Reply #33: Thank you for the civil...

[YvonneCa]

...response. (There's another thread on this that is spinning out of control :7 ).

My thoughts on your words:

The teacher unions are refusing to incorporate any form of objective methods into teacher evaluations. They want pro forma evaluations that do little more than rubber stamp teachers as "satisfactory" - which is precisely what we currently have nearly everywhere. That is not a fair evaluation whatsoever as far as the students are concerned.

This is one reason I believe teachers...not just unions...need to be heard. I DO think unions have an important role in protecting teachers from being the 'collateral damage' of education reform. I imagine that is frustrating to all, but I am actually quite hopeful that there will be a good outcome from this debate.

I believe strongly that subjective means combined with using the improved student assessments that Obama is pushing for along with longitudinal data systems that track specific student achievement is a perfectly fair way to evaluate teachers.

It can be. It isn't fair now. What worries me is that unfair systems are currently being used and are hurting GOOD teachers. I am not the only person who has seen/experienced this.



I completely agree that the current tests are the wrong tests to evaluate teachers on (unless you live in Massachusetts or Minnesota, that is) because they don't adequately assess whether or not kids are learning. And I completely agree that we need to track progress of individual kids from one year to the next using better data systems than what currently exists in many states because we should be measuring whether or not a teacher is adding value to a kid's education, not whether or not this year's kids are better or worse than the entirely different set of kids that teacher had in prior years.

Thank you for this. THIS tells me teachers are finally getting through. THIS gives me hope. ;)

And I completely agree that it would be unfair to incorporate student assessments into teacher evaluations until those things happen, but that's exactly what Obama is pushing to have happen.

MAKE THAT CASE,Nick. :) This is why I still support President Obama.

The fact of the matter is that even this proposal is being met with severe resistance, and that's just utterly unacceptable.

But isn't that the fun of governing? :7 Both sides pushing each other and doing their best to find the common ground? THAT's where the BEST educational system in the WORLD will come from. I will join you to celebrate that. :patriot: