Tag: education

Posted on in Uncategorized

The No Child Left Behind Question: Is There Too Much Testing or Not Enough?

Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, says there should be yearly testing for students in grades 3-8. But, the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second largest teachers’ union, says testing should not be yearly but done every few years, or, as they call it, in grade spands.

For Yearly Testing:

  • Allow parents to be consistently updated on child’s progress
  • Allows both, state and local governments and educators to work on and analyze where education is working and where it is not working

Kati Haycock, president of the the Education Trust said, “…Kids who are not tested end up not counting.”

For Span Testing:

  • Puts less pressure on kids and teachers, in terms of performance
  • Allows for a more flexible and creative learning environment and curricula

Lily Eskelsen García, President of the National Education Association said, “Parents and educators know that the one size fits all annual federal testing structure has not worked.”

While this is a very brief summary of the debate, I have done further reading and still find myself sort of stuck in between the two viewpoints.

One of the main concerns for people in favor of span testing is the emphasis that is taken away from teacher performance based on standardized tests and the treatment that sll students take tests equally. I think these two ideas are very poignant and it seems that span testing could be the solution that addresses these pressures that both students and teachers face.

However, without an annual indicator, like standardized tests, it would seem difficult to find something that  allows parents, teachers and students to follow  students  progress effectively and take measures to ensure that students are getting the help they need on a time schedule that allows them to be college or career ready.

Perhaps, the best solution would be to find a substitute (or two or three) that would provide parents, students ad teachers with some kind of real measurement of progress. It is a little unclear on what those yearly indicators would be, but thinking about them is definitely a start to a more comfortable but effective learning environment.

Posted on in Opinions on Politics

UFT, Shame on You

Who is penalized when $250,000,000, which is supposed to be aiding in NYC public school Students’ education, is lost? Who is penalized when that $250,000,000 can increase to as much as $450,000,000 in lost money to help schools who need it most? Th children, of course. No person or group of people is ever so at a disadvantage than the students.

The sad thing is is that they did not have anything to do with the negotiations on teacher evaluations that fell through. While I could understand why not them, but not even a random selection of their parents. Instead,all that money was left in the hands of opposing politicians, and you know what that mean. A complete fail.

Last week, Mike Bloomberg and the UFT did not reach a deal on a new way of evaluating teachers. Bloomeberg says that the UFT added last minute provisions that essentially ignored the whole point of the change in evaluations. The union wanted to have the agreement for the evaluations expire in two years, 2015. Mayor Bloomberg points out that it takes two years for a teacher to be removed from the system, which, if the union’s method were to be put in place, it would be useless.

Surprisingly, I agree with the mayor on this one. The new evaluation system needs to be tested over a number of years, not just a couple. That third year would give us some more fruitful understanding of the effectiveness of the agreement because it goes beyond the two year boundary that protects a teacher. A two year agreement would only show teachers who were warned this year and let go in 2015 but no other. But in order to illustrate a new evaluation system, we’d need at least two years (2015 and 2016) worth of complete feedback compare the two years and its effect on the system as a whole. With the union’s plan, we’d only have one. Teachers who would be given a warning in 2014 have until 2016 to get their act together, but they would be working under a new system. Under the unions provision, there would be two agreements in two years and thats not fair, stable, effective, and in favor of the students.

The union says that they dod not think that this provision was something to hoot and holler about. But, I think they know what they are doing. At the end of the day, the union’s role is to protect the teachers from losing their jobs. They are by law and a sense of obligation, on the side of the teacher, not of the student.

To read more on this issue:

http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/175547/teacher-rating-system-deal-a-bust–city-school-budget-to-lose–250m