John Thompson: The Center for American Progress Pushes the Good, Bad and Ugly in Teacher Evaluation: Part 1
Guest post by John Thompson. Part One of Two.
The Center For American Progress (CAP) is a progressive think tank founded by former Clinton staffer John Podesta. The CAP believes, "progressives are idealistic enough to believe change is possible and practical enough to make it happen." It thus collaborates with funders ranging from the liberal George Soros to Walmart to push the Obama Administration's agenda.
The Center For American Progress has published another report justifying the firing of teachers today, based on statistical models that may some day become valid. "Designing High Quality Evaluation Systems," by John Tyler, recounts the standard reasons why of educators do not trust high-stakes test-driven algorithms, and even contributes a couple of new insights into problems that are unique to high school test scores. An urban teacher