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 >
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 >
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 >
Guest post by John Thompson. Douglas Harris' Value-Added Measures in Education is a masterpiece. Even in the places where I believe Harris is mistaken, he identifies the core issues involved in using value-added for evaluations. My big complaint is Harris' agnosticism about who carries the burden... Read Full Post >
Follow me on Twitter at @AnthonyCody I have been in conversations with the Gates Foundation for the past two months. In my early exchanges with representatives of the Gates Foundation it felt as if we were barely scratching the surface of the many issues that I thought should be explored. I thought... Read Full Post >
Follow me on Twitter at @AnthonyCody The strike by Chicago teachers is reminding all of us of the reason we have unions, and the reason why they are so feared and hated by those who are in command. The ability of these 29,000 teachers to act as one, to withhold their labor, gives them a power far ... Read Full Post >
Follow me on Twitter at @AnthonyCody This post is the second round in a five-part exchange with the Gates Foundation. This is a response to yesterday's post from Vicki Phillips, How do we Consider Evidence of Student Learning in Teacher Evaluations? This post can also be viewed and commented on o... Read Full Post >
Guest post by Vicki Phillips. This post tackles the second topic in a five part dialogue with representatives of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It is also posted over at the Gates Foundation's Impatient Optimist blog. A response from Anthony Cody has now been posted here. Education debate... Read Full Post >
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