Some ask questions. Others claim to know.
When it comes to education research, some ask question and others claim they know. This is particularly true when it comes to research on teacher effectiveness and student performance.
Check at these two sites.
At the Quick and the Ed, Thomas Toch asserts:
As we argue in our report, evaluations should be based on clear, comprehensive standards of strong teaching practice that have emerged in recent years.
While at Eduwonkette:
Why do these big picture questions matter? Each has modeling implications. More importantly, they matter because teachers have these concerns about value-added estimates and they deserve to have their questions answered. From following the use of value-added in Dallas at the Dallas ISD Blog, it appears that few teachers actually understand how their CEI scores are calculated. Researchers and wonks interested in trying value-added need to do a better job of explaining these systems to teachers, of making them comprehensible, and of addressing concerns like those raised above.
California teachers balk at Clinton endorsement.
According to SFGate.com, the 300,000 member California Teachers Association, which was ready to make a Clinton endorsement, pulled back. The big UTLA local is big on Obama.
Clinton’s big endorsement from the powerful California Teachers Association got upended over the weekend.
It all began Thursday when the dozen-member executive board of the teachers union - headed by Clinton ally and longtime Santa Maria educator David Sanchez - announced it had voted unanimously to back Clinton in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.
Getting the teachers’ backing would have opened up the union’s substantial checkbook to Clinton. It also would have led to mass mailings to voters, including to the union’s 360,000 members, plus the potential for major phone-bank help and other get-out-the-vote efforts on election day.
And a board endorsement almost always guarantees the membership endorsement.
But before teachers union leaders could get an up-or-down membership vote on Clinton over the weekend at a big confab in L.A., unrest broke out among the rank and file. They blocked any vote until the board’s next meeting in April - two months after Tuesday’s primary, when it really counts.
Word is, it didn’t help that Clinton’s union forces had blocked the affiliated United Teachers of Los Angeles from endorsing Obama a week earlier - and that many of its members were on hand for Saturday’s vote.
The cost of war.
Hillary remained silent.
A report by ABC’s Brian Ross once again tells the story of Hillary Clinton’s role as a Wal-Mart board member during the 90s.
In six years as a member of the Wal-Mart board of directors, between 1986 and 1992, Hillary Clinton remained silent as the world’s largest retailer waged a major campaign against labor unions seeking to represent store workers.
As Wal-Mart developed their strategy to keep unions from organizing their employees, Hillary sat quietly and said nothing, according to the ABC report.
As a result Wal-Mart has the reputation as one of the worst companies when it come to its attitude towards unions, its ruthlessness in fighting them and a true bottom-feeder when it comes to how it treats its employees.
