Reactions to Rating Teachers - Who, What, Where, Why & How

Reactions to Rating Teachers - The Learning Network - New York ...
By By KATHERINE SCHULTEN New York Times

. . . released individual performance rankings of 18,000 New York City public school teachers on Feb. 24 . . . Each question is linked to an article, Opinion piece or blog post in which related information can be found.-- WHO published that data? WHAT does the data report? WHAT are some of the “caveats” about the data and what was revealed? WHAT is “value-added assessment,” the rating system used in New York City and elsewhere? WHERE else, besides New York City, have teacher ratings like these been made public? According to this article, WHY might the release of this data — which the teachers’ union fought — give the union a political victory now that it is out? WHY did Bill Gates call the release “a big mistake” in a recent Times Op-Ed? WHY, according to those interviewed in this article, are many teachers reacting with anger and sadness? HOW does your school or district evaluate its teachers? HOW do you feel about the decision to release and publish the New York City ratings? (You might read what over 100 commenters, including many teachers, have said to help you decide.) HOW would you assess a teacher’s value? Related: Our lesson plan, Schools of Thought: Localizing National Education Stories and our Student Opinion questions, “Do Your Test Scores Reflect How Good Your Teachers Are?” and, inspired by Mr. Gates's Op-Ed, “What Kind of Feedback Helps You ...

The Learning Network - New York Times

Minn. Senate passes teacher layoffs bill
Boston.com
February 27, 2012|Alexandra Tempus, AP The Minnesota Senate passed a bill Monday that would let schools lay off teachers based on their performance in the classroom rather than by seniority alone. The bill passed by a 36-26 vote would let schools make ...

Teachers start voting on walkout
Vancouver Sun
Teachers are expected to begin voting today on whether to launch a fullscale walkout as the BC government prepares legislation aimed at ending the dispute. As teachers protested across the province Monday, Education Minister George Abbott said ...

Career Education swings to fourth-quarter loss
Chicago Tribune
Career Education Corp. swung to a fourth-quarter loss, as the for-profit education company failed to boost new student sign-ups at its colleges. The company, whose chief executive quit in November amid findings of improper placement practices, ...

BC teachers could strike as soon as Friday
Canada.com
By Janet Steffenhagen and Jonathan Fowlie, Postmedia News February 27, 2012 The British Columbia Teachers' Federation will seek approval for a full-scale strike when it appears tonight before the BC Labour Relations Board. VANCOUVER — The BC Teachers' ...

Obama hits back against Santorum 'snob' criticism by defending college ...
Washington Post (blog)
(Susan Walsh - AP) Speaking to the National Governors Association, Obama called on the group to protect public investment in education at a time of shrinking state budgets so that teachersremain in the classroom. Obama did not mention GOP presidential ...

National youth dance company in arts education review
BBC News
By Sean Coughlan BBC News education correspondent A national youth dance company is to be set up, in response to a review of cultural education in England. But the government-commissioned review by Classic FM's Darren Henley found that cultural ...

BBC News

BC teachers seek approval for 8-day strike
CBC.ca
The BC Teachers Federation is asking the province's Labour Relations Board for permission to fully withdraw their services for eight days in their contract dispute with the provincial government. The BCTF said Monday night is specifically requesting ...

CBC.ca

Dispute puts teachers in a tough spot
Victoria Times Colonist
The BC Teachers' Federation, on the other hand, seems to have lost both its way and its focus on what to do next. Rather than recognizing the realities of the situation and adjusting its negotiating stance toward future considerations, it threatens to ...

Minnesota Senate Passes Teacher Layoffs Bill, Lets Schools Fire Educators ...
Huffington Post
The Minnesota Senate passed a bill Monday that would let schools lay off teachers based on their performance in the classroom rather than by seniority alone. The bill passed by a 36-26 vote would let schools make layoffs based on evaluations that ...

Are Santorum's comments on higher ed out of step?
CBS News
When Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum calls President Barack Obama "a snob" for wanting all Americans to attend college, he may be out of step with the public's overall view of higher education. Many Americans are suspicious of the culture ...

B.C. teachers rattle sabres
The Province
Teachers rally at the Cloverdale Agriplex Monday to protest government plans to legislate an end to their contract dispute. Teachers took to the streets on Monday as Education Minister George Abbott took to the airwaves as a contract showdown looms.

Teacher placed on leave in flap over autistic boy's treatment
Los Angeles Times
Kim Rollins and her son Sage say that Sage's former teacher at Ronald Reagan Elementary School in Wildomar required him to sit in a cardboard box in the classroom at times. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times / February 17, 2012) By Phil Willon, ...

Los Angeles Times

Obama urges governors to boost education funding
Boston.com
February 27, 2012|Beth Fouhy, AP President Barack Obama Monday urged the nation's governors to invest more state resources in education, saying a highly skilled workforce is crucial for the US to remain competitive with other countries.

Teachers eye strike action
Abbotsford Times
During Monday's lunch break, teachers viewed a video presentation by BCTF president Susan Lambert and then held a Q & A session with their union reps. The BCTF vote was spurred byEducation Minister George Abbott's announcement last week legislation ...

Bills would connect teacher salaries with student performance
Fox 13 Now - Salt Lake City
Two bills are being debated on Utah's Capitol Hill that deal with teacher salaries and student performance. The first is sponsored by Sen. Aaron Osmond, R-West Jordan. If this bill is passed, teachers would be evaluated on student test scores, ...

State Senate strikes down teacher tenure
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Senate sponsor Pam Wolf, R-Spring Lake Park, herself a middle school teacher, said the change restores basic fairness. "In the event of a layoff, teachers would be laid off based on their effectiveness," Wolf said, noting that under the current system, ...

teacher employment bill gets early nod, but only after debate
Salt Lake Tribune
"I believe that where we have missed the mark in education reform is we focus solely on theeducation employee," said bill sponsor Sen. Aaron Osmond, R-South Jordan. "Instead, I think we need to focus on administrative leadership within our schools.

