Monday, December 20, 2010

UFT wants audit of value-added assessment rankings of teachers - NYPOST.com

UFT wants audit of value-added assessment rankings of teachers - NYPOST.com

Rank & 'bile' for teachers

UFT: Audit ratings

Last Updated: 7:32 AM, December 20, 2010

Posted: 1:29 AM, December 20, 2010

Comments: 1

The teachers union called for an independent audit of the Department of Education's teacher-performance ratings yesterday -- the latest salvo in its battle to keep the information secret.

"The Department of Education has been incompetently managing this project," said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew, who compared the teacher-ranking system to the city's scandal-plagued CityTime digital-payroll project.

He said the teacher assessments -- which cost $5.5 million and are based on a formula that takes into consideration dozens of factors, from students' test scores to their families' incomes -- are error-ridden.

Mulgrew charged that the formula, created by private consultants, is flawed and city officials did not monitor its development.

"Like so many other of these contracts put out there, they do not watch it," he said. "After what I found out about it, I'm going to call for an investigation . . . Somebody's not watching the store."

The UFT sued the DOE last month after it agreed to release the scores of 12,000 elementary-



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