Dan Brown: The "Achilles Heel" of Education Reform is Slashed by Michael Bloomberg:
"High-stakes testing is a bullet train barreling through education reform; you're either on the train, on the sidelines, or waving your hands in frantic protest, only to be run over.
Last week's education speech by emboldened New York City Mayor-for-Life Bloomberg (who just dropped nine-figures of his own cash on his re-election bid) is depressing news to people on the ground in schools. Conducting the Testing Express, Bloomberg announced:"
"As [Secretary of Education] Arne [Duncan] had said a number of times, 'A state can't enter Race to the Top if it prohibits schools from using student achievement data to evaluate teachers and that's why California just repealed its prohibition on doing so.'
"In New York, the State Legislature passed a law last year that actually tells principals: You can evaluate teachers on any criteria you want - just not on student achievement data. That's like saying to hospitals: You can evaluate heart surgeons on any criteria you want - just not patient survival rates! You really can't make this up! Thankfully, the law in New York is set to expire this June - but that is not enough.
"We will urge the State not just to prohibit but to require all districts to create data-driven systems to comprehensively evaluate teachers and principals. And we want New York City to lead the way..."
"High-stakes testing is a bullet train barreling through education reform; you're either on the train, on the sidelines, or waving your hands in frantic protest, only to be run over.
Last week's education speech by emboldened New York City Mayor-for-Life Bloomberg (who just dropped nine-figures of his own cash on his re-election bid) is depressing news to people on the ground in schools. Conducting the Testing Express, Bloomberg announced:"
"As [Secretary of Education] Arne [Duncan] had said a number of times, 'A state can't enter Race to the Top if it prohibits schools from using student achievement data to evaluate teachers and that's why California just repealed its prohibition on doing so.'
"In New York, the State Legislature passed a law last year that actually tells principals: You can evaluate teachers on any criteria you want - just not on student achievement data. That's like saying to hospitals: You can evaluate heart surgeons on any criteria you want - just not patient survival rates! You really can't make this up! Thankfully, the law in New York is set to expire this June - but that is not enough.
"We will urge the State not just to prohibit but to require all districts to create data-driven systems to comprehensively evaluate teachers and principals. And we want New York City to lead the way..."