Valley teachers meet to discuss job action
Canada.com
Comox Valley teachers held a meeting yesterday (Monday) to discuss the ongoing job action and their next step in the contract negotiation dispute. As of Monday afternoon, teachers across the province were waiting to hear if the Labour Relations Board ...

Expect the hammer to fall on BC teachers, even with mediator
The Province
The government is willing to bend a bit in its battle with BC teachers — but almost certainly not enough to soothe a savage union, as talk of a wildcat strike builds by the day. Education Minister George Abbott admitted Monday that teachers have ...

Obama on education
UPI.com
27 (UPI) -- A White House spokesman, asked about Rick Santorum calling Barack Obama aneducation snob, said the US president thinks "education is important for everyone." The Republican presidential candidate, a former US senator from Pennsylvania who ...

Teachers union pact not done
Columbus Dispatch
Requirements in Ohio House Bill 153, including an effort to retool how teachers are evaluated and paid, complicated negotiations, said Chris Williams, president of the Westerville EducationAssociation. “The complexity of the WEA contract prevented us ...

BC teachers ask for right to walk off job periodically
CTV.ca
VANCOUVER — British Columbia's teachers want the right to walk off the job for nearly two weeks in their ongoing contract dispute. Teachers have been on a limited strike since the beginning of the school year, but because of essential services ...

CTV.ca

State Eyes Shielding Teachers
Wall Street Journal
By LISA FLEISHER and JACOB GERSHMAN As New York City parents and teachers struggled Monday to make sense of recently published schoolteacher rankings, education officials considered whether future releases should be illegal to protect a fragile truce ...

Senate opts for performance over tenure in teacher layoffs
Pioneer Press
By Megan Boldt The Minnesota Senate on Monday passed a bill that would end the practice of using experience as the deciding factor when schools let teachers go. Senators approved the bill on a 36-26 vote. Only one DFL lawmaker, Sen.

BC Teachers' Federation considers full-scale walkout
News1130
Teachers rally outside Moscrop Secondary School on Willingdon Avenue on Monday, Feb. 27, 2012. (Courtesy Mandy Alves) UPDATE: The BC Teachers' Federation is asking the Labour Relations Board for four strike days a week, over a two week period.

Campaign calls for new teacher-training 'infrastructure'
BBC News
The UK needs a new "infrastructure" to support the teaching of computing in schools, the chancellor has been told. Leading education and industry groups have signed a letter asking George Osborne to fund new computer training forteachers.

BBC News

B.C. teachers ask for limited walkout
MetroNews Canada
Their employer countered by suggesting teachers should be limited to walking out for a single day over a 10-day period, while returning to their full duties when they're at work. The teachers' application was in response to the education minister's ...

LRB to make decision on possible BC teachers walkout
News1130
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - The labour dispute involving your child's teachers could turn into a full-scale walkout, thanks to a decision expected this morning from the Labour Relations Board. The LRB will rule on the number of days teachers can skip out of ...

The Cost of Public Education
Austin News
However, he said that was no reason to trim resources from schools. Specifically, the president called for more teachers in the classroom. "The fact is that too many states are making cuts ineducation that I think are simply too big," Obama said.

Aliza Polkes: An Education
By Aliza Polkes
I could literally feel the paranoia, that my teacher, my parents, and probably God, were somehow watching me, welling in my gut. ... It was how my teachers affirmed that I was a good student, that I was "smart," that I was being "educated." It was ...
College on HuffingtonPost.com

President Obama Challenges Governors to Invest in Education | The ...
By Megan Slack
“Budgets are about choices, so today I'm calling on you to choose to invest more in teachers, invest more in education, and invest more in our children and their future.” ... Investing in K-12education: Continue funding successful programs like Race to the Top, which makes funds available on a competitive basis to states that implement reforms to improve student success; and Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge, which helps expand access to high-quality earlyeducation ...
ExcitingAds! White

Three New Tools Bring Machine Learning Insights to the Masses
By Sam Charrington
Over the past few years, machine learning has quickly become the "secret sauce" of large-scale web sites. Machine learning systems have historically been hand-crafted by the small armies of computer science and mathematics Ph.D.s in ...
ReadWriteHack

Hard Times for the National Education Association - Big Government
By Education Action Group
NEA leaders have spent the past several years excoriating state officials for cutting aid to public education and school boards for seeking union concessions – accusing them of hating teachers and trying to destroy public education. Now the NEA that is ... Tags: National EducationAssociation, nea, teacher unions. Posted Feb 27th 2012 at 4:56 ... I have no doubt that if our students were learning and excelling, the unions wouldn't have the problems that they do. They would have been ...
Big Government

What's different about mobile learning?
By Connie Malamed
As the doors open to a new era of mobile learning and performance support, it's a good time to step back and think about the new mindset required when designing for mobile. Although a mobile pedagogy will continue to evolve, we already ...
The Learning Circuits Blog

Close Read: Bad Teachers, or Bad Ratings? : The New Yorker
By Amy Davidson
In English, none of the teachers managed to score above average; only a small minority of the math teachers did. A teacher your child loves and seems to be learning a lot from was in the high single digits, percentile-wise. This is surprising, if ...
News Desk

President Obama Challenges Governors to Invest in Education | The ...
By The White House
“Budgets are about choices, so today I'm calling on you to choose to invest more in teachers, invest more in education, and invest more in our children and their future.” ... 2 million workers, to continue giving states, districts and schools the funding and flexibility they need to put a greatteacher in every classroom and build on the successes of the Race to the Top program, to improve early childhood education, and to create incentives for innovative reforms to keep college affordable.
White House.gov Press Office Feed

