‘Creative ... motivating’ and fired

[Are_grits_groceries]

Sarah Wysocki was out of work for only a few days after she was fired by DCPS last year. She is now teaching at Hybla Valley Elementary School in Fairfax County.
<snip>
“It is a pleasure to visit a classroom in which the elements of sound teaching, motivated students and a positive learning environment are so effectively combined,” Assistant Principal Kennard Branch wrote in her May 2011 evaluation.

He urged Wysocki to share her methods with colleagues at the D.C. public school. Other observations of her classroom that year yielded good ratings. Two months later, she was fired.

Wysocki, 31, was let go because the reading and math scores of her students didn’t grow as predicted. Her undoing was “value-added,” a complex statistical tool used to measure a teacher’s direct contribution to test results. The District and at least 25 states, under prodding from the Obama administration, have adopted or are developing value-added systems to assess teachers.

When her students fell short, the low value-added trumped her positives in the classroom. Under the D.C. teacher evaluation system, called IMPACT , the measurement counted for 50?percent of her annual appraisal. Classroom observations, such as the one Branch conducted, represented 35?percent, and collaboration with the school community and schoolwide testing trends made up the remaining 15?percent.
<snip>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/creative--motivating-and-fired/2012/02/04/gIQAwzZpvR_story.html?hpid=z4

Dumbasses! She's Fairfax County's gain now.

This is what is wrong with these systems that grade teachers.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

1. My sister, who is a school teacher, says that she spends most of her time

teaching her class how to pass these tests. It's ridiculous.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. So, there has been no change since Bush introduced No child left Behind.

Sadly, as pointed out in the article, we are now producing little robots who can be molded to provide the "right answers" with no capacity for critical thought processes.

[freshwest]

3. Full steam ahead for privatization, balkanization, charters and madrassas.