Wednesday, January 9, 2013

by aristotlethewise

Gates Foundation MET Report:
Teacher Observation Less Reliable Than Test Scores

by Joy Resmovits

NEW YORK — A few years ago, Bill Gates decided to learn more about whether a teacher’s effect on student learning could be measured. Three years, 3,000 teachers and about $50 million later, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation thinks it has the answers.
On Tuesday afternoon in Phoenix, the Gates Foundation released the third and final component of the Measuring Effective Teachers project, a gargantuan effort spearheaded by Harvard economist Thomas Kane.
“Effective teaching can be measured,” the authors wrote in the latest installment. They’re sure of it because they used a randomized experiment to figure it out. Reliable teacher evaluations, the paper claims, include “balanced” proportions of teacher observation, students’ standardized test scores and student surveys. And for the first time, the randomized trial shows that teachers who perform well with one group of students, on average, perform

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Gates Foundation Flash: It Takes "Multiple Measures" to Judge Educators

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Gates Foundation Flash: It Takes "Multiple Measures" to Judge Educators:

Gates Foundation Flash: It Takes "Multiple Measures" to Judge Educators

by Melissa Westbrook

From Ed Week:

Student feedback, test-score growth calculations, and observations of practice appear to pick up different but complementary information that, combined, can provide a balanced and accurate picture of teacher performance, according to research released today by the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation.

The $45 million study, in progress since 2009, is one of the largest and most extensive research projects ever undertaken on the question of how to identify and measure high-quality teaching. It involved some 3,000 teachers in six districts: Charlotte-Mecklenberg, N.C.; Dallas; Denver; Hillsboro County, Fla.; Memphis, Tenn.;

575 new National Board Certified teachers

by Charlie Mas

From the Seattle Times: Washington gains 575 new National Board Certified teachers

This puts Washington State number two in the nation for new Board Certifications and fourth nationally for the total number of Board Certified teachers.

UPDATE X 2: Schools Matter: Common Core Announces New High School Leaving Exam (Or Entrance Exam)

Schools Matter: Common Core Announces New High School Leaving Exam (Or Entrance Exam):

The obsession with teacher evaluation

by skrashen

The obsession with teacher evaluation
Sent to the Seattle Times, January 9

The publicity given to the latest Gates Foundation report on teacher evaluation (“Gates: Test scores not enough for teacher reviews,” January 9) adds strength to the common view that there is something very wrong with American teachers. There is, for example, no pressing concern about how we should evaluate nurses, carpenters, doctors, dentists, lawyers, engineers, plumbers, butchers, newspaper reporters, etc.

Every profession has some inferior practitioners, but the available evidence says that American teachers as a group are excellent. When we control for the effects of poverty, our international test scores are very good,

Common Core Announces New High School Leaving Exam (Or Entrance Exam)

by skrashen

Instructions: Read each question thoroughly. Answer all questions. Time limit - four hours. Begin immediately.*

History
Describe the history of the Papacy from its origins to the present day, concentrate specifically but not exclusively, on the social, political, economic, religious, and philosophical impact on Europe, Asia, America and Africa. Be brief, concise and specific.
Literature
Compose an epic poem based on the events of your own life in which you see and footnote allusions from T.S. Eliot, Keats, Chaucer, Dante, Norse mythology and the Marx brothers. Critique your poem with a full discussion

Conflicting Responses to Testing Abuses

by John Thompson

Thanks, Nancy Flanagan, for resurrecting so many contradictory feelings – and thoughts that I do not want in my head as I return from the holidays to the classroom. Seriously, Flanagan tackles the question that many teachers, including me, would like to dodge. She quotes a comment that should make all of us recoil. Roseanne Eckhert asks, “If you would take a bullet for a child, then why would you keep them from recess and PE or impose homework that consists of mind-numbing drill sheets for your paycheck?”

Flanagan restates the question about teachers, “Why do they let clueless, aggressive "reformers" capture the bully pulpit on ed policy? Why are they so spineless?”

My first response was to take a dive on that issue and I continued to surf the Internet. But, then I found Gary Rubenstein’s Teach for Us. Rubenstein features a blog post, by KIPPster Chris Low, describing the pain that

Better Schools = Stronger Communities

by P. L. Thomas

From EmpowerEd Georgia

Better Schools = Stronger Communities

National Boycott of MSNBC

by Jim Horn

(Photo: MSNBC Leaning Forward) How long can the "progressive network" ignore progressive educators? No longer. Pretending to be stupid about the anti-democratic corporate takeover of American public education is no longer acceptable. My advice to Maddow and the rest of the nightly liberal crew: Get educated on the issues or get lost.

