John Thompson Reviews "Confessions of a Bad Teacher"
Guest post by John Thompson.
Maybe this should go under the heading of confessions of a naïve teacher, but I still try to put myself in the shoes of Arne Duncan, his boss, Bill Gates, and others who seem to believe that value-added, as a part of a multiple measures, can be valid for teacher evaluations. Anyone who would believe such a thing might also believe the claims of New York City small schools' websites.
James Owens' Confessions of a Bad Teacher describes his year at a New York City small school, which earned a "B" on the district's report card. "Latinate," as he called it, had a six year old, full-color brochure with a zippy design. It claimed an accelerated college-prep curriculum, peer mentoring, tutoring, programs in technology, Art History, ethics/service learning, step/hip-hop and ballroom dancing, b-ball, tennis, fencing, filmmaking and chorus.
According to Owens, the only program that it retained was basketball.
Latinate was a small school that "co-located" in the same building with another small school referred to as the "blue school." Latinate spun itself as a school based on "non-negotiables." The principal, "Ms. P," believed that Latinate could take every kid who walked into the building, and by accepting "no excuses" it could bring them all to academic excellence. The "blue school" sought to offer a more well-rounded education, and its principal raised an additional $500,000 to fund programs that Latinate could not afford.
The damage done by false promises and inequitable spending became clear when Owens took
