Friday, February 24, 2012

Why you should not believe a word in the teacher data reports, due to be released today

The DOE is due to release the inaccurate and unreliable teacher data reports today, based solely on standardized test scores from 2010 state exams known to be invalid; with the names of 3-8th grade individual teachers attached.  All the major newspapers are likely to post these false and defamatory reports as soon as tomorrow .  I suggest you refrain from looking up your child’s teacher, but if you do, you should NOT believe ANYTHING the report says.
Check out my interview on  WPIX - TV news yesterday where I explain the huge margin of error in these reports and more.   There is not another profession, whether in the public or the private sector, where the media has ever publicized this confidential stuff, whether accurate or not – and the reporters are all very aware of how inaccurate these reports are. This is just one more attempt by the Mayor to scapegoat teachers & blame all his own failures on them. 
 For more back up, see this great and succinct piece on InsideSchools about why no parent should believe the TDR’s, by Meredith Kolodner, formerly of the Daily News: GothamSchools has a longer piece about this here.
Neither InsideSchools nor GothamSchools will post the ratings because they are so unreliable, and clearly not NEWS from any point of view.  I think we should all thank them by  sending a donation; here are the links.  I just did! 
·         Support Insideschools Now 
 Finally Karen Fine, teacher and Class Size Matters supporter, has a good quote in today’s NY Times:
Karen Fine, a third-grade teacher at Public School 134 in Manhattan who previously taught fifth grade, said she and her colleagues believed that the ratings were an unfair and inaccurate measure of a teacher’s performance because they used an unreliable methodology that had been criticized by many respected researchers and statisticians, and because they did not account for factors that could affect students on the day of testing, like being tired, nervous, or scared. 

“For many of us who teach in N.Y.C., this has been our life’s calling,” she said. “We are constantly attacked on so many levels for what ails education in our country when we know that it takes a community to help children learn: principals, administrators, parents, lawmakers, and yes, teachers. The responsibility cannot lie solely on us.”
I am posting the quote but NOT the link, as I think we should all boycott the NYTimes for as long as possible. 

10 comments:

Pogue said...

Absolutely loved your interview on PIX11. You shot down the "bad teacher" cliche and were assertively right on point. Teachers, parents and students are indebted to your work.

Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Leonie,

I absolutely loved your interview too and sent the link out for many people to see.


yes...I also absolutely refused to link the TDR article from the NYT too for the same reason. Boycotting sounds good to me.

SubRex said...

This is an absolute debacle!

This circumstance as well as the reality of an ATR pool were all the product of the incompotence and frankly stupidity of Weingarten and Mulgrew. If these two individuals had any sense of dignity and honor they would resign from their positions immediately!

There are no other union leaders in this country who have so brazenly abandoned their membership.

When the 18,000 teachers who are a part of this farce are now subjected to ridicule and scapegoating, Weingarten and Mulgrew will still be living the high-life.

SubRex said...

This is an absolute debacle!

This circumstance as well as the reality of an ATR pool were all the product of the incompotence and frankly stupidity of Weingarten and Mulgrew. If these two individuals had any sense of dignity and honor they would resign from their positions immediately!

There are no other union leaders in this country who have so brazenly abandoned their membership.

When the 18,000 teachers who are a part of this farce are now subjected to ridicule and scapegoating, Weingarten and Mulgrew will still be living the high-life.

Subrex said...

While I already know the answer I hope someone asks Weingarten and Mulgrew the following in public and records the answer.

Why didn't you demand that charter school teachers be evaluated under the same standard?

I would love to hear their answers

zulma said...

You are awesome! You brought out points that the mayor doesn't want to hear - reduce class size, stop the budget cuts, stop the no-bid contracts, stop hiring consultants, stop closing schools, and most importantly listen to the teachers and the parents.

Thank you for telling the Mayor that he should be held accountable for all the failed policies.

Anonymous said...

Sent today after reading Leonie's email and seeing the PIX story. I am glad to see that I am not the only educator in this city that KNOWS the raw deal many a good teacher is facing as an A.T.R.. They turned the "Gulags" aka rubber rooms into the A.T.R. pool and the goal is still the same. Destroy the teacher corp of New York City!
I have only one question for this dirt bag mayor. When did I renounce my citizenship to America and go back to Nazi Germany!

Leonie,

GREAT JOB SHUTTING HER UP!!! YES! It IS the "mayor"(sic) and will always be his fault. I realize that you were under a very strict time limit, I have a B.F.A. in radio and T.V. production from N.Y.I.T., so I understand what was needed to be said at the time. I also know that your elegant voice will be heard in the media in the near future. I hope that when they ask what can be done to help lower class size, you bring up the abuse that teachers in the Absent Teacher in Reserve pool, better known as A.T.R.s, has under gone all these years. And the very sad thing is it will only continue under this beast's reign.

in a quandary said...

Excellent work as usual! Thank you for being a true education advocate!

Joel said...

This is ridiculous. To rate teachers based on the results of a test they have no control over is beyond comprehension. The test score proves nothing. Al of us have seen fantastic teachers who do so much for their students and have lower test scores than poor teachers who do to the make-up of their students have high test scores.
This can only lead to unfair criticism and kill the already poor moral in our schools.
Please parents ignore this nonsense.
Isn't it amazing that all charter schools are exempt.
Just another attempt by the comedy team of Bloomberg and Walcott to kill the UFT and the public school system
Thank you for caring so much.

Anonymous said...

I just saw the list in the NY Post for the school in which my children attend. It is so inaccurate and unfair that there is no way it can be useful.
The only thing this shows is how ridiculous the statements of the so called school chancellor Dennis Walcott is. He is either a total fool or a Bloomberg puppet with no mind of his own.
I hope the administrators of this city realize what a sham this is.
THEY RATED A TEACHER IN THE 14% in Math EVEN THOUGH SHE TEACHES ENGLISH. What a joke the school system is under our so called education mayor.