Educators Criticize LA Times Teacher Performance Database. The Los Angeles Times (8/30, Song) reports, “National and local teachers unions sharply criticized [The Los Angeles Times] on Sunday when the newspaper published a database of about 6,000 third- through fifth-grade city school teachers ranked by their effectiveness in raising student test scores.” The rankings are based “a ‘value-added’ analysis” that “looks at previous student test performance and estimates how much a teacher added to or subtracted from a student’s progress.” United Teachers Los Angeles officials say that making teacher rankings public could “create mistrust among schools and parents.” On Sept. 14, UTLA plans to “protest in front of the Times building.” UTLA President AJ Duffy said of the plans, “We want to make a public statement about our concern for our members who are being singled out.”

ABC News (8/29, Bruce) reported on its website that Education Secretary Arne Duncan supports using value-added data “to evaluate teachers.” In an interview on Sunday, Duncan told ABC, “Teachers want to get better. It shouldn’t take a newspaper to give them that data. The district, the union, the education stakeholders have to work together to empower teachers. This should be a piece of how teachers are evaluated.”

Study Criticizes “Value-Added” Teacher Evaluation Method. Valerie Strauss wrote in a blog for the Washington Post (8/29), “Student standardized test scores are not reliable indicators of how effective any teacher is in the classroom, not even with the addition of new ‘value-added’ methods, according to a study released today” by the Economic Policy Institute.

Good morning, and on behalf of the APEA, I want to welcome ALL of you back to the start of a new and very challenging school year. As members of the APEA, we are like family; and just like any other family, we may not always see eye-to-eye, but we are connected and need to support each other in good times and bad. We’re here today because we ALL have ONE fundamental thing in common; we’re ALL educators, and we’re ALL proud to serve the children of the Asbury Park School District. The work we do during the school day, after the school day ends, on nights, weekends, and even during the summer is VITAL to the future of our students, and to the future of society. That’s an ENORMOUS responsibility and one we proudly accept, despite the challenges we are facing.

Our world has changed considerably since this time last year. In September 2009, we had a governor who supported public education. He increased school funding during a recession and was the only governor in 16 years to PUT money into our pension system. A year later we have a governor who constantly uses CONFRONTATIONAL, rather than COLLABORATIVE tactics in dealing with school employees and their representatives. He has called us “greedy” and accused us of using children as “drug mules.” He and his accomplices in the Legislature are attacking our salaries, benefits and collective bargaining rights. This governor’s budget cut $ 1.2 billion in school funding. Our schools are cash-strapped. We are being asked to do more with less. Programs are being cut. Class sizes are increasing.

Perdue Will Appoint Special Investigator To Probe Cheating In Atlanta Schools. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (8/19, Badertscher, Torres) reports that Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) will appoint a special investigator to look into allegations of “cheating in Atlanta Public Schools (APS).” The investigator will report results to the state Board of education, and, if necessary, forward results “to law enforcement for possible criminal investigation,” Perdue said at a press conference on Wednesday. Atlanta schools spokesman Keith Bromery responded to the governor’s announcement yesterday, saying, “APS welcomes the Governor’s call for a special investigator to look into this matter, and the district will fully cooperate with all aspects of that investigation.”

WAGA-TV Atlanta (8/19) reports that Perdue called previous “probes into alleged cheating on” state tests “woefully inadequate.” WSB-TV Atlanta (8/19) quotes Perdue as saying, “This overwhelming statistical data was met with, as you saw, no wrong doing and no testing violations. … Not only was the investigation in APS lacking in both scope and depth, but the district’s response report completed by the blue ribbon commission has also been unacceptable.”

Organization Withholds Grants To Atlanta Teachers. WGCL-TV Atlanta (8/19, Mayerle) reports that as a result of the cheating controversy, some “APS teachers and principals given an award for excellence in education may never see their monetary award.” More than a dozen APS teachers and principals won “grants from Atlanta Families’ Award for Excellence in Education.” The organization has awarded $2,500 for a school project, “but postponed giving the rest after the” cheating scandal broke.

House Approves $26 Billion Jobs Bill. The New York Times (8/11, A14, Huse) reports that the US House yesterday approved “$26 billion in aid to school districts and states to prevent large-scale layoffs of teachers and public employees.” After the Senate passed the bill last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the House “back into session…to approve the bill.” In addition to saving the jobs of “tens of thousands of public school teachers” and public employees, the bill will also “help distressed states provide health care to the poor.”

