Will the Regents allow ideology to trump research and good sense?
The NY State Regents are voting tomorrow on whether to allow student scores on state tests, filtered through value-added formulas, to account for 40 percent of a teacher’s evaluation. The new law – rushed through the Legislature to get Race to the Top funds - said that the state tests would account for only 20 percent, with another 20 percent should be devised by districts using locally agreed upon assessments – that would not necessarily be standardized tests.
According to the NY Times, “The new system is scheduled to be used in the coming school year for English and math teachers in Grades 4 through 8, and then for all teachers the following year.” The article also says there will be new “state tests by 2012-13, for middle school science and social studies, and ninth- and 10th-grade English, where none exist now. “
And then we are supposed to get a whole new raft of standardized tests for the Common Core by 2014?
All this will be hugely expensive, at a time of rampant budget cuts, when parents are already up in arms because of their children’s steady diet of standardized tests and test prep, all to evaluate teacher performance by means of a dysfunctional method that few experts believe in.
Governor Cuomo has entered into the controversy, signing a letter supporting this notion, as well as