PURE testimony on teacher evaluation in Chicago
November 7, 2011
To the Illinois Performance Evaluation Advisory Council
PURE believes that an effective assessment and accountability system is essential to an excellent public education for all children. We support assessment and accountability systems which are built on high-quality learning standards, incorporate multiple measures of student progress over time, value local assessment, respect parental rights, are transparent to the public, and demonstrably support improved teaching and learning.
Unfortunately, we are moving farther and farther away from establishing such a system. The federal No Child Left Behind Act created a massive explosion of testing in our nation, exacerbating the misuse and overemphasis on standardized tests across the U.S. Despite campaign rhetoric about reducing the amount of standardized testing, the Obama administration’s
Slow down the “hilarity” in Illinois – hearing today
“This would all be hilarious except that it can cost people their jobs.”
- Michael Winerip in yesterday’s New York Times
Today is the local Chicago hearing on a proposed new teacher and principal evaluation plan. The meeting begins at 5 pm at Lane Tech (details here).
To help you get a feeling for what’s at stake, read this NYT article by Michael Winerip about the mess in Tennessee, a Race to the Top “winner” which has already implemented its new system. Like the system Illinois is proposing, Tennessee school principals must use student test scores to judge teachers:
(T)he state is requiring teachers without test results to be evaluated based on the scores of