The Washington Post (8/11, Montgomery, Anderson) reports that according to some lawmakers and administration officials, “the package of state aid is likely to be the last major effort at economic stimulus — at least until after November congressional elections.” Overall, some 300,000 jobs are expected to be preserved under the bill.

Education Week (8/10, Klein) reported that $10 billion of the $26 billion aid bill that “is headed to President Barack Obama’s desk” will go toward “states and school districts to avert educator layoffs and hire new staff members.” In addition, the bill includes “a $10.7 million cut to Ready to Teach, which finances telecommunications-based professional-development programs for educators and educational videos; an $82 million cut to student financial-aid administration; and a $50 million cut to Striving Readers, which underwrites adolescent-literacy programs.”

The Providence Journal (8/11) reports that according to Larry Purtill, president of the NEA of Rhode Island “the money will help bring back laid-off educators and protect the jobs of hundreds of teachers and support staff whose jobs are in jeopardy.” In East Providence alone, he added, more than 30 teachers lost their jobs.

Below is today’s article about the return of Dr. Lewis to the district. I am quoted in this article; however, the entire quote I made was not included. What I stated to the reporter is that the district knew back in June that Dr. Lewis won his case. The decision came in on that Wednesday morning, and they hired a new principal Wednesday evening, knowing that they lost the case. My opinion was then, and it continues today, that the district should have cut their loses and appointed him as the principal of the High School. Instead, they now have two (2) principals that will be in the Middle School at $140,000 a piece. They could have rehired two teachers and two support staff members with that money and the creation of this new position of “principal on special assignment”. Once again, the children in our district suffer with less in class support and the taxpayers foot the bill. That’s every taxpayer in the State of New Jersey. I’m glad he won his case because it makes the tenure law that much more important to all that are protected by this law. Read on in the article. I also contacted Nancy Shields to correct my statements.

Ousted Asbury Park schools chief to return as principal – Link
By NANCY SHIELDS • STAFF WRITER • August 9, 2010

ASBURY PARK — Antonio Lewis, who twice lost his job as schools superintendent, is expected to return in an administrative capacity now that the state education commissioner agreed that he retained his tenure rights as a middle school principal.

Bret Schundler, the education commissioner, last week adopted an administrative law judge’s decision in which Lewis retained his rights as a middle school principal and the city Board of Education is required to give him a job for which he is qualified.

State Test Pass Rates See Sharp Decline In New York City. The New York Times (7/29, Medina) reports on its front page, “Applying new, tougher standards,” New York “state education officials said Wednesday that more than half of public school students in New York City failed their English exams this year, and 54 percent of them passed in math.” But, according to state education officials, the results were “misleading” because scores from previous years “were inflated by tests that had become easier to pass.” In math, “61 percent of state students were deemed passing, or at grade level” this year, “compared with 86 percent last year.” And in English, 53 percent of students passed, “down from 77 percent.” New York’s Post-Standard (7/29, Doran, Nolan) and WNYC-FM New York City (7/28) also covered the story.

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On the Job
Pittsburgh Public Schools Hosts Inaugural New Teacher Induction Program. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (7/28, Weigand) reported, “Students and parents on Tuesday helped about 80 Pittsburgh Public Schools teachers better understand what students need, as part of the district’s inaugural three-week teacher induction program.” The rookie teachers, each with no “more than three years’ experience, toured city neighborhoods and visited community organizations.” The tour was meant to inform the teachers about resources available in the community.

DC Schools Chief Fires 241 Teachers With Poor Scores Under New Evaluation System. The Washington Post (7/24, Turque) reported, “D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee announced Friday that she has fired 241 teachers, including 165 who received poor appraisals under a new evaluation system” called IMPACT. The firings commence “Rhee’s bid to make student achievement a high-stakes proposition for teachers, establishing job loss as a possible consequence of poor classroom results,” according to the Post. The teachers union “said Friday that it will contest the terminations.” However, “poor evaluations are generally not subject to appeal unless the union can demonstrate some procedural error in the appraisal process.”

The New York Times (7/24, A8, Levin) reported that in a statement, Rhee said “Every child in a District of Columbia public school has a right to a highly effective teacher – in every classroom, of every school, of every neighborhood, of every ward, in [DC].” In all, 302 school employees were fired. In addition to the teachers, “librarians, counselors, custodians and other employees” were also dismissed. The Times notes that “Friday’s dismissals were not the chancellor’s first. In the 2007-8 school year, a district spokesman said, 79 teachers were fired for poor performance, and in 2008-9, 96 were.”

