By request: on teaching quality
I am not going to write today about the new report, An Evaluation of Teachers Trained through Different Routes to Certification, because I haven’t read it. (Other things take higher priority for me right now; the report is heading to my to-read pile. But after reading the praise and also Aaron Pallas’s criticism, let alone […]
Longitudinal data systems, good; unique teacher linkage, bad
Diane Ravitch’s blog entry this morning seriously disparages the value of longitudinal data systems, including the linking of teachers to students, and John Thompson’s entry discusses the abuse of data by administrators. Essentially, both Ravitch and Thompson fear the brain-dead or conscious abuse of data to judge teachers out of context. That’s also the reason […]
A letter from someone else’s Stu Dent
I generally don’t write about students I am currently teaching. I will occasionally write about events months or years later, but generally not in the same semester. But I have an e-mail this morning from someone else’s Stu Dent: Hi I am from England, currently studying a [type of] degree in [field]. For my last […]
Recession-and-education humor
You know things are weird when late-night comics start channeling socialist intellectuals: “The president said we can’t stick with the school calendar that was created during a time when most Americans were farmers, and he is right. We need a new school calendar for a time when most Americans are unemployed.” Jimmy Fallon, March 11, […]
Will Charlie Crist threaten a budget veto if the legislature won’t go along with using ARRA funds?
Mark Sanford’s political ambitions might cost 7,500 South Carolina teachers their jobs because he doesn’t want his state to accept federal ARRA funds. Charlie Crist’s political ambitions might save thousands of Florida teachers their jobs because he does want Florida to accept federal ARRA funds. There are some legislators in Florida who agree with Mark […]