Half an Hour: Knowledge, Learning and Community
By Stephen Downes
The intent of these short contributions to the #Change11 course is to allow guest speakers to summarize their sum contribution to the field of online learning and new educational technology. Though I have recently become better known ...
Half an Hour

Skepticblog » Teaching Allah and Xenu in Indiana
By Michael Shermer
Michael Shermer criticizes the Indiana State Senate's approval last month of a bill that would allow public school science teachers to teach religious origin stories in their classrooms, including those from: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, ...
Skepticblog

Many parents in the dark on teacher ratings on first day back ...
By Geoff Decker
Freeman was referring to the wide margin of error that exists for many of the individual teacherrating scores. That caveat, among others, has prompted education department officials to insist to news organizations that readers should ...
GothamSchools » Newsroom

DA: Newton Teacher Charged With Child Porn Took Secret Photos ...
By deanreddington
Parents tell WBZ they had to identify their children in photos snapped secretly by David Ettlinger in the classroom and on the playground.
CBS Boston

Huppenthal: Math game will transform classroom learning
By Pat Kossan
Huppenthal: Math game will transform classroom learning, The schools chief is putting his math-based game in place in classrooms around the state. ... Then in 2008, ASU education-technology designers agreed to build a software program for the game. "Bang. It just came to life," Huppenthal said of ... The minimum goal for the fourth-grade teachers at Dobson Academy is 80 percent accuracy, and that has been the typical average, teacher Dedra Farester said. "The kids are working ...
azcentral.com | news

Teacher DataToolkit - New York City Department of Education
From the 2007-08 through 2009-10 school years, the Department ofEducation provided ...
schools.nyc.gov/Teachers/.../TeacherDataToolkit

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Teacher Rankings: Good Schools tend to have Good Teachers

Good teachers, good schools
New York Daily News
A Daily News analysis of the city's controversial teacher rankings found what for any parent would be elementary: The top-ranked schools tend to have the best teachers and the worst schools have the duds. The simple finding came as no surprise at ...

New York Daily News 

After Release of Ratings, a Focus on 'Top' Teachers
New York Times
Another, a San Francisco transplant, was in her first job at the front of a classroom and insisted that her special-education students at Public School 49 in the Bronx be held to the highest standards. A third said she benefited from the small class ...

New York Times

Teachers take action as B.C. to force deal
The Province
By Ian Austin, The Province February 27, 2012 2:09 AM The long-simmering dispute will heat up today as teachers meet for a "province-wide day of action" - meeting strategically at lunch hour and after school. Education Minister George Abbott told BC ...

Teachers plan to protest legislation
Canada.com
By Robert Barron, Dailynews February 27, 2012 Teachers will respond if the government introduces back-to-work legislation to end their labour dispute, according to Justin Green, first vice-president of the Nanaimo District Teachers' Association.

Pregnancies hamper education in Kavango
New Era
“Even if teachers receive incentives, quality teaching and learning do not take place. “You also find that during 'pay weekends', teachers go to town to do shopping and only go back after a week or so – meaning no teaching takes place during this ...

New Era

Kimberley Teachers' Association reacts to potential back to work legislation
Kimberley Daily Bulletin
Ministry of Education staff were burning the midnight oil this weekend preparing back-to-work legislation for teachers. This was after the Labour Ministry handed in a report on the negotiations, which concluded that an agreement was unlikely to be ...

Education college plans to offer 42 scholarships to future math teachers
Diamondback Online
Students who receive the scholarship must commit to teaching two years of math in a high-needs school district after graduation. Students must be a math education major or a math major willing to take on math education as a second major to be eligible ...

Rick Santorum's Populist Pandering: Education as Elitism
Huffington Post
First, much of the president's emphasis on higher education has been directed toward sciences and technical education -- especially in two-year community colleges. Second, the president's emphasis on education has little to do with elitism and ...

Retired Illinois teachers could see benefits cut
Rockford Register Star
Pat Quinn wants to eliminate the state's contributions toward health insurance benefits for retired school teachers and community college professors, according to a report published Sunday. The cuts are part of the budget proposal Quinn unveiled last ...

More back teachers than BC government in contract dispute: Survey
Vancouver Sun
VANCOUVER — More people back public-school teachers than the BC government in their contract dispute, but only a slim majority are against the government's plan to impose a contract through legislation, according to a survey commissioned by the BC ...

Teacher 'destroyed by abuse lie'
BBC News
As figures show that over half of the accusations made against teachers and teaching assistants by pupils in Wales turn out to be false, malicious or unfounded, one teacher tells their story. "I first found out that an allegation had been made against ...

BBC News

Poll: British Columbians split over education labour dispute
Vancouver Sun
VANCOUVER — British Columbians are almost evenly divided on whether the government should legislate teachers back to work as the government has promised it will, to end their year-long job action, according to a new poll. As teachers this week get ...

With Release of Teacher Data, Setback for Union Turns Into a Rallying Cry
New York Times
Mr. Mulgrew and his comrades had fought for more than a year to block release of the ratings, known as teacher data reports, which try to calculate how much value individual teachers add by predicting their students' test scores and then measuring how ...

City Teachers Return To Work Following Data Release
NY1
It's the first day back to class for teachers after the controversial release of the massive trove of teacher report cards. On Friday, the city Department of Educationreleased the names and ratings of 18000 fourth through eighth grade English and math ...

NY1

With deficit to fix, BC readies bill to freeze teachers' pay
Globe and Mail
BC Education Minister George Abbott will introduce legislation this week to end an escalating labour dispute with the province's 41000 public-school teachers, aiming to impose an effective wage freeze that the government has been unable to secure in 78 ...

