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Jeff Bernstein

Recent State Action on Teacher Effectiveness | Bellwether Education Partners - 0 views

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    "During the 2010, 2011, and 2012 legislative sessions, a combination of federal policy incentives and newly elected governors and legislative majorities in many states following the 2010 elections sparked a wave of legislation addressing teacher effectiveness. More than 20 states passed legislation designed to address educator effectiveness by mandating annual evaluations based in part on student learning and linking evaluation results to key personnel decisions, including tenure, reductions in force, dismissal of underperforming teachers, and retention. In many cases states passed multiple laws, with later laws building on previous legislation, and also promulgated regulations to implement legislation. A few states acted through regulation only. In an effort to help policymakers, educators, and the public better understand how this flurry of legislative activity shifted the landscape on teacher effectiveness issues-both nationally and at the state level-Bellwether Education Partners analyzed recent teacher effectiveness legislation, regulation, and supporting policy documents from 21 states that took major legislative or regulatory action on teacher effectiveness in the past three years. This analysis builds on a previous analysis of teacher effectiveness legislation in five states that Bellwether published in 2011. Our expanded analysis includes nearly all states that took major legislative action on teacher effectiveness over the past three years."
Jeff Bernstein

Trending Toward Reform: Teachers Speak on Unions and the Future of the Profession - 0 views

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    To understand how and why teachers' opinions may be changing, Education Sector worked with the Farkas Duffett Research Group to conduct four focus groups and a nationally representative survey  of K-12 public school teachers. The survey, which gathered responses from 1,101 teachers, repeated questions from a 2007 Education Sector survey and a 2003 Public Agenda survey about a variety of teacher-centered reforms, including new approaches  to evaluation, pay, and tenure, and the role of unions in pushing for or against these reforms. Accordingly, this report examines changes in teacher opinion from 2007 to 2011 and, as with the 2007 report, looks closely at differences between new teachers (less than five years) and veterans (more than 20 years).
Jeff Bernstein

New York City teacher ratings unreliable, educators warned - NY Daily News - 0 views

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    Education officials lacked confidence in the controversial ratings of teachers who oversaw the city's highest- and lowest-performing students, cautioning schools about considering them in tenure decisions, the Daily News has learned. The city Education Department called superintendents last spring about the shakiness of ratings for teachers at the very top and bottom of the spectrum, which 33% of all ratings, including those of teachers not up for tenure, fell into. And all of the teachers at more than 30 schools fell into this category, a News analysis finds.
Jeff Bernstein

The New Haven Experiment - NYTimes.com - 0 views

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    The breakthrough experiment in New Haven offers a glimpse of an education future that is less rancorous. It's a tribute to the savvy of Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers and as shrewd a union leader as any I've seen. She realized that the unions were alienating their allies, and she is trying to change the narrative. New Haven may be home to Yale University, but this is a gritty, low-income school district in which four out of five kids qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. Eighty-four percent of students are black or Hispanic, and graduation rates have been low. A couple of years ago, the school district reached a revolutionary contract with teachers. Pay and benefits would rise, but teachers would embrace reform - including sacrificing job security. With a stronger evaluation system, tenure no longer mattered and weak teachers could be pushed out. Roughly half of a teacher's evaluation would depend on the performance of his or her students - including on standardized tests and other measures of learning. Teachers were protected by a transparent process, and by accountability for principals. But if outside evaluators agreed with administrators that a teacher was failing, the teacher would be out at the end of the school year.
Jeff Bernstein

Bad Teachers Can Get Better After Some Types Of Evaluation, Harvard Study Finds - 0 views

