I did a spit-take when I read this.
No school today in honor of the heroic Martin Luther King. I was having my coffee and reading the NY Times and there on the first page below the fold was the story of the plan as described by the amazingly messed-up deputy NY school’s chancellor, Chris Cerf.
Here are the first 3 paragraphs:
New York City has embarked on an ambitious experiment, yet to be announced, in which some 2,500 teachers are being measured on how much their students improve on annual standardized tests.
The move is so contentious that principals in some of the 140 schools participating have not told their teachers that they are being scrutinized based on student performance and improvement.
While officials say it is too early to determine how they will use the data, which is already being collected, they say it could eventually be used to help make decisions on teacher tenure or as a significant element in performance evaluations and bonuses. And they hold out the possibility that the ratings for individual teachers could be made public.
I swear I did a spit-take.
Let’s go over this again:
1. 150 NY principals have agreed to take part in this program. They AGREED to take part!
2. 2500 teachers will be evaluated based on the growth scores of their students.
3. Those teachers don’t know that they are in this program. The principals haven’t told them. HAVEN’T TOLD THEM!
Do these teachers get to decide which students they get? Do they get to decide who taught them before? Where they live? How much their parents make?
Oh, you’ve heard all the arguments about evaluating teachers based on test scores before. That’s not even the point.
Teachers are being evaluated, based on some data that the suits like Chris Cerf can’t even describe. Teachers don’t know it is being used to evaluate them. The principals weren’t ordered, but agreed to take part.
UFT president Randi Weingarten doesn’t even come close to describing how grotesque this is but makes a stab at it:
“If one permitted this, it would be one of the worst decisions of my professional life.”
Poverty on Martin Luther King Drive.
Tip of the hat to brother Mike’s Small Talk for this report featuring Chicago civil rights leader and historian, Tim Black.