From Tim Slekar:

January 7, 2013 by Timothy D. Slekar

Why in the hell would MSNBC’s morning joe prominently feature Michelle Rhee and her ridiculous state report card? Why does this woman continue to get media attention? Every reform that she either implemented or advocates for has been demonstrated to lead to deceitful behavior or simply not work! She advocates an ideologically driven, corporate-based reform movement that puts money first—not students.

Corporate based education reform is killing the American system of public education and

The 2013 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Presence Rankings :: Frederick M. Hess

The 2013 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Presence Rankings :: Frederick M. Hess:

The 2013 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Presence Rankings

by Frederick M. Hess • Jan 9, 2013 at 6:05 am
Cross-posted from Education Week

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Today, we unveil the 2013 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Presence rankings. The metrics, as explained yesterday are designed to recognize those university-based academics who are contributing most substantially to public debates about K-12 and higher education.

The top scorers are familiar edu-names with long careers, bodies of influential scholarship, track records of commenting on public developments, and outsized public and professional profiles. In order, Linda Darling-Hammond and Diane Ravitch are tied for first (In the case of ties, scholars are listed alphabetically by last name), followed by Howard Gardner, Rick Hanushek, and Paul Peterson. Rounding out the top ten were Larry Cuban, Gary Orfield, Yong Zhao, Richard Elmore, and Tony Wagner. These results reflect the nature of the scoring, which recognizes the influence of a scholar's body of work and not simply whether a scholar garnered press clippings or blog mentions in 2012.

With that said, here are the 2013 rankings:

Click chart for larger view, with zoom

RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Presence Rankings

Ravitch on Rhee

Ravitch on Rhee:

Ravitch on Rhee

Posted by Valerie Strauss on January 9, 2013 at 12:15 am

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(by Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post )

The PBS show “Frontline” on Tuesday night aired John Merrow’s documentary on school reformer Michelle Rhee, which focused on the 3 1/2 years she was chancellor of D.C. Public Schools. There is sure to be a variety of opinions on what it said and what it didn’t say.

Here is the reaction of education historian Diane Ravitch, who has become the preeminent voice in the growing opposition to Rhee’s style of school reform. This appeared on Ravitch’s blog.

By Diane Ravitch

I was invited by Frontline to offer reactions to the documentary about Michelle Rhee. I was disappointed that the documentary did not mention that Rhee is now working on behalf of a far-right agenda of privatization; that Washington Teachers Union President George Parker now works for StudentsFirst; that Rhee’s “miraculous gains” as a teacher in Baltimore have been discredited. But I had space limitations. So this was my commentary:

I watched John Merrow’s documentary on “The Education of Michelle Rhee” with high anticipation. I wanted to see what she had learned from her experience, and what lessons there might be for the nation.

The documentary emphasizes her steely determination to do whatever she thought necessary to turn around the Washington, D.C. school system. She fired principals; she fired teachers; she closed schools. She told every principal that he or she must set a target for

Modern School: 11,000 Educators Fired in December

Modern School: 11,000 Educators Fired in December:

11,000 Educators Fired in December

by Michael Dunn

Clean Up Your Act Teachers or You're Out! (Image from Flickr, by emilydickensonridesabmx)

The Great Recession has been officially over for more than three years, but the plunder of the public sector and middle class wealth continues. According to the Department of Labor, more than 13,000 public sector workers were laid off in December, more than 11,000 of whom were teachers or other school employees (see WSWS).

This is unusual. Typically, teacher layoff notices go out in February or March in anticipation of coming budget shortfalls, giving teachers the summer to look for work (or to be rehired, as

A Beginning List Of The Best Posts On Gates’ Final MET “Effective Teaching” Report | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

A Beginning List Of The Best Posts On Gates’ Final MET “Effective Teaching” Report | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…:

A Beginning List Of The Best Posts On Gates’ Final MET “Effective Teaching” Report

by Larry Ferlazzo

The Gates Foundation released its Measures of Effective Teaching Project Releases Final Research Reportyesterday, and many of us are still trying to digest it.

Here’s a very beginning list of posts about it, and I’ll be adding more and more (please let me know about ones I’m missing):

Gates Releases Final Report On “Effective Teaching” was my post about it yesterday, which includes many links to articles about it from the mainstream media that give simple summaries.

The 50 million dollar lie is by Gary Rubinstein, and the title summarizes his conclusions.

You might also be interested in The Best Posts On The Gates’ Funded Measures Of Effective Teaching Report, which is a collection of commentaries on their report from a year ago, including my own.