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    "The question of what to do with bad teachers has stymied America's education system of late, sparking chaotic protests in state capitals and vitriolic debate in a recent congressional hearing. It has also stoked the movement known as 'education reform,' which has zeroed in on teacher quality by urging school districts to sort the star teachers from the duds, and reward or punish them accordingly. The idea is that America's schools would be able to increase their students' test scores if only they had better teachers. Since 2007, this wave of education reformers -- in particular Democrats for Education Reform, a group backed by President Barack Obama and hedge fund donors -- has clashed with teachers unions in their pursuit of making the field of education as discerning in its personnel choices as, say, that of finance. Good teachers should be promoted and retained, reformers contend, instead of being treated like identical pieces on an assembly line, who are rewarded with tenure for their staying power or seniority. But what to do with the underperformers?"
Jeff Bernstein

Why public shaming of teachers is exactly what the corporate reformers want -- with nat... - 0 views

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    The NYC teacher data reports were released on Friday; and it's no surprise that Rupert Murdoch's  NY Post was the first out of the gate to name and shame a teacher with a low rating.  Sunday's Post featured a photo of teacher at a Queens school, naming her and the school, with the headline, "The worst teacher in the city," based on her TDR.  They also interview a parent at her school who says she should be fired.   Expect this sort of thing to go on for weeks if not months - as the Post tries to publicly shame one teacher after another, plastering their photos in the paper, pursuing a virulent propaganda campaign to attack the union and eliminate teacher tenure. The only question remaining is how many other papers will follow suit and participate by naming names.
Jeff Bernstein

Moving beyond 'blame the teacher' - latimes.com - 1 views

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    Most of the current efforts to improve public education begin with the flawed assumption that the basic problem is teacher performance. This "blame the teacher" attitude has led to an emphasis on standardized tests, narrow teacher evaluation criteria, merit pay, erosion of tenure, privatization, vouchers and charter schools. The primary goal of these measures has been greater teacher accountability - as if the weaknesses of public education were due to an invasion of our classrooms by uncaring and incompetent teachers. That is the premise of the documentary, "Waiting for Superman," and of the attacks on teachers and their unions by politicians across the country.
Jeff Bernstein

Education Worker: Rethinking Teacher Compensation Part II: A Brief Critique of Neo-Libe... - 0 views

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    Along comes neo-liberal education reform, built around the idea that the invisible hand of markets and competition can solve educational problems.  A whole raft of activity follows.  Reformers talk about billions spent each year compensating teachers for master's degrees that are disconnected from student outcomes.  Municipalities and school boards balk at funding automatic step raises on the grounds that longevity does not equal quality.  The linchpins of tenure and seniority come under assault on the somewhat contradictory grounds that tenure protects bad teachers and seniority encourages the mal-distribution of good teachers.
Jeff Bernstein

Jindal's education reform hits on sensitive problems - 0 views

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    Among the topics are expanding the New Orleans voucher program statewide to funnel state tax dollars to private schools, revising teacher tenure and granting school superintendents and principals hiring and firing authority that now is held by school boards. The plan also alters teacher tenure, making it easier to dismiss teachers not performing well in classrooms
Jeff Bernstein

Measuring Teacher Effectiveness: Credentials Unrelated to Student Achievement - 1 views

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    Given the challenges facing American public education today, identifying effective teachers is a more vital task than ever before. A wide body of research shows that teachers are the most important school-based factor related to student achievement. Policymakers and taxpayers want to know what factors create effective teachers-not only for the sake of their own children's educations but also because teacher salary and benefits represent the nation's single largest educational expenditure. And school administrators need to identify teachers who will be successful over the long term before those teachers earn the ironclad job protection of tenure.
Jeff Bernstein

Transforming Tenure: Using Value-Added Modeling to Identify Ineffective Teachers - 0 views

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    A keystone of this reform movement is the replacement of subjective evaluation with quantifiable measures of each teacher's effectiveness. The quantitative method is known as value-added modeling (VAM), a statistical analysis of student scores that seeks to identify how much an individual teacher contributes to a pupil's progress over the years. The use of VAM in teacher evaluations is growing, but the method remains extremely controversial. Critics often claim that it does not and cannot measure actual teacher quality. This paper addresses that claim. Part I analyzes data from Florida public schools to show that a VAM score in a teacher's third year is a good predictor of that teacher's success in his or her fifth year. Having established that VAM is a useful predictive tool, Part II of the paper addresses the most effective ways that VAM can be used in tenure reform."
Jeff Bernstein

