties

By dianeravitch
November 9, 2012 //
16

It’s not easy being U.S. Secretary of Education these days.

Back in the old days, before No Child Left Behind, the Secretary was basically a cheerleader with a bully pulpit. He or she ran a Department that oversaw many programs but had relatively little money and no authority to change what Congress authorized.

All that changed with NCLB. Suddenly, Congress declared that it was the judge of “adequate yearly progress.” It legislated the expectations for all schools. Now the federal government was in charge of crucial decisions about issues that used to belong to states and localities.

But as 2014 grew nearer and no state in the nation was on target to get to 100% proficiency–how could the schools have failed to meet their mandated deadline–Secretary Duncan issued waivers to states that agreed to do what he said.

Secretary Duncan, of course, knows how to reform schools. He did it in Chicago, remember, which is now a national exemplar of reform. It has been saved repeatedly, not only by Arne Duncan, but by Paul Vallas. Now it is going to be saved again by Barbara Byrd-Bennett and Rahm Emanuel.

Once Secretary Duncan issued waivers from NCLB, he was in a scary role. He is now dictating the terms of school reform for the entire nation! Don’t think this is easy. Not only is it a tough full-time job, but he is the first Secretary ever to struggle with this mighty burden.

Undaunted, he is now supervising a Race to the Top for districts, so he can run them too. They too will take the bait (re, the money) and fall into line.

Arne Duncan has the job of redesigning America’s education system. It’s one he has willingly assumed. Now he has four more years to make sure that every child in America is frequently tested, preferably beginning at age 3; that a vast federal data warehouse is built with relevant information about the test scores of every child and teacher; that privately managed charters take control of most urban school districts (using New Orleans as their model); and that every teacher knows how to raise test scores every year.

What a vision. What a burden. Arne Duncan can do it.

Categories Duncan, Arne, Federal Waiver, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Race to the Top, Teacher Evaluations, U.S. Department of Education, US Education

Indiana GOP Insists that Votes for Ritz Mean Nothing

By dianeravitch
November 8, 2012 //
4

In an article today, Indiana GOP leaders announced their determination to pursue Tony Bennett’s anti-teacher, pro-privatization agenda even though Bennett lost his bid for re-election.

Bennett’s challenger, Glenda Ritz, collected more votes than Mike Pence, the Republican who won the governor’s seat.

She won despite Bennett’s expenditure of  ten times as much as she had for the campaign.

She won despite the support of national rightwing groups promoting Bennett as the exemplar of school “reform.”

But the GOP thinks the voters didn’t really mean it, or made a mistake, or maybe the voters didn’t know what they were doing.

They hope to ignore the mandate at the polls.

Ritz has a Herculean task moving forward with a Republican governor, a Republican legislature, and laws mandating policies intended to destroy public education.

All she has on her side are the votes of 1.3 million Hoosiers.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Indiana, Privatization, Teacher Evaluations, Testing, Vouchers

Bill Ayers Writes a Letter to the President

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2012 //
11

I won’t go into the baggage associated with Bill Ayers. During the campaign of 2008, his name came up again and again and was hurled as an accusation against candidate Barack Obama.

I recall Sarah Palin saying that Obama was guilty of “palling around with terrorists,” or words to that effect.

I did not approve of or condone what he did in the 1960s.

Bill Ayers is not the same person he was forty years ago. Today, he is a respected education thinker. But then, none of us is the same person we were 40 or 20 or even 10 years ago.

People grow and change. If they are willing, they learn.

Ayers has written a letter to President Obama that expresses the views of many educators today.

He calls on the President to rethink his policies.

He reminds him of the great advantages that the University of Chicago Lab School offered to the Obama children, the Ayers children, the Duncan children, and the Rahm Emanuel children even now.

Isn’t this what we should want for all children?

Categories Charter Schools, Chicago, Corporate Reformers, Democrats for Education Reform, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Obama, Race to the Top, Teacher Evaluations, Testing, U.S. Department of Education, Unions, US Education, Vouchers

Luna Laws in Idaho Go Down to Stunning Defeat

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2012 //
4

Voters in Idaho gave Mitt Romney a landslide  but simultaneously voted overwhelmingly to repeal the “Luna Laws,” the brainchild of state superintendent Tom Luna.

