Gates Foundation opposes release of teachers’ VAM scores in Florida
Readers of this blog know that I am not a fan of the “value-added method” of evaluating educators. VAM uses student test scores and adds them into complicated formulas that can supposedly figure out the “value” teachers add to student learning. (Can a complicated formula really factor out the post traumatic stress that affects a […]
Gov. Christie’s new crisis: Protests grow over state control of Newark schools
There’s a new crisis in New Jersey, and it isn’t about traffic jams. Public protests in Newark are growing over an effort by Superintendent Cami Anderson, who was appointed to run the state-operated district by Gov. Chris Christie, to reshape the city’s school system. She plans to close some traditional schools, lay off more than […]
What D.C. schools are doing right – and how to make it better
There is a lot to celebrate about the pre-kindergarten program in the D.C. public schools. In fact, some aspects of the program are so strong that school officials would be smart to borrow them for application in later grades. This is all explained in the following post by Elaine Weiss, the national coordinator for the Broader Bolder […]
2-26-14 The Answer Sheet
The Answer Sheet: Education reform and the corrosion of community responsibilityThe law of unintended consequences essentially states that individual and government actions always have some unintended consequences. In the following post, Arthur H. Camins writes about the unintended consequences of many education reform policies. Camins is the director of the Center for Innovation in Engineering an