The Best Posts On Students Evaluating Classes (And Teachers) (look near the end of that post) also includes some posts specifically related to the report’s emphasis on using student surveys in the formal teacher evaluation process.

And, since a big conclusion of the report is that Value Added Measurements work, you might want to check outThe Best Resources For Learning About The “Value-Added” Approach Towards Teacher Evaluation.

Coincidentally, an hour after the Gates report was released, Nate Silver made his first public comments on VAM.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at the 1000 other “The Best…” lists and considersubscribing to this blog for free.

The Best Resources On Grading Practices

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 8 hours ago

This is the last — for now, at least — “The Best…” list in my student assessment series (though, of course, I’ll be adding new resources to each of them on an ongoing basis). Here are the previous posts in … Continue reading →

A Conversation With A Student

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 8 hours ago

Him: “It’s too easy to get an A in this class.” Me: “Why do you say that?” Him: “I have an A. I never get A’s” Me: “Do you do all your work?” Him: “Yes.” Me: “Do you try your … Continue reading →

“Reading Like A Historian” Is Pretty Impressive

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 8 hours ago

Reading Like A Historian is an impressive collection of almost ninety U.S. and World History lessons from The Stanford History Education Group. Here’s how they describe the lessons: The Reading Like a Historian curriculum engages students in historical inquiry. Each … Continue reading →

Here Are The Web Tools My Students Are Using For Their Writing….

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 9 hours ago

A few months ago I published The Best Ways For Advanced ELL’s & Non-ELL’s To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly — REVISED, and, based on various District content filter-related issues, am making some changes to it. Even though I … Continue reading →

Nate Silver’s Impeccable VAM Timing

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 10 hours ago

One hour after The Gates Foundation released their big report that justified the use of Value-Added Measurement to evaluate teachers, Nate Silver was participating in a question/answer session on the Reddit site. Here’s the first question and his answer: QUESTION: … Continue reading →

Gates Releases Final Report On “Effective Teaching”

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 15 hours ago

The Gates Foundation Measures Of Effective Teaching has just released its final report, Measures of Effective Teaching Project Releases Final Research Report. In addition, they have issued two other reports, Ensuring Fair and Reliable Measures of Effective Teaching: Culminating Findings … Continue reading →

The Best Resources For Learning About Performance Assessment

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 day ago

This is the second-to-last in a series of “The Best…” lists related to student assessment. The next, and last, post in the series will related to grading. This post focuses on “performance assessment.” Here’s how Linda Darling-Hammond describes it: For … Continue reading →

Rhee Gives California Ed Policies An “F”; CA “Great Results With Diminishing Resources” Report Comes Out At Same Time

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 day ago

At about the same time Michelle Rhee, resident of our fair city of Sacramento, gave California education policies an “F,” a report based on actual research and focused on how students are doing in the classroom was published with the … Continue reading →

Gates Foundation Set To Release Final Teacher Effectiveness Report On Tuesday — I Wonder Why I Don’t Have A Good Feeling About It?

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 day ago

The Gates Foundation is set to release the final report of its three-year project on teacher effectiveness on Tuesday. You can read about the concerns that I, and many others, had about it’s mid-term report a year ago at The … Continue reading →

Intriguing Gallup Student Poll Results, But Not Something I’d Quote A Lot

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 day ago

Gallup just came out with their annual Gallup Student Poll and, at first glance, it looks pretty depressing. But, that’s only at first glance: Their public announcement it says, “Gallup research strongly suggests that the longer students stay in school, … Continue reading →

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz: Tenure “An Immoral Concept”

by Bob Sikes

From NWF Daily News reporter Tom McLaughlin on Matt Gaetz meting yesterday with the League of Women Voters of Okaloosa County:

Gaetz, “an unapologetic supporter of FCAT,” debated school testing and teacher tenure with a couple of former educators in the audience.
One of them, Pat Burrough, said she couldn’t understand why the state would authorize an exam like Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test that she contended focused only on math and reading.
“I never saw it as a real good test for students,” Burrough said.
Gaetz predicted that legislation will trend more this year toward “de-emphasizing portions of the

Claims NAEP or FCAT Scores Validate Florida Formula “Implausible” and “Violates Basic Principles of Policy Analysis”

by Bob Sikes

In the December 2012 open hearing where incoming education Tony Bennett was interviewed, board of education chairman Gary Chartrand began the meeting with “good news” about how well Florida 4th graders stacked up against the rest of the world on NAEP. Former chair Kathleen Shannahan seconded the good news as it should end controversy over high-stakes testing and justify their reforms.
Not so fast says respected senior fellow from the Albert Shanker Institute, Matthew Di Carlo. From John O’Connor of StateImpact comes this from Di Carlo:

