Teachers to survey students – if they choose
Posted in Teacher DevelopmentWith the governor’s signature of SB 1422, students have won the right to express views of their teachers. It will take another bill, however, to win the right to actually be listened to.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Gloria Romero of Los Angeles, is a victory of sorts for the California Assn. of Student Councils and a civics lesson in sausage making.
The bill allows high school student governments to work with teachers on creating a student opinion survey on various aspects of the classes they take and their teachers’ effectiveness. The surveys will be distributed to teachers annually.
Here’s where the “buts” start. Teachers wouldn’t have to distribute them if they didn’t want to. The answers would be kept confidential. Only the teachers would have access to the answers; administrators wouldn’t have a right to see the responses. The survey could not be used as part of a teacher evaluation or be entered in a teacher’s personnel file.
How 5 Race to Top judges scored California
Posted in Race to the TopThe five unidentified reviewers of California’s Race to the Top application generally praised the district-led approach that California took and expressed optimism that ceding control to districts committed to reform could succeed.
But what stopped them, with one exception, from giving the state winning marks were three areas that participating superintendents and state officials figured would be problematic: lack of union support for the application; a troubled statewide data system that lags behind other states; and uncertainty whether the state could deliver commitments to create more effective teachers and principals.
The U.S. Department of Education released the scores and evaluations of statesin the second round of Race to the Top on Wednesday. It showed that especiallyin California, the numbers were all over the place. You’d have thought that two of the reviewers had read different applications.
