Teacher Effectiveness Study Is Off 1990s Data – SchoolBook

Teacher Effectiveness Study Is Off 1990s Data – SchoolBook:

Teacher Effectiveness Study Is Off 1990s Data

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• Academy for Young Writers

Jan. 16, 2012, 9:24 a.m.

By MARY ANN GIORDANO

Good morning. SchoolBook is still reveling in the wonderful WNYC event at the Brooklyn Museum on Sunday to mark the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

The event, hosted by WNYC’s Brian Lehrer, gave the editors of SchoolBook a chance to meet many teachers and parents, as well as to hear some great historians, educators and very talented students on the subject of education and civil rights. And the musical performances were pretty impressive, too.

Later today we’ll have highlights of the event and more from those students. Meanwhile, you can still respond to our query on the subject.

And our sister blog, The Learning Network, is still looking for ways to freshen up the civil rights curriculum, in time for Black History Month

The Latest Tally on Principals’ Petition

SchoolBook at SchoolBook - 4 minutes ago

As the city and state struggle to put a teacher evaluation system in place, the people who would implement such a system -- New York's principals -- keep adding their names to a letter that objects to what the state has done.

Teachers Trade Ideas on Keeping M.L.K. Fresh

Beth Fertig at SchoolBook - 4 minutes ago

For teachers, the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday comes with some heavy challenges. How do you make an annual lesson plan fresh each year, especially one loaded with issues of race and class? Six teachers from different types of schools in New York City discuss how they make the civil rights leader and his legacy meaningful to students today.

Teacher Effectiveness Study Is Off 1990s Data

Mary Ann Giordano at SchoolBook - 4 minutes ago

A highly touted new study by researchers from Harvard and Columbia found a correlation between teacher effectiveness and students' success in life when it comes to earnings, going to college and teenage pregnancy. But Michael Winerip reports in his On Education column that the data comes from the 1990s, a pre-testing era. “It is a key limitation of the study,” Raj Chetty of Harvard, one of the three researchers, acknowledged in an interview.

Teachers Union Calls for Renewed Contract Negotiations

Anna M. Phillips at SchoolBook - 2 days ago

A day after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said he would circumvent the teachers union to create his own teacher evaluation process, the union is trying to force the city back to the negotiation table.

Some Teachers Skeptical of Merit Pay

Patricia Willens at SchoolBook - 2 days ago

Teachers call in to WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show in response to the mayor's State of the City address. Many of them, says the host, told WNYC that the idea of merit pay was "good in theory, wouldn't work in practice.''

Mayor Bloomberg’s Promises for Education: An Annotated Scorecard

Fernanda Santos at SchoolBook - 2 days ago

An assessment of education plans and pledges in Mayor Bloomberg's State of the City addresses through the years.

For Dr. King, Freedom and Education Were Intertwined

Rachel F. Moran at SchoolBook - 2 days ago

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Day, the dean of the UCLA School of Law looks at the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education and Dr. King, and writes: "Without a strong sense of how liberty shapes our personhood and dignity, equality can mean little more than a race to the bottom for the unfortunate and disadvantaged."

Praise and Contempt for Bloomberg’s Proposals

Mary Ann Giordano at SchoolBook - 3 days ago

Characterize his proposals however you will, but one word can describe Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's state of the city speech on Thursday: chutzpah. Called groundbreaking and ambitious -- or stale and failing -- the mayor's proposed ideas have set off a passionate discussion. The New York Post declares: "It's war."

The Mayor Has Spoken. What Do You Think?

SchoolBook at SchoolBook - 3 days ago

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg laid out an ambitious agenda for the city schools. The reaction has been flying via Tweets, e-mails and Facebook posts. What do you think about his proposals?

Jersey Jazzman: No Data? No Charters!

Jersey Jazzman: No Data? No Charters!:

No Data? No Charters!

by Duke

Why do so many politicos push charters when we know so little about them?

The study, just published in the journal Science, was conducted by two well-known researchers: Julian Betts, an educational economist at the University of California at San Diego and executive director of the San Diego Education Research Alliance, and Richard Atkinson, president emeritus of the University of California, former director of the National Science Foundation and professor emeritus of cognitive science and psychology at UC San Diego.

They wrote in their study, “Better Research Needed on the Impact of Charter Schools,” that charter schools have been embraced by the Obama administration — and by the

MLK Day Reflection for LGBTQ Justice in the Black Church | Pam's House Blend

MLK Day Reflection for LGBTQ Justice in the Black Church | Pam's House Blend:

MLK Day Reflection for LGBTQ Justice in the Black Church

by Rev. Irene Monroe

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (image: germeister, flickr)

Today is MLK Day.

