Bill Gates's Ridiculous TED Talk, Part II
As I blogged before, Bill Gates's talk at TED about teacher evaluation was patently absurd. Gates actually said this:
We live in a world where powerful people like Gates are allowed to make audacious statements like this without any vetting: who has the brass to ask Gates to give his source for such an obviously ridiculous claim? The TED people didn't think it was worth their while to demand that Gates back up his clam with a citation - so I had to go digging...
My best guess as to where Gates got this ridiculous claim is from what has become the Rosetta Stone of reforminess: The Widget Effect, published by Michelle Rhee's former playpen, The New Teacher Project. Turn to page 12:
That is an amazingly ignorant statement on its face. Does Gates really believe teachers get "one word of feedback" in their evaluations? Seriously?
(1:06) Until recently, over 98% of teachers just got one word of feedback: "Satisfactory."
We live in a world where powerful people like Gates are allowed to make audacious statements like this without any vetting: who has the brass to ask Gates to give his source for such an obviously ridiculous claim? The TED people didn't think it was worth their while to demand that Gates back up his clam with a citation - so I had to go digging...
My best guess as to where Gates got this ridiculous claim is from what has become the Rosetta Stone of reforminess: The Widget Effect, published by Michelle Rhee's former playpen, The New Teacher Project. Turn to page 12:
These data often stand in sharp relief against current levels of student achievement. For example, in
I've got lots of research right here! Just waiting for Windows 8 to reboot...
Education Privatizers LOVE Steve Fulop
Leave it to PolitickerNJ to write an important story, yet skip all the meaningful facets:
Following up on his endorsement of Steve Fulop, Bishop Reginald Jackson did a robocall tonight for the Jersey City mayoral candidate.
"Steve is the only candidate with a real jobs plan for Jersey City residents," Jackson said in the robocall to targeted voters. "Steve will also work to clean up the dirty streets and end political corruption at city hall."
Jackson urges residents to vote for Fulop, "a real Democrat." [emphasis mine]