This stunning victory for public education demonstrates that not even red-state Republicans are prepared to privatize public education and dismantle the teaching profession.

The Luna Laws imposed a mandate for online courses for high school graduates (a favorite of candidates funded by technology companies), made test scores the measure of teacher quality, provided bonuses for teachers whose students got higher scores, removed all teacher rights, eliminated anything resembling tenure or seniority, turned teachers into at-will employees, and squashed the teachers’ unions.

The campaign to support the Luna laws was heavily funded by technology entrepreneurs and out-of-state supporters of high-stakes testing and restrictions on the teaching profession, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The voters in this reddest of red states overturned all three of the Luna laws (which he called “Students Come First”; anything in which children or students or kids come “first” is a clear tip-off to the divisive intent of the program).

As the story in the Idaho Statesman reported:

In a stunning rebuke to Gov. Butch Otter and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna, Idahoans on Tuesday repealed the laws that dominated the pair’s agenda the past two years.

Idahoans agreed with teachers unions — which spent more than $3 million to defeat Propositions 1, 2 and 3 — that the reforms Luna called “Students Come First” and detractors called “The Luna Laws” went too far.

As GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney won a 65 percent Idaho landslide, Otter and Luna — both touted as possible Cabinet secretaries in a Romney administration — lost their signature issue by large margins.

With 99 percent of all Idaho precincts reporting:

— 57 percent opposed to restrictions on teachers unions in Prop 1.

— 58 percent voted no on Prop 2, which paid teacher bonuses based on student test scores and other measures.

— 67 percent rejected a mandate for laptops and online credits for every Idaho high school student.

The scale of the defeat reached across Idaho.

Voters in 37 of 44 counties rejected all three measures. The seven outliers — Adams, Boise, Fremont, Jefferson, Lemhi, Madison and Owyhee — are largely rural. Not one of Idaho’s most populous counties voted for even one of the laws.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Bloomberg, Michael, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Idaho, On-Line Education, Privatization, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Tenure, Technology, Computers, Testing, Unions

Good news from Colorado

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2012 //
3

Stand for Choldren endorsed five Republican candidates in Colorado, and all five lost!

A friend in Denver reports:

“In addition to going for Obama tonight, Colorado stood up to Stand for Children. All 5 Democratic candidates where SFC supported Republican opponents won, albeit one by 115 votes.

“Maybe they have overstepped their “power.” And earlier in the day I heard the Colorado Executive Director of said organization resigned.

“Now back to getting public education back.”

Categories Charter Schools, Colorado, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Obama, Privatization, Stand for Children, Teacher Evaluations

More Evidence: Value-Added Assessment Is Junk Science

By dianeravitch
November 5, 2012 //
18

Linda Darling-Hammond and Edward Haertel of Stanford University explain why value-added assessment doesn’t work and how inaccurate it is.

Will John Deasy listen? Will the Gates Foundation listen?

Will the Los Angeles Times, which published their article, stop seeking names to publish inaccurate data about teacher “effectiveness”?

Categories Los Angeles, Teacher Evaluations

Shadowy Group Funds Idaho Luna Laws

By dianeravitch
November 2, 2012 //
3

A group called Education Voters of Idaho refused to disclose its donors until required to do so by a court order.

The biggest donor is a businessman who is an investor in K12, the online charter corporation ($250,000); the second biggest donor is Mayor Michael Bloomberg ($200,000).

EVI promotes the anti-union, anti-teacher, privatizing policies of state superintendent Tom Luna. Supporters of public education are seeking to repeal the Luna laws, which are deceptively called “Students Come First.” The phrase echoes Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst and Joel Klein’s Children’s First.

Luna has received heavy funding from technology corporations, and his laws mandate the purchase of a laptop computer for every student, and every student must take two online courses for graduation. They eliminate tenure and seniority. They require that student test scores count for 50% of every educator’s evaluation, including district superintendents, principals and teachers. All educators will have a one or two year contract. They initiate bonus pay based on test scores for all educators. Teachers will not get a written explanation if the principal decides to fire them.

A sample of one of the laws:

School districts no longer have to prove a financial emergency before reducing teacher numbers. School boards can reduce teacher numbers at their discretion but cannot consider seniority when deciding who to eliminate.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Idaho, Luna, Tom, On-Line Education, Privatization, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Tenure, Technology, Computers, Testing, Unions
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