Student Achievement, Poverty and “Toxic Stress”

by Robert Pondiscio

January 4th, 2012

Tags: accountability, American Academy of Pediatrics,…

Using Test Scores to Evaluate Teachers Is Based on the Wrong Values

The True Cost of High School Dropouts

By HENRY M. LEVIN and CECILIA E. ROUSE

NY Times

Throughout history, there are numerous examples of smart people who have made poor decisions. At the time, they may have thought that the decision seemed logical, appropriate and promised that positive changes would result. We have all read stories of well-respected people who have made incredibly ill-conceived statements, policies, and proclamations that in hindsight were misguided, short-sighted and downright wrong.  Here's a grievous example of one of those…

WARNING:  “Control-Oriented Efforts Can Sabotage Student Motivation”

Joan R. Fretz

In Race to the Top, the Dirty Work Is Left to Those on the Bottom

By MICHAEL WINERIP

NY Times

Teacher Preparation With Strings Attached

Ariel Sacks

I'm certainly one of the lucky ones. I can proudly say that my teacher preparation included a strong background in developmental theory, curriculum design, and student-centered pedagogy at Bank…

All of the controversy about teacher evaluation is driven by the federally mandated Race To The Top. Unfortunately nowhere is the “top” precisely defined and the educrats who conceived and established the Race To The Top forgot that any race to the top begins at the bottom and they neglected to identify the “bottom” from which we are supposed to race to the “top.”…

Attack VAM before it is too late

Classroom teachers and building principals must join together and attack Value-Added Modeling (VAM) as a method for classroom teacher evaluation much less a measure of student performance and teacher effectiveness.

In New…

Use the Data, but Constructively

Sydney Morris is a former public school teacher and the co-founder of Educators 4 Excellence, a national nonprofit that seeks to elevate the voices of teachers in education policy.

UPDATED JANUARY 16, 2012, 7:00 PM…

We Know Which Teachers to Fire

Lance T. Izumi is the senior director of education studies at the Pacific Research Institute.

UPDATED JANUARY 16, 2012, 7:00 PM…

Let’s Not Rush Into Value-Added Evaluations

Jesse Rothstein is an associate professor of public policy and economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He has studied the relationship between classroom assignments and estimates of "value-added" by teachers.…

Results Are In; How Will We Respond?

Arun Ramanathan is the executive director of The Education Trust—West.

UPDATED JANUARY 16, 2012, 7:00 PM

Test Scores Are Only a Snapshot

Dawn Shirk teaches English as a second language at Reidsville Middle School and Reidsville High School in Reidsville, N.C.

UPDATED JANUARY 16, 2012, 7:00 PM