Making the case for a new direction on teacher evaluation
Blog by Mike Klonsky/Huffington Post
The most conservative wave of teacher bashing in recent history emanates, not just from the Republicans, but from Barack Obama's Department of Education and his secretary of education, Arne Duncan as well. A carry-over from Bush-era No Child Left Behind, Duncan's version of school reform now focuses mainly on re-inventing teacher evaluation and placing the entire weight of measurable student performance on the individual classroom teacher with little or no attention paid to their student's living and learning environment -- inside or outside of the classroom. In L.A., newspapers are now publishing the names of teachers along side their student's test scores, mashed into a value-added formula which is then used to publicly (be)rate them as good or bad teachers. New York, Chicago, Miami and most likely every other large urban school district will soon follow suit. This in turn will play a major role in determining how teachers are paid, their professional standing and job security, as well as their rights to bargain collectively as union members. (more…)