Globe and Mail

Most accusations against teachers in Wales are dropped
BBC News
By Gemma Ryall BBC News, Wales Over half of accusations made againstteachers and teaching assistants by pupils in Wales turned out to be false, malicious or unfounded. Figures for the last five years obtained by BBC Wales found 55% of 312 allegations ...

BBC News

New York City teacher job performance rankings, 2009-2010
Newsday
These are job performance ratings of about 17600 New York City public school teachersprepared by the city Department of Education. Click on a teacher's name for more details about the rating. When searching for a school, be sure to add periods after ...

Train teachers to spot sexual abusers, experts say
San Francisco Chronicle
Christina Hoag, AP Many school teachers across the nation are trained to pick up on clues of child abuse and neglect, but most are not trained to spot the signs of classroom pedophiles, leaving a gray area that could help teacher molesters operate ...

Teacher rewarded by Education Department
Independent Online
Twenty years later, that is exactly what the conscientious teacher has attained. Last week, Nxumalo, 40, of Vryheid, was presented with a certificate, trophy and a R20 000 bursary when she was named first runner-up in the secondary schoolteaching ...

Independent Online

Teachers threaten full-scale walkout
24 Hours Vancouver
By STEPHANIE IP, 24 HOURS Teachers will take a strike vote this week to fight a legislated contract the province has hinted could arrive as early as today, the same day BC teachers are taking a 'day of action.' Lawyers for the BC Teachers' Federation ...

Imposed deal was inevitable
Canada.com
By Walter Cordery, The Daily News February 27, 2012 As inevitable as rain falling on Vancouver Island, the BC Liberals will legislate an end to the labour dispute with teachers. And don't expect the 41000 member strong BCTF to like it.

Lower salaries may drive teachers from Frederick County as wages remain ...
Washington Post
FREDERICK, Md. — There are growing worries that lower salaries may begin to drive teachersout of Frederick County as their pay has been frozen for a fourth straight year. Teacher Patty Madert tells The Frederick News Post (http://bit.ly/zn9pa6 ) she ...

Abbott: Teachers' demands 'not acceptable given the current financial reality'
Vancouver Sun
VANCOUVER — Education Minister George Abbott told BC teachers Sunday there is no money and they shouldn't spread their strike. “It is clear that this strike is hurting students and any escalation in strike action will only increase the harm to ...

Trustees call for 'expedited mediator' to end job action
Vancouver Sun
Public school teachers, buoyed by a show of support from school trustees over the weekend, are now strategizing on their response to a BC government plan to legislate an end to their year-long contract dispute. The BC Teachers' Federation has called ...

Xueda Education Group Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2011 Financial ...
MarketWatch (press release)
Total number of learning centers increased to 295, covering 63 cities, as of the end of the fourth quarter of 2011, up from 273 learning centers covering 62 cities as of the end of the previous quarter. Course hours delivered in the fourth quarter of ...

School trustees call for 'expedited mediator' to end job action
Victoria Times Colonist
By JANET STEFFENHAGEN, Postmedia News February 26, 2012 VANCOUVER — Public schoolteachers, buoyed by a show of support from school trustees over the weekend, are now strategizing on their response to a BC government plan to legislate an end to their ...

A simple question teachers should now ask about their profession
Washington Post (blog)
One would hope that after the tragedy in Los Angeles, when a teacher took his own life, apparently due in part to despondence over the release of his score, our leaders would have paused in their crusade to reduce teachers to numbers.

Teachers refuse to help five-year-old girl rub eczema cream into her back over ...
Daily Mail
Naturally, she can't cover her own back but the school's head teacher, Julie Swanston, says staff can only supervise her because their child protection policy makes it 'inappropriate' for them to help apply the cream. Leah's mother, Kerry Webb, ...

Daily Mail

Core to launch education delivery services in UAE
Times of India
Teaching services provider Core Education and Technologies said it is expanding into teachingdelivery by running an institute in the United Arab Emirates. MUMBAI: Teaching services provider Core Education and Technologies said it is expanding into ...

Rebecca Joseph: Ending Bad Teaching: Releasing Teachers' Test ...
By Rebecca Joseph
A social studies teacher, Mr. Cali took over when Mr. Stevens, the math teacher, went out on extended sick leave. During my six years of teaching middle school in a major urban school system, I never worked with a consistent team of teachers ...
The Huffington Post Full Blog Feed

Steven Cohen: Rick Santorum's Populist Pandering: Education as ...
By Steven Cohen
The American majority does not think that you are a snob if you think everyone should be given the opportunity to go to college.
College on HuffingtonPost.com

Kathy Sierra On Gamification In Education | Larry Ferlazzo's ...
By Larry Ferlazzo
Kathy Sierra, the well-known and respected tech writer and thinker, posted a lengthy comment on my post from earlier today titled The Dangers Of “Gamification” In Education. I thought it deserved to be read more widely, and she graciously ...
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Your Schools: Students rating CMS teachers
By Ann Doss Helms
It's a comment that comes up frequently when people talk about crunching numbers to calculateteacher value. On Tuesday, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board will hear teachers talk about both approaches: Using student survey data ...
Your Schools

Teachers Return To Classroom After Evaluations Are Released ...
By Jesse
The teachers union challenged the release of the reports. 18000 teachers were ranked on a scale of ... “It's just one indicator and it's really meant to be combined with other measures ofteacher performance,” said Sean Corcoran, Educational Economics Professor at NYU. That's the same point teachers ... Yes, the teacher”s teaching ability is one of those factors but so is parental involvement and home life, and individual abilities and experiences. Furthermore, to think that a test is ...
CBS New York

