Reply to IMPACT and compensation - does it really look like this?

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "IMPACT and compensation - does it really look like this?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]When I have looked at the CAS test I have been struck at how basic the test appears.  If my child is not passing this test then there is a significant problem.   So while I get that the test should not be the goal like it appears to me that passage needs to represent a minimum level of achievement.  Are kids just that far behind, are they starting that far behind or is the curriculum and or teachers from the early grades that weak?[/quote]

Good questions.  DCPS is responding as if the answer is weak teachers and the solution is different teachers - hopefully more effective, of course, but there is no way of knowing, unless they are recruiting teachers who have proven themselves in a similar teaching environment.  There is no sign that this is what's happening.  DCPS shows a predilection for teach-for-america and DC teaching fellow recruits.  They may be fine teachers some day, if they stick around awhile, but many do not.

I find it remarkable that people cheer the firing of ineffective teachers identified via a costly and complex statistical model, but then don’t ask if replacement teachers are any better or how they had been identified as such.  You can bet that if scores had gone up, as projected in the RttT application, DCPS admin would declare that an improved teacher corps had made the difference.  But scores have gone down and flattened, so we hear silence, followed by lies and excuses.

I also find it remarkable that people haven't questioned how teachers in schools with a diversity of students, have kids in the same class who are learning at different levels (according to standardized test scores).  Check the DC-CAS scores for some Capitol Hill schools and Ward 3 schools with high OOB numbers to see what I mean.

With such an emphasis on the power of effective teachers, is it then the teachers’ responsibility when all their students aren’t learning at similar levels and scores show a racial/ethnic/SES difference?  I don’t think so and I haven’t heard them being characterized that way, but their peers who teach all low SES kids are held responsible for the low scores at their schools.

[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics