Guest post by John Thompson. Chad Alderman's "If the Yankees Used 'First-In, Last-Out'..." is much too typical of the contemporary school "reform" movement. Like so many accountability hawks, Alderman loves to expound on topics that he knows well, but he reveals very little understanding of real l... Read Full Post >
Guest post by John Thompson. As more and more schools implement various forms of Value-Added method (VAM) evaluation systems, we are learning some disturbing things about how reliable these methods are. Education Week's Stephan Sawchuk, in "'Value-Added' Measures at Secondary Level Questioned," e... Read Full Post >
Yesterday's post challenging the ability of some education reform "liberals" to shed core values such as support for unions, desegregation and the institution of public education apparently hit some sensitive nerves. In particular, Chris Arnold, whom we recently saw praising the "parent trigger" mo... Read Full Post >
"Value added" gauges of teacher performance at the middle and high school level seem prone to certain kinds of bias. Read Full Post >
Guest post by John Thompson. The Measures of Effective Teaching Project (MET) is the Gates Foundation's flagship effort to fill what they believe is a huge void in the teaching profession. According to them, up until this project, there was no way to know how effective any given teacher is. Their g... Read Full Post >
In response to complaints, the Denver district is revising language in its teacher-evaluation system that described a "distinguished" teacher as one who "encourages students to challenge and question the dominant culture" and "take social action to change/improve society or work for social justice,"... Read Full Post >
It is important to listen to the voices of our constituents. Read Full Post >
Follow me on Twitter at @AnthonyCody Both President Obama and his debate challenger Mitt Romney took time Wednesday night to praise the controversial Race to the Top program, but down where the rubber meets the road, the program is hitting some obstacles. The Department of Education now requires sc... Read Full Post >
Teach for America is working and there are lessons to be learned but we need a long term solution. Read Full Post >
Teachers need to be involved in the development and implementation of new evaluation systems. Read Full Post >