David Holt: Education Is Key to an "All-of-the-Above" Energy Policy
By David Holt
Michelle Rhee; Education Reform; Arne Duncan; School Bullying. Armchair .... Ending BadTeaching: Releasing Teachers' Test Scores... Substitute ... New York Publicly Releases Individual Teacher Ratings Amid Controversy. HOT ON ...
Green on HuffingtonPost.com

Teacher evaluation conference. « Fred Klonsky
By Fred Klonsky
February 26, 2012 1:57 pm. RE: evaluating teachers based on student tests scotres. I hear that ISAT scores for 8th graders across CPS trend lower than the ...
Fred Klonsky

College At Risk: Higher education must not become a luxury ...
By SC&A
But that view of teaching and learning as an economic driver is also a limited one, which puts at risk America's most distinctive contribution to the history and, we should hope, to the future of higher education. ... In ancient Greece and Rome, young men attended lectures that resembled our notion of a college course, and gatherings of students instructedby settled teachers took on some of the attributes we associate with modern colleges (libraries, fraternities, organized sports). By the ...
Sigmund, Carl and Alfred

Culture and US Army Professional Military Education
By Adam L Silverman
The Army's Learning Concept, rooted in the Army Leadership Development Concept, discuss learning in terms of three supporting, reinforcing, and parallel lines of effort: training, education, and experience. I think this will be a useful way to ...
Sic Semper Tyrannis

Spurn rote learning | Pattaya today newspaper
By pattayatoday
The rote-learning system that characterizes Thai education should be abandoned in favor of involving children in the learning process, teachers were told at a conference here led by the Office of Primary Education Chonburi Region 3.
Pattaya today newspaper

CT Education Reform: Pick Your Petitition | Rick Green
By Rick Green
Malloy's proposed education reforms by the business-and-parent group ConnCAN is far ahead of another started by a Trumbull teacher. The ConnCAN PR machine is crushing the opposition in these two meaningless polls, 932 signatures to ...
Rick Green

Wikispaces - Teacher
Education professionals come together to plan events and share best ... Teachers post homework, group work, and classroom goals, and update them ... Our Wikispace allows my students to have a 24/7 learning environment, and it is being ...
www.wikispaces.com/content/teacher

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Textbook Publishers Come Under Attack

Worse Than Awful: An Insider’s View of Educational Publishing « The Core Knowledge Blog: "The “new normal” in educational publishing is “a severe lack of oversight in the quality of curriculum being produced” and a “frightening apathy” to do anything about it. Keeghan’s piece, “Afraid of Your Child’s Math Textbook? You Should Be” is a jeremiad. It does for textbook publishing what The Jungle did for the meatpacking industry. Keeghan paints a bleak and dispiriting picture of a business gutted by mergers, competition for fewer available dollars, and an increased focus on sales and marketing at the expense of producing quality products. Materials rushed to market at breakneck speed are “inherently, tragically flawed.” Plus the pool of qualified writers and editors is drying up, and those doing the work “often don’t have the necessary skills or experience to produce a text worthy of the publisher’s marketing claims,” she writes."

Textbook Publishers Come Under Fire From Former Contributor - Curriculum Matters - Education Week: "A provocative new blog post offers a sharp critique of the current state of educational publishing, with the author—a former longtime contributor to textbooks—explaining why she's abandoned that work and believes the quality of curricular materials has declined precipitously. (Hat tip to Robert Pondiscio from the CoreKnowledge blog for alerting me to this through a Tweet this morning.) "Over the last few years, I've stopped developing and writing educational books; there's no longer any satisfaction in the work, no demand or appreciation for a product well crafted, no way to make a decent living or produce something that I feel proud to have my name attached to," writes Annie Kheegan in her Chronic Sense blog. The blogger said she worked for more than 20 years in educational publishing as a product developer, writer, and editor of curriculum materials for grades K-8."

Afraid of Your Child's Math Textbook? You Should Be. - Annie Keeghan - Open Salon: ". . . And so, I say to parents: Take a good look at the materials your children are bringing home. And to educators: Look at what you’re purchasing. Don’t be satisfied with the classic “thumb through” and don’t take those marketing materials or the sales pitch at face value. Take the time to study the materials; match them to your state’s desired standards and preferred benchmarks. If they’re not a good fit, take a pass and develop your own if you must. The only way kids are going to become better educated through the materials you buy, to increase their rankings among those 30 other countries, is to break the cycle and stop buying those books that are—there’s no other way to put it—crap. "

Teachers need training to spot campus molesters
San Jose Mercury News
By CHRISTINA HOAG AP LOS ANGELES—Many school teachers across the nation are trained to pick up on clues of child abuse and neglect, but most are not trained to spot the signs of classroom pedophiles, leaving a gray area that could help teacher ...

It's back to learning for teachers now
Times of India
JAIPUR: With reforms in the education system rapidly changing teaching and learningmethodology, teachers are finding it difficult to cope up with the frequent changes. As kids are being exposed to modern technology at a very young age, their attitude, ...

More teachers 'quitting the classroom over indiscipline'
Telegraph.co.uk
Almost 9000 teachers took early retirement last year, according to data from the Department for Education. Photo: GETTY By Graeme Paton,Education Editor Figures show almost 9000 state school teachers in England quit before the statutory retirement age ...

Telegraph.co.uk

The Education Report: A different kind of charter school for Oakland?
San Jose Mercury News
Tonight, the principals of ASCEND and Learning Without Limits turned in revised applications -- this time, for "partnership charters," which would work more closely with OUSD. The faculties at both schools voted last fall to separate from the district ...

Retired teachers' insurance to lose state subsidy under Quinn plan
The State Journal-Register
Pat Quinn wants to end the state's contribution to the Teachers' Retirement Insurance Program in the budget year that will start July 1. The state was expected to contribute nearly $87 million to TRIP next year. It is unclear how that money will be ...