CNN (7/24, Holland) noted on its website that “under the IMPACT program, teachers were judged on five classroom observation visits by principals and outside education experts.

New York Education Officials Say State Tests Have Become Easier In Past Four Years. The New York Times (7/20, A18, Medina) reports that education officials in New York say that the state’s standardized tests have “become easier to pass over the last four years.” They plan to “recalibrate the scoring for tests taken this spring.” Researchers from Harvard analyzed the scores and compared “them with results on national exams and” high school graduation exams. They found that students who passed the state exams had less than 50 percent chance of passing the graduation exams. They also found that “the New York state exams have become even easier in comparison with the national exams.” In 2007, for instance, “students who received the minimum score to pass the state math tests…were in the 36th percentile of all students nationally, but in 2009 they had dropped to the 19th percentile.”

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In the Classroom
New Calculation Shows Improving Graduation Rate In Maine. The Kennebec (ME) Journal (7/20, Stone) reports, “Newly released data” from the Maine DOE show that the state’s “high school graduation rate dipped” by about three percentage points “between the 2007-08 and 2008-09 school years.” But, “the 2007-08 rate was calculated using a formula that takes into account those who took more than four years to graduate but still received conventional diplomas.” The newer formula used to calculate the 2008-09 graduation rate, however, “highlights only the percentage of students who graduated in four years or fewer, or who completed their coursework during a summer session after their fourth year.” School officials say that because of the difference in calculation, “it’s unclear whether fewer students are graduating.”

Critics Say Texas’ Dropout Data Is Inaccurate.

Leaders Of Five Florida Districts Cast Doubt On Accuracy Of State Test Results. The St. Petersburg Times (7/13, Stein) reports that “the superintendents of Hillsborough County [Florida] and four other large school districts said Monday they have doubts about the accuracy of this year’s FCAT results and want a state investigation.” Their main concern is “a sharp drop in the number of students making learning gains, especially on the reading test” and at the elementary level. Even though Florida Education Commissioner Eric Smith “said Monday afternoon that he stood by the results,” he still “has asked another examiner to look at the” districts’ concerns. Hillsborough superintendent MaryEllen Elia has “called for the state to hold off on releasing school grades” until the issue is resolved.

The Miami Herald (7/12, McGrory, Tepoff) reported that Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said on Monday that “if the scores stand as they are, dozens of high-performing South Florida elementary schools will likely see their letter grade drop.” The Herald adds that “if there are errors in the FCAT data, the consequences could be serious,” because “school grades determine if a school receives money from the state or federal government, and if students can transfer out.”

The Tampa Tribune (7/13, Ackerman) notes, “FCAT scores were late this year because of computer glitches with NCS Pearson, a testing contractor hired by the state. The company and Smith assured school districts that the scores, while late, would be accurate.”

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Gates Foundation Playing Key Role In Education Reform Movement. The Washington Post (7/12, A1, Anderson) reports on its front page, “Across the country, public education is in the midst of a quiet revolution” as states “are embracing voluntary national standards for English and math, while schools are paying teachers based on student performance. It’s an agenda propelled in part by a flood of money from a billionaire prep-school graduate best known for his software empire: Bill Gates.” According to the Post, “It is unclear whether philanthropy…can find large-scale solutions to problems that have beset schools for generations” yet “what is certain is that Gates grants have become a leading currency for a particular kind of education reform” that has “won praise from the Obama administration and others, while prompting questions from some about the foundation’s pervasive presence and its emphasis on performance measures.”

Gates Hears Cheers, Jeers At Teachers Convention. The Seattle Times (7/11, Thompson) reported that “Rowdy delegates to a national teachers convention Saturday gave several standing ovations to Bill Gates, whose billions in foundation grants for experimental-education-overhaul efforts over more than a decade have sparked widespread controversy and debate.” But some attendees booed the Microsoft founder, while others walked out on his speech “and led chants afterward of ‘Hey, hey, ho, ho, Bill Gates has got to go.’” The Seattle Times points out that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation “has led efforts to improve education, including charter schools, which while public are largely nonunion and run by autonomous management organizations.” Gates has also supported “linking teacher pay to classroom performance.” In his speech, Gates said that “his foundation is working with teachers to develop a teacher-evaluation system that is fair and will help teachers improve.”

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