The American Federation of Teachers' delegates just passed two important resolutions, on teacher evaluation and school closures, so let's take each of them in turn. Resolution five, you may recall, codifies the AFT's evaluation framework and affirms that test scores, used appropriately and as one ... Read Full Post >
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten had a sit-down chat with reporters after her keynote address to the AFT convention Thursday, and there was some in-depth discussion about what's probably the top teacher-quality issue on the table today: evaluation. AFT officials have said ... Read Full Post >
Dennis Van Roekel's Keynote, take two! Near the end of his keynote address to the National Education Association Representative Assembly, NEA President Dennis Van Roekel called for the creation of a new commission—to be called the Commission on Effective Teaching—that would address "que... Read Full Post >
Results from year one of a pilot teacher-evaluation system in Chicago show a much broader range of ratings under the new system than under the district's existing one, with at least 8 percent of pre-tenured teachers receiving at least one "unsatisfactory" rating, according to a new paper out from th... Read Full Post >
Over the past year or so, we've talked a lot about principal, administrator, and peer reviews of teachers here at Teacher Beat. But what about students themselves? Can they offer valuable insights into which teachers are the most effective? Quite a few school districts, New York City among them, p... Read Full Post >
According to colleagues and sources who attended the Education Writers' Association recent conference, National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel took the opportunity during a panel discussion to reiterate that it's "absurd" for districts and states to think that it's possible to use... Read Full Post >
Colorado's tenure and evaluation-reform bill passed with most of the core details intact, making what are probably the most aggressive Race-to-the-Top-inspired teacher-quality policy changes to date. The law includes a requirement that teachers be deemed "effective" three years running to earn tenur... Read Full Post >
A high-powered panel of teacher-quality experts released a paper this morning proposing a new federal program called America's Teacher Corps that they claim would recognize the best teachers, reduce interstate barriers to teaching, increase access of students in high-poverty school to highly effecti... Read Full Post >
The Center on American Progress released three papers yesterday on different aspects of teacher effectiveness. I'll be writing a bit about them over the course of this week (We Read So You Don't Have To!), but they're all worth checking out. First up is a fascinating look at charter school evaluati... Read Full Post >
The local teachers' union, meanwhile, has filed an unfair labor-relations complaint with the state labor-relations board, saying that Superintendent Frances Gallo didn't bargain in good faith with the union. Read Full Post >
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