Trumbull Teachers Union Opposes ConnCAN
Patch.com
by Tammy Baillargeon The Trumbull Education Association would like to respond to your letter of 11/18/11, notifying us that Trumbull High School has ranked in the top 10 list for low-income student performance, Hispanic student performance and ...

Higher education experiment planned in suburban KC
STLtoday.com
Amid concerns that students are going into debt to earn degrees that aren't preparing them for jobs in emerging industries, a coalition of suburban Kansas City business, community and education leaders is planning an experiment to make college cheaper, ...

Recommended: More California teachers accused of sex crimes
msnbc.com
By Patrick Healy, NBCLosAngeles.com Allegations of teachers committing sex crimes against California children increased last year, even though total teacher misconduct complaints declined, according to figures compiled by the state's Commission on ...

Teachers' dispute splits B.C.
The Province
The release of the poll is the latest salvo in the months-long fight between the 41000 members of the BC Teachers Federation and their ultimate boss, Education Minister George Abbott. The phone survey of 400 BC adults, conducted Feb.

More public backing for public-school teachers in contract dispute: Survey
Vancouver Sun
The survey of 400 BC residents over 18 years of age was conducted last Thursday and Friday, just as BC Education Minister George Abbott said he has asked his staff to prepare legislation to end the dispute. He made that announcement after a government ...

BC teachers to vote on full-scale walkout
The Province
Government continues to insist teachers accept its net-zero mandate, which allows for pay increases only if other financial concessions within the contract are made. Two weeks ago Education Minister George Abbott announced that Trevor Hughes, ...

Santorum defends calling Obama a 'snob'
Los Angeles Times
It's not stuck-up, though, to pursue a higher education. Rick Santorum parsed the difference Sunday morning on NBC's "Meet The Press." Appearing at a campaign stop in Troy, Mich., Santorum -- his voice thick with derision -- said on Saturday: ...

Los Angeles Times

Teachers, Students, Facebook Don't Mix
Patch.com
In a nutshell, the question was, should teachers and students be friends on Facebook? The story goes that a teacher from Maine accidentally posted a picture of himself naked on Facebook and, since he was “friends” with some of his students, well, ...

Teachers unions: 'No' to tenure plan
The Hour
Calling it a "leap of faith," when they signed on to the historic teacher evaluation framework, Phil Apruzzese, head of the state's largest teachers union, told EducationCommittee members that he has second thoughts. "We run the risk of losing good ...

Rick Santorum Stands By Comment That Obama Is 'A Snob'
Huffington Post
Making the rounds of the Sunday news shows, Rick Santorum reaffirmed his criticism of President Barack Obama as "a snob" for supporting a platform of universal higher education. The former Pennsylvania senator argued that Obama's encouragement of ...

Teachers divided over validity of scorecards
New York Daily News
I'm sad for those teachers,' fifth grade teacher says. By Kerry Wills AND Ben Chapman / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS The United Federation ofTeachers, which lost its suit to block media organizations from publicizing the names, slam the data as inaccurate and ...

New York Daily News

Evaluation Breakthrough: Agreement sets standards for all state teachers; now ...
Syracuse.com (blog)
The money was tagged last month because the schools still lacked a new system for evaluating teachers. Since then, union and district negotiators and state EducationCommissioner John King have agreed on a teacher evaluation plan for the ailing schools...

Police use batons to quell teachers' stir
Himalayan Times
SURKHET: Demanding fulfillment of their 23-point demand school teachers across the country demonstrated on Sunday. The police intervened soon after the teachers reached district education office Surkhet to stage sit-in. Teachers clashed with the ...

BC teachers declare day of action Monday
Victoria Times Colonist
By Jennifer Saltman, The Province February 24, 2012 Susan Lambert, president of the BCTeachers Federation, blames the Liberal government for an 'impasse' in contract negotiations. The provincial government's decision to legislate teachers back to work ...

Teaching Chinese in the Digital Age
Santa Barbara Independent
By Kevin Zambrano Given China's ever-growing presence in international politics and economics, schools across the country are beginning to embrace the teaching of Mandarin Chinese. Their hope is that proficiency in the language can lead to future ...

Baltimore Co. students honor teachers from segregation era
Baltimore Sun
"That was a lot of money for a poor boy with a high school education," Bartee recalled Saturday. "I owe it all to my teachers. ... There's no question that the training I got carried me a long way. I'm thankful. I'm blessed.

Teacher-Data Reactions: Absorbing New Rankings With Caution
Wall Street Journal (blog)
Concerns over how parents might use — or misuse — the rankings of thousands of fourth- through eighth-grade teachers drove much a significant part of the debate over the release. The Wall Street Journal, along with other media organizations, ...

Report: Tenured Teachers Rarely Let Go
Patch.com
Dannel P. Malloy works to restructure the tenure system in public schools, the Connecticut Post found in an investigation that hardly any tenured teachers are fired. Out of 53000 tenured teachers in public schools, only 40 were fired in the past two ...

U.S. News - More California teachers accused of sex crimes
By Patrick Healy
Allegations of teachers committing sex crimes against California children increased last year, even though total teacher misconduct complaints declined, according to figures compiled by the state's Commission on Teacher Credentialing. During the ... Whileteaching third grade at Inglewood's Beulah Payne Elementary School in 2008, Hernandez allegedly molested an 8-year-old girl, according to Sanford Jossen, the attorney who has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the girl and her mother.
Newsvine - U.S. News - Articles

On Teaching « Modeled Behavior
By Karl Smith
On Teaching. Sunday ~ February 26th, 2012 in Economics | by Karl Smith. A grad student asks Tyler for his pointers. The most important lesson is to use the right textbook. Beyond that: 1. Give a damn. 2. Get to the point when you speak. 3. Expect something from them. 4. Teach to the students who are interested in learning. 5. At all levels, do not overestimate the ... If you are like most first time teachers the key is to show up and start talking. I'd like to say that your students are as afraid ...
Modeled Behavior