I am proud to count myself among the many people working for social justice today who stand on the shoulders of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Too many people think King’s statements regarding justice are only about race and the African-American community – thus excluding the LGBTQ community. But King said that,

“The revolution for human rights is opening up unhealthy areas in American life and permitting a new and wholesome healing to take place. Eventually the civil rights movement will have

More holes in the “$4700 teacher value added study” than a pound of Swiss cheese. « Fred Klonsky

More holes in the “$4700 teacher value added study” than a pound of Swiss cheese. « Fred Klonsky:

More holes in the “$4700 teacher value added study” than a pound of Swiss cheese.

by Fred Klonsky

When the study by Harvard and Columbia economists of teacher effectiveness came out a few weeks ago it caused a stir.

Their study claimed to suggest that a single teacher of a class from 4th to 8th grade, rated excellent measured by test scores, increased students adult earnings by $4700 a year, prevented teen-age pregnancy and improved

The PTA charter school forum (debate)… | Seattle Education

The PTA charter school forum (debate)… | Seattle Education:

The PTA charter school forum (debate)…

by seattleducation2011

…which should have occurred before the PTA legislative assembly.

As I posted previously, there was never a debate allowed by the Washington State PTA (WSPTA), there was no other side of the issue provided and in fact most of the members of the PTA didn’t even know that a charter school proposal was to be voted on until it was too late. See: Whoa, where did that come from Washington State PTA? Charter Schools?!, Whoa, where did that come from Washington State PTA? Charter schools?! Part 2, Washington State PTA and the lack of transparency and Final thoughts on the Washington State PTA

Since then, several PTA members, including myself, have written letters to the Executive Director asking for the

Key charter bills introduced | EdNewsColorado

Key charter bills introduced | EdNewsColorado:

Key charter bills introduced

Written by Todd Engdahl on Jan 16th, 2012. | Copyright © EdNewsColorado.org

Five more education bills got dumped into the legislative hopper before legislators left the Capitol for a three-day weekend.

The two most notable measures are Senate Bill 12-061 and Senate Bill 12-067, both of which are part of an effort to improve charter school management and authorization, a push that began in the 2010 legislative session.

SB 12-061 sets out minimum requirements for charter school applications, clarifies deadlines for applications and for responses by authorizers, creates longer initial charter terms and creates new requirements for handling of failing charter schools.

The bill is sponsored by two veterans of education legislation, Sen. Keith King, R-Colorado Springs, and

The School-to-Prison Pipeline is the New Jim Crow - Education - GOOD

The School-to-Prison Pipeline is the New Jim Crow - Education - GOOD:

The School-to-Prison Pipeline is the New Jim Crow

by Liz Dwyer

Most American schools are closed today in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. But despite King's tireless efforts to eradicate Jim Crow, Ohio State University law professor and longtime civil rights activist Michelle Alexander says that systematic racial discrimination against black students is still far too common in our nation's schools. Instead of a cradle-to-college path, in her new book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Alexander calls out the prevalence of the "school-to-prison pipeline".

In an interview with Rethinking Schools, Alexander says that school discipline policies were directly copied from the get-tough rhetoric of the war on drugs. One of the earliest examples of "zero tolerance language in school discipline manuals was a cut-and-paste job from a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration manual." Alexander says schools quickly "began viewing children as criminals or suspects, rather than as young people with an

“We have a long way to go.” « Fred Klonsky

“We have a long way to go.” « Fred Klonsky:

“We have a long way to go.”

by Fred Klonsky

I would like to use as a subject from which to speak this evening the future of race relations in the United States. There are three basic attitudes that one can take toward the question of progress in race relations. The first attitude that can be taken is that of extreme optimism. The extreme optimist would contend that we have made great strides in the area of race relations and he will point proudly to the gains that have been made in the area of civil rights over the last few decades. From this he would conclude that the problem is just about solved now and that we can sit down

Schools Matter: Accountability without Autonomy Is Tyranny

Schools Matter: Accountability without Autonomy Is Tyranny:

Accountability without Autonomy Is Tyranny

by P. L. Thomas

Accountability without Autonomy Is Tyranny

When educational research reaches the public through the corporate media, the consequences are often dire. Chetty, Friedman, and Rockoff released "The Long-Term Impacts of Teachers: Teacher Value-Added and Student Outcomes in Adulthood" and immediately The New York Times pronounced in "Big Study Links Good Teachers to Lasting Gains":

"Elementary- and middle-school teachers who help raise their students’ standardized-test scores seem to have a wide-ranging, lasting positive effect on those students’ lives beyond academics, including lower teenage-pregnancy rates and greater college matriculation and adult earnings, according to a new study that tracked 2.5 million students over 20 years."

The simplistic and idealistic headline reflects the central failure of the media in the education