For me, value-added is more about journalistic ethics and the privacy of personnel files than anything else right now. The question is whether NYC media will behave more responsibly than the LA Times did if they get their hands on the database, and whether advocates will be able to see that pushing VAM too hard the wrong way is simply going to make it too
Andy Rotherham over at Eduwonk posted an Irony Alert yesterday as many media outlets poised themselves to start “outing” ineffective teachers by posting publicly those teacher’s value-added effectiveness scores.Rotherham argued:
In light of this blow up about value-added in New York City, in a lot of places if the teachers unions would actually get serious about actually using value-add data as part of teacher evaluations it could be shielded from “Freedom of Information”requests that identify teachers, just as many aspects of personnel evaluations are. They’re caught in their own mousetrap here. My take on the larger issue from a few weeks ago and LA.
I thought…. hmmm… really? That doesn’t seem right. Is this just a clever argument intended to dupe teachers
A state audit to determ
Although the report found that many California charter schools provide meals to their students, state auditor Elaine Howle said it was not possible to determine how many of the students were eligible for or participating in subsidized lunch and breakfast programs.
Charter schools — independently run, publicly financed campuses — are exempt from the federal law requiring public schools to provide needy students with at least one nutritionally adequate meal a day at a reduced price or for free.
Advocates for low-income families are concerned that this could force some parents to choose between the educational and nutritional needs of their children.
Assemblywoman Julia Brownley (D-Santa Monica) said she requested the audit in January because the number of charter schools is growing, and research has shown a link between academic
I’ll be sitting with folks I’m meeting for the first time. Maybe over dinner.
“So, Fred. What do you do?”
“I’m a K-5 Art teacher.”
There will be a smile, a nod and, “Oh! That must be fun.” And that will be the end of that conversation. We will both feel a little awkward and move on to sports, movies or the latest developments with Don and Peggy on Mad Men.
Things have changed.
Now when people find out I’m a teacher they want to talk about teacher evaluations and why more bad teachers
A report released yesterday found that the state Department of Education has failed to keep reliable data on the number of charter school students in federal school breakfast and lunch programs.
The report from the California State Auditor aimed to find out how many charter schools in the state were participating in federal school meal programs and how many students were eligible, but the department's databases provided unclear results.
“In investigating how the nutritional needs of charter school students are being met, so that the Legislature can make future decisions regarding the health and education of California's children, we were hampered by a lack of data,” the report reads.
Under the National School Lunch Act, qualifying low-income children who attend traditional schools are required to receive at least one free or reduced price meal. But charter schools,
The Success Academy Network, a well known charter school network that operates five schools across Harlem, has applied to open another location on the Upper West Side.
The charter school debate surfaced south of Harlem this week at a crowded Upper West Side Community Education Council meeting that felt more like a protest.
An auditorium at P.S. 145 on 105th Street was full for most of the meeting Wednesday night, which focused on a plan to potentially open a charter school within P.S. 145, also known as the Bloomingdale School.
The Success Academy Network, a well known charter school network that operates five schools across Harlem, has applied to open another location called Upper West Success Academy that could possibly share space in P.S. 145. The city Department of Education says that school is currently only at 59 percent capacity.
This potential location on the Upper West Side marks a shift in the charter school
This post was written by Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Philadelphia Superintendent Arlene Ackerman.
By Michael Nutter and Arlene Ackerman
To read the news coming out of Washington, D.C., you’d think the only way to reform public schools is by firing teachers, closing schools, and battling it out in the media.
Not so.
The aggressive strategies in D.C. led to some laudable gains in minority students’ academic performance. But it is clear that some members of the community may have felt alienated or left out of the process.
There is a lot of talk about the future of Michelle Rhee, who resigned as the Chancellor of Washington DC 's schools last week. Speculation centers around possibilities for her next job.
The timing couldn't be better for her. Not only is she leaving before she had to demonstrate sustained improved academic results for the children of the District, but is now the "star" of the propaganda documentary Waiting for Superman. Her public reputation is at its apex.
Some of the speculation has her coming to Newark, N.J., a school system whose failure is rivaled only by the one she is leaving in the nation's capital. Newark's schools are the lucky recipient of $100 million in the form of a charitable contribution from Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook.
Mr. Zuckerberg also understands public relations timing, as he is also the subject of a current film, one in which he is portrayed in a mostly negative way. It has been speculated that the timing of his generous gift is no accident, perhaps designed to counter the poor image presented of him in The