Santorum Doubles Down On Education Remarks: Liberal ...
By Josh Feldman
Rick Santorum's latest line of attack against President Obama is that he has a vested interest in getting everyone to go to college, which makes him a snob who wants young people to be indoctrinated by liberal professors. Santorum defended ...
Mediaite

NYC Educator: The Annual Shaming of the Teachers
By NYC Educator
Casey claims only extremely low scores will jeopardize teacher jobs, but Michael Winerip shows it's entirely possible for good teachers to get low scores: According to the formula, Ms. Isaacson ranks in the 7th percentile among her teaching ...
NYC Educator

DownWithTyranny!: In NYS's education war, Diane Ravitch asks ...
By KenInNY
I just wrote about the first part of a new two-piecer she's written {"With such powerful forces for mis-education arrayed against actual learning, is there any hope for Americaneducation?"), highlighting the radically .... It will also profoundly demoralize teachers, as they realize that they have lost their professional autonomy and will be measured according to precise behaviors and actions that have nothing to do with their own definition of good teaching. Evaluators will come armed with ...
DownWithTyranny!

Mobile Learning On The Interwebs « Virtual School Meanderings
By mkbnl
... MentorMob helps teachers aggregate online content into a learning'playlist'Materials for teaching and learning exist everywhere online: in YouTube videos, SlideShare presentations, and published articles, for example. MentorMob is a free new platform that helps teachers collect, or “curate,” this ...
Virtual School Meanderings

U.S. News - More California teachers accused of sex crimes
Allegations of teachers committing sex crimes against California children increased ...While teaching third grade at Inglewood's Beulah Payne Elementary School in 2008, .....California are taxed to death for education and what do we get ?
usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_.../10510795-more-california-teache...

Teachers need training to spot campus molesters
By CHRISTINA HOAG AP LOS ANGELES—Many school teachers across the nation are.... a second-grader out of physical education class and taking her to an empty ...
www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_20049628

Teachers: An Invitation to Respond to Your Data Report
The Education Department said Thursday that it plans to release the ... About 12000 fourth through eighth grade public school teachers who teach math, ...
www.nytimes.com/.../teachers-an-invitation-to-respond-to-you...

Teachers React to Release of Data
By Maria Newman Teachers throughout the city have been objecting to the public ...Schools not to publish the data released by the Department of Education.
www.nytimes.com/.../2012/.../teachers-react-to-release-of-data/

The 2012 Brown Center Report on American Education - Brookings ...
In particular, the report focuses on education policy, studentlearning measures, trends on ...
www.brookings.edu/.../0216_brown_education_loveless.aspx


New Education Center Honors Abraham Lincoln | USA | English
Ford's Theater in Washington has opened a new Center forEducation and Leadership. Its ...
www.voanews.com/.../New-Education-Center-Honors-Preside...


Pushing EU values: Education or propaganda? — RT
Go to main page News Pushing EU values: Education or propaganda? ... The report even ...
rt.com/news/eu-education-propaganda-criticism-643/

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Testing Teachers: Origins of NYC's Evaluation System

Testing Teachers: Origins of NYC's Evaluation System
Wall Street Journal (blog)
By Aaron Rutkoff The traditional method for assessing teachers on-the-job performance has largely relied on principals, peers and other experts visiting classrooms and making observations. In New York City and elsewhere in the US, teachers reviewed in ...

New York to release ratings for 18000 teachers; union objects
Los Angeles Times
By Tina Susman Reporting from New York New York's Department of Educationplans to release performance ratings for about 18000 public school teachersFriday, the largest such disclosure in the country and the climax in a battle that has pitted the ...

Los Angeles Times

New York Releases Teacher Rankings
Wall Street Journal
The release of teacher's job-performance data follows a yearlong legal battle with the United Federation of Teachers, which sued to block the release and protectteachers' privacy. News organizations, including The Wall Street Journal, had requested ...

Wall Street Journal

NYC makes internal ratings of 18000 public school teachers available
New York Post
By YOAV GONEN, Education Reporter For the first time ever, New York City has made public its internal ratings of how effective teachers are at boosting their students' performance on reading and math exams. The release of the data on roughly 18000 ...

BC teachers decry 'bullying' settlement plan
CBC.ca
Education Minister George Abbott said earlier Thursday the government would draft legislation to end the contract dispute between teachers and the government over the weekend. Abbott revealed the plan after receiving a special fact-finding report into ...

CBC.ca

With Teacher Ratings Set to Be Released, Union Opens Campaign to Discredit Them
New York Times
The New York City Education Department will release the ratings of thousands of teachers on Friday, ending a nearly year-and-a-half-long legal battle by the teachers' union to keep the names confidential. The ratings, known as Teacher Data Reports, ...

Winning and losing teachers
New York Daily News
By Rachel Monahan / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS The Department of Education has identified more than 521 English and math teachers as producing the smallest student gains between 2007 and 2010, the Daily News has learned. Departmental data also pointed to 696 ...

New York Daily News

City Teacher Data Reports Are Released
New York Times
12:00 pm | Updated After a long legal battle and amid much anguish by teachers and other educators, the city Department of Education released individual performance rankings of 18000 New York City public school teachers to the public on Friday, ...

North Shore teachers plan 'day of action'
North Shore News
Teachers are planning a “day of action” Monday, which will not interrupt classes. TEACHERSacross the North Shore will huddle to plan their next steps in a "Day of Action" Monday afterEducation Minister George Abbott announced the province will ...

Number of US adults with college degrees hits historic high
Washington Post
“We believe this is a notable milestone,” said Kurt Bauman, chief of the Census Bureau'sEducation and Social Stratification Branch, during a telephone news conference to announce the data. The Washington region remains the nation's best-educated ...