In the meantime, regardless of one’s opinion on whether the “Florida formula” is a success and/or should be exported to other states, the assertion that the reforms are responsible for the state’s increases in NAEP scores and FCAT proficiency rates during the late 1990s and 2000s not only violates basic principles of policy analysis, but it is also, at best, implausible. The reforms’

The Next Irresponsible Expansion of Florida’s McKay Scholarship is Here

by Bob Sikes

Now it won’t matter that a child wasn’t even a student in Florida the year before to qualify.
From the wisdom of Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla (R-Miami) comes SB 172 which provides:

John M. McKay Scholarships for Students with Disabilities Program; Revising the eligibility requirements for the John M. McKay scholarships for students with disabilities program; deleting the requirement that a student must have spent the prior school year in attendance at a Florida public school, etc.which >

Fresh off the McKay Scholarship abuse scandal of 2011, which nobody would have known about had it not been revealed in a disturbing piece of investigative journalism by the Miami New Times, another republican politician

Jersey Jazzman: Rhee's Phony Math

Jersey Jazzman: Rhee's Phony Math:

Rhee's Phony Math

by Duke

So the edu-blogosphere has lit into the StudentsFirst "report card" - and rightly so. Aside from the fact that SF doesn't rate states by their students' achievement level - and isn't that the entire point of Rhee-form anyway? - the categories and rubrics Michelle Rhee's outfit came up with are absurd. G.F. Brandenburg, who knows Rhee as well as anyone, takes a good look at how subjective and inane SF's criteria are.

But even if SF had rational and relevant benchmarks for ranking states, the "report card" would still be utterly phony, because it's based on faulty math. Here's p.66 of the report, which explains SF's methodology:

No. No, no, no. Sweet lord, no.

Folks, it is a basic precept of mathematics that you must round averages to the correct significant figure. You are not allowed to express an average in any more digits than the original data, because you run the risk of

NYC Educator: E4E Member Demands Evaluation Process

NYC Educator: E4E Member Demands Evaluation Process:

E4E Member Demands Evaluation Process

by NYC Educator

by guest blogger Suzy Surething

As a beginning teacher, I need guidance. Under the current evaluation system, I'm simply not getting what I need. I mean, sure, my AP observed me, and said I was unsatisfactory. But what does that really mean? I really need to know whether or not I am excellent or ineffective, and this observation does not measure that at all.

For example, I was criticized because several students were throwing chairs out the window, and my AP claimed that was a safety hazard. Now I'm not saying it was not a safety hazard, because it's true that anyone traipsing through the courtyard could have been hit in the head by one of the chairs, and when the teacher desk went out, I must admit I too had some concerns. But the problem is the narrow focus on things like

RheeFormy Logic & Goofball Rating Schemes: Comments & Analysis on the Students First State Policy Grades « School Finance 101

RheeFormy Logic & Goofball Rating Schemes: Comments & Analysis on the Students First State Policy Grades « School Finance 101:

RheeFormy Logic & Goofball Rating Schemes: Comments & Analysis on the Students First State Policy Grades

by schoolfinance101

On Monday, the organization Students First came out with their state policy rankings, just in time to promote their policy agenda in state legislatures across the country. Let’s be clear, Students First’s state policy rankings are based on a list of what Students First thinks states should do. It’s entirely about their political preferences – largely reformy policies – template stuff that has been sweeping the reformiest states over the past few years. I’ll have more to say about these preferred policies at the end of this post.
Others have already pointed out that Students First gave good grades to states like Louisiana and Florida, and crummy grades to states like New Jersey or Massachusetts – but that states like Louisiana have notoriously among the worst school systems – lowest test scores – in the nation – whereas states like New Jersey and Massachusetts have pretty darn good test scores and well respected school systems. I’ll go there as well, but not as my primary focus. Clearly there’s more behind the test score differences than policy context. New Jersey and Massachusetts certainly have more educated, more affluent adult and parent populations than Louisiana, and that makes a difference.
I’ll anxiously await the day good reformers like Mike Petrilli pack their bags and leave their suburban Washington

Latest News and Comment from Education

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Gates Foundation MET Report: Teacher Observation Less Reliable Than Test Scores by Joy Resmovits

The 2013 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Presence Rankings

Morning Video: Frontline Documentary On Rhee In DC

Gates Foundation MET Report:
Teacher Observation Less Reliable Than Test Scores

by Joy Resmovits