Flawed Strategic Plan for EBR
The following letter is to the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board and should be read in reference to the proposed revised strategic plan for EBR. This plan is available here on the EBR web site. I am publishing this letter because the issues discussed here are important to all teachers in Louisiana public schools. See also today's letter to the editorin the Advocate about the proposed plan.
This is posted today, Aug. 15 because the School Board is scheduled to possibly adopt this plan today!
Recommendations to the EBRP School Board on its Proposed Strategic Plan
Dear Board Members:
This a follow-up to the email I sent Board members last week. One of my major concerns about the proposed strategic plan is the proposal to dismiss the bottom 25% of teachers rated by the state Value Added Model (VAM). I believe such a policy is unwise because the state evaluation system is very erratic and unstable and could result in many teachers being falsely identified as “ineffective”. There are several technical reasons for this which I would be happy to discuss with the board members. But at this point I wish to point out that teachers are so uncomfortable with the idea of VAM determining their careers that many may choose not to teach VAM subjects in EBR, causing a serious loss of top