Does the Gates Foundation’s MET Address Real-World Issues for Using High-Stakes Value-Added?
I the first three posts of this series (see Diane Ravitch’s summary of them here), I argue that Matt DiCarlo’s retrospective analysis of market-driven reform research in 2013, “The Year in Research on Market-Based Education Reforms: 2013,” gives short shrift to practical realities. DiCarlo complains, however, that the Gates Foundation’s Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) study was […]
Teacher Effect v. Measurable Teacher “Value”: Some Clarifications
At Peter DeWitt’s Finding Common Ground blog, Angel L. Cintron Jr. offers a guest post, Poverty & Education: Meaningful Discussions or Misguided Diatribes?, confronting the often contentious debate about teacher effect, poverty, and student learning. Cintron offers two points, which he then examines: The proponents of the “poverty is not an excuse” motto are correct in stating that […]
Student Slang 101
Slang has been around for decades. Although it’s common among teenagers, it has evolved since my generation. As a teacher, I hear student slang throughout the entire school day. As a result, I’ve complied a short list of high frequency words and phrases used this year: bob: Although it’s real name, in the traditional sense, it’s a […]
1-16-14 @ The Chalk Face
@ THE CHALK FACE: Comparing CC Support with Evidence AgainstAFT president Randi Weingarten has recently changed positions on value-added methods (VAM) for teacher evaluation, but maintains support for Common Core (CC). With that shift to rejecting VAM, based on the solid evidence base that shows high-stakes implementation of VAM is at least complicated if not misleading, I would like to request th