Survey: 1 in 5 teachers support ending unions | teachers, percent, tenure - News - The ... - 0 views

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    "Nearly one in five U.S. educators say they support abolishing teachers unions, and one in three support ending tenure for teachers, according to a new survey by the think-tank National Center for Education Information." But what's the margin of error in the survey?
Jeff Bernstein

N.H. tenure change makes some happy, some not » New Hampshire » EagleTribune.... - 0 views

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    While school administrators praise a new law that extends the number of years a teacher must work to earn tenure, teachers unions oppose the measure.
Jeff Bernstein

Gov. Rick Snyder signs major changes to teacher tenure into law - 0 views

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    "Gov. Rick Snyder signed teacher tenure reform into law Tuesday, the final step for some of the most sweeping changes made to Michigan's education system in decades."
Jeff Bernstein

Why Are Teachers So Upset? - Bridging Differences - Education Week - 0 views

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    By now, you have seen the latest Metlife Survey of the American Teacher. It shows that teachers' satisfaction with their job has plummeted since 2009, from 59 percent to 44 percent. It is the lowest it has been in 20 years. The percentage of teachers who are likely to leave the profession has grown from 17 percent to 29 percent since 2009. The reasons are obvious: The most satisfied teachers feel their jobs are secure, and they are treated as professionals by the community. Compared with dissatisfied teachers, they are more likely to have opportunities for professional development, time to collaborate with other teachers, and greater parental involvement in their schools. These are teachers working in an atmosphere of professionalism and collaboration.
Jeff Bernstein

Gazette » Tenure: The Right to Due Process - from the Teacher Union Chatboard - 0 views

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    I would also ask you to please stop promoting the myth that unions are abusive and make it impossible to fire bad teachers. Unions only ensure that all teachers have due process to protect them from abusive admin. (And no, I am not saying that admin. is abusive, but just as there are poor teachers out there… there are poor administrators.) It is not the unions job to evaluate teacher performance. But it is the unions job to be be sure that disciplinary action is justified by requiring proper steps to be taken.
Jeff Bernstein

N.J. school reform must get teacher evaluation right | NJ.com - 0 views

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    Yes, teacher tenure needs reform, but state Sen. Teresa Ruiz's bill places too much weight on the teacher evaluation system under development in New Jersey. Firing teachers based on two consecutive years of poor evaluations is not going to improve teacher effectiveness or student achievement.
Jeff Bernstein

Education Week Teacher: Michigan Lawmakers OK Teacher Tenure Changes - 0 views

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    The Republican-led Michigan Legislature on Thursday approved changes to the state's teacher tenure system that supporters say would make it easier to remove ineffective teachers from the classroom.
Jeff Bernstein

Linda Darling-Hammond on Teacher Evaluations through Student Testing - 1 views

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    "There is no doubt that teacher evaluation systems in the U.S. are broken: Teachers, administrators, parents, and policymakers agree that most districts fail to measure teaching well, help teachers improve, or dismiss those who are failing. Most teachers are tenured without a rigorous examination of their competence, and those who are struggling are often left to struggle indefinitely, while their students suffer. The vast majority of teachers, who are working hard and want to continue to improve, get little help to do so."
Jeff Bernstein

Teachers' Support For Reform Depends In Part On Experience -- Gates/Scholastic Survey - 0 views

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    Revamping the makeup of the teaching profession through tweaks such as altering tenure and teacher evaluations has become a policy debate du jour, one that has riled many a state house in recent years. As it turns out, teachers themselves support that overhaul, according to recent survey data. But that support may depend on a factor central to many of these teacher reforms: experience.
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