BC teachers left government no choice, says Premier
Kelowna Capital News
By Kathy Michaels - Kelowna Capital News Back to work legislation for BC teachers was the only way forward, said Premier Christy Clark following a speaking engagement in Kelowna. "This isn't a situation that anyone wanted. (Education Minister) George ...

Teachers ponder strike as gov't readies back-to-work legislation
www.kamloopsnews.ca
Kamloops-Thompson Teachers' Association president Jason Karpuk said what happens next depends on the legislation Education Minister George Abbott alluded to during a teleconference with reporters Thursday morning. Once that document is made public, ...

Abbott to order end to teachers' job action
Vancouver Sun
Education Minister George Abbott has asked his staff to work through the weekend to prepare back-to-work legislation aimed at ending a labour dispute with BC teachers. Abbott made the announcement Thursday after a senior official in the Labour Ministry ...

Teachers call back-to-work legislation 'bullying'
CTV.ca
Education Minister George Abbott says there's no turning back from an eventual legislated end to the ongoing teachers strike in British Columbia. Abbott rejected the teachers' calls for the appointment of a mediator or arbitration, saying the two sides ...

What you need to know about the Teacher Data Reports
New York Daily News
The Department of Education compared how well their students did on the tests with projected progress based on attendance rates, ethnicity, previous test scores, poverty level and other criteria. Teachers whose classes exceeded expectations got higher ...

New York Daily News

Christie education funding plan would base allocations partly on districts ...
The Star-Ledger - NJ.com
By Star-Ledger Staff Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey JournalActing EducationCommissioner Christopher Cerf, right, looks on while Gov. Chris Christie speaks in this file photo. TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie Thursday unveiled sweeping plans to change the ...

The Star-Ledger - NJ.com

Just another round in an endless teachers' battle
The Province
She was speaking shortly after the government announced it was preparing to force a settlement on the teachers after a year of fruitless negotiations. Education Minister George Abbott - who said the imposed settlement bill will be drafted this weekend ...

Teaching union rejects pension deal
The Independent
Leaders of a teaching union today rejected the Government's controversial public sector pension reforms, delivering a fresh blow to the coalition's hopes of ending the long-running dispute. The executive of UCAC, which represents thousands of teachers, ...

DOE Releases Evaluations For Thousands Of Public School Teachers
NY1
Parents will soon know if their children's teachers have been earning passing grades, as the city's Department of Education released today the performance scores of tens of thousands of teachers later today. A judge ordered the department to do so, ...

NY1

Parents and New Education Group Intervene in Texas School Finance Litigation
Sacramento Bee
By Texans for Real Efficiency and Equity in Education AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 24, 2012 -- /PRNewswire/ -- Today in the 200th Judicial District Court in Travis County, a group of parents and a new education group named Texans for Real Efficiency and Equity ...

Could teaching ever be a team sport?
The Guardian (blog)
The school's maths teachers, a more orderly bunch, used standardized teachingmaterials to explain differential equations to students in Year 10; although, on closer investigation, most admitted to having tailored the standard resources to their own ...

The Guardian (blog)

Abstinence-Only Sex Education Bill In Utah Prohibits Teaching ...
By The Huffington Post News Editors
A bill requiring sex education classes to teach an abstinence-only curriculum moved closer to becoming a law in Utah Wednesday. The state House passed HB 363 in a 45-28 vote following extensive debate.
The Huffington Post | Full News Feed

Christina Pirello: Teaching Our Kids About Food
By Christina Pirello
In the movie, To Sir with Love, Sidney Poitier comes to the conclusion that education, as it was being applied in his situation... just wasn't working. He took matters into his own hands and decided to teach his students the basic facts of life, with ...
Health on Huffington Post

The “Moneyball” approach to public education – Off the Kuff
By Charles Kuffner
The book says, “One absolutely cannot tell, by watching, the difference between a .300 hitter and a .275 hitter. The difference is one hit every two weeks.” In Texas public schools, you absolutely cannot tell the difference between an exemplary ...
Off the Kuff

The Limits of Learning Design ~ Stephen's Web
Stephen's Web, the home page of Stephen Downes, with news and information on e-learning, new media, instructional technology, educational design, and related subjects.
Stephen's Web ~ OLDaily

Virginia education officials finalize NCLB waiver request | Richmond ...
State's top teachers honored. Eight regional teachers of the year and the state's top teacher were honored Thursday with resolutions by the Board of Education. Among them was Mechanicsville Elementary School teacher Jamie B. Mullenaux ...
www2.timesdispatch.com - News

For-Profit Colleges Get Majority of Education Benefits of Active-Duty ...
By Goldie Blumenstyk
... quality at for-profit colleges, shows that of the top 10 recipients of such assistance, six are for-profit college companies—American Public Education, Bridgepoint (the parent company of Ashford University), TUI Learning (the parent of Trident ...
The Ticker

Benue owes 150 teachers 4-yr salaries
By mbgolu
Benue State Government owes some teachers four years' salary arrears, according to Mr. David Tsevende, Chairman of Benue State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB. He said this in Makurdi in reaction to an enquiry on reports that ...
Vanguard News

Darden: Where Great Teachers Are Gods | Poets and Quants
By John A. Byrne
Allayannis is one of many superstar teachers at Darden, and his evolution here provides much insight into how this school has made teaching an integral and defining part of its culture. That wouldn't be such a key distinction except that the ...
Poets and Quants

Network of Volunteerism and Solidarity for Education
By admin
Teachers are responsible for the quality of education, while the parents are responsible for the overall monitoring of the process. Lessons can take place at the student's home, in groups as well as online (e-learning). Apart from 'core' school ...
From the Greek Streets

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