Why is the News Journal ignoring the real problem (low test scores since Common Core was implemented) and focusing on another problem created out of thin air?
Hmmmm.
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November 10, 2013 in ALEC, Common Core, Dave Sokola, DSEA, education, Frederika Jenner, good teachers, Governor Markell, It's About The Kids, Jack Markell, Mark Murphy, public schools, Race To The Top, Standardized Testing, teachers, Teaching Latin, Wilmington, Wilmington School Distirct | Tags: Delaware, Education, Governor Markell
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November 10, 2013 at 2:32 pm
John Kowalko
John Kowalko
If i were a teacher in Delaware I would be a bit wary of what direction this so-called reform movement is headed. Achievement measurements (by test) to misconstrue teachers’ adequacies and abilities have long been the ALEC model intended to drive public education funding into the coffers of the private sector by misrepresenting actual needs and performances of public school. I hope I’m misunderstanding the Secretary’s position but it seems that he might feel disappointed that 17% of Math and Reading teachers subject to this untried and unproven “achievement measuring by test” were or could have been designated as ineffective save for the sympathetic posturing of the principals. If anyone concludes that 17% of our public school teachers, (regardless of specialty), are poor teachers or unqualified to teach our children, they should find a line of work better suited to their own qualifications. And you might consider that if they feel so strongly as to suggest that the principals used unfounded, subjective reasons to cover up those failures than they might consider that their future does not lie in “public education administration” Quite honestly it can be seen as a thinly veiled attempt to coerce/intimidate those school leaders into helping support this misdirection of measuring abilities by tests by artificially inflating the numbers of “poorly qualified” teachers.
November 10, 2013 at 4:19 pm
kavips
Often a rating of ineffective was received because a teacher or group set their goals too high… If one hits an 88 but one’s goal was 90, one is rated ineffective. But if one had set that goal at 85, then the 88 would be considered over and beyond the goal, garnering a high rating. Failure versus higher rating.
The score is still 88 either way.
Principals who have to replace teachers they fire, an arduous process, look at each teacher and evaluate the school’s chances on getting a new teacher who would out perform the one before them.
The fact they chose to keep the ones before them, speaks highly of hte principals, and lowly of the rating process….
November 10, 2013 at 4:24 pm
kavips
For an inside look at how one actually hires teachers, Steve has it up over here….
July 6, 2014 at 5:41 pm
All About Common Core, Charters, and Public Education | kavips
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