NYC Educator: Getting Rid of "Bad Teachers"

NYC Educator: Getting Rid of "Bad Teachers":

Getting Rid of "Bad Teachers"

That's what AFT President Randi Weingarten focused on in some sort of AFT gathering. I don't get invited to AFT gatherings in my lowly capacity as representative of the largest high school in Queens, but that's only because a prerequisite is to support whatever the union supports, like mayoral control and junk science evaluation. Better we send someone from a school with twelve teachers who really knows what's going on, to wit, do what you're told and shut the hell up about it.

Now no one actually wants bad teachers. No one wants bad weather, bad haircuts, or bad karma either, but there you go. But what is a bad teacher? Well, according to the new APPR, for which the union helped compose a state law, it's anyone whose students don't get sufficient test scores. Yet, according to brilliant math teacher Gary Rubinstein, who actually crunches the numbers, and Diane Ravitch, whose statue I keep on my car dashboard, judging teachers by test scores is junk science. This means teachers will be rated, continued, or fired based on junk science, essentially on a random basis next year.

Am I a bad teacher? Who knows? I'll just have to wait and see the test scores of my students. Since they don't actually