S.C. deputy filmed slamming teen girl out of desk, dragging her away

One thing, OOP, and given 93Devil's obvious ... ahem, shortcomings ... I'm going to ask you to address this. So often I hear, "Teacher X has special needs students and Teacher Y is teaching AP-college bound types, so it's impossible to compare them!" Yet is it really the case that they're compared in that manner? It's my understanding they're compared -- at least in theory -- with regard to how their students progressed. So Y could be regarded as a poor performer even though Y's students do pretty well on the tests? And X could be regarded as outstanding even though X's students tend to perform poorly.

 

In most cases it is a mixture of how how the students progressed and raw results. That varies from state to state and there is also a measure of control within districts.

It would greatly improve the ability to measure student performance if it was based on progress rather than raw results, but we aren't there yet. One complication is that measuring progress is more time-consuming. Somebody has to be paid for that time, so it becomes more expensive.

Another issue is measuring progress when the standardized tests are changing. Take New York for an example. The state has recently adopted standards for measuring performance by teachers and administrators. They began using this system as the schools were switching to Common Core standards and standardized tests that are aligned with those standards. Common Core standards are more rigorous, which is just one reason why standardized test results in New York dropped off dramatically the last two or three years. So if you tried to measure progress, most of the teachers would look bad because student scores got worse.

Of course, that oversimplifies the problem. Another factor was the implementation of Common Core, which has been almost universally bashed for how badly it was handled. That lowered student performance even further. Also, the state started administering the new standardized tests for grades three through eight BEFORE the schools went to the new standards, so that year students were being tested on the new material before it was even taught. Just to muddy the waters even more, the state waited until after all of the tests had been graded to decide where to put the cut-offs for "at-standard," which was the equivalent of passing. Does that sound like a valid approach to you?

Now you have an increasing number of parents realizing their children's teachers are being hurt by the way the standardized test scores are used, so they are having their children opt out of the state tests. Technically, you cannot opt out, so what the school does is put the test in front of those students, then take it back blank. The students then have to sit their quietly and read. By state regulations, they can't even do homework. This is for multiple hours for three straight days of English and three more days of math.

And some folks wonder why some teachers might be leery of how they are going to be evaluated?

 

You just answered your own questions. It's "in theory". Reality is a much different ballgame.

Same grade level. If Teacher X has a group of kids who are reading at a fourth grade level, and they gets them to read at a sixth grade level, you might say they did a pretty darn good job. Teacher Y, meanwhile, has kids that are getting B's on tests instead of A's, while Teacher X's kids can barely understand the test. Teacher Y's kids are doing much better academically compared to Teacher X's, but is it really fair to compare Teacher Y to Teacher X when Teacher X's kids don't have the ability of Teacher Y's?

 

For all the students who did not pass your midterm, what retrenching measures did you take to make sure they passed the retake?


If this sounds insane to you, then you have no concept what goes on in public schools.

 

It does sound insane that a teacher thinks that that question speaks, in any way, shape or form, to mine.

 

I think I was sort of implying something similar to this (in the context of the blue font), except without the Carter bash.

 

I knew we'd agree on something eventually.

 

And it's already being done in some states. I don't think it's as easy as you think, though.

 

You teach, right?

 

We have a small handful of people piling on teachers, but I think they have no real idea how teaching has changed since they were in school.

They probably think, incorrectly, that's it's exactly the way it was when they were in school.

 

I'm sure you just don't lecture to students for 45 or 90 minutes straight in your classes, so what forms of student-based learning have you found the most successful?

 

Like oop, I knew we'd agree on something eventually.