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nice school
| Fri, 11-07-2008 - 11:33am |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Chicago_Laboratory_School
Obama's girls have a nice school to attend; if public education is so great, how come his girl's don't go to public school?

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Well for myself I would not find the sight of 20 parents standing in the back of a classroom in a public school good motivation to send my child there.
I sense many would prefer the pro-voucher crowd keep silent about the hypocrisy of some of our elected officials.
ITA!
>>> Many of the things you suggest are already factored in to the decision. For example on the observation form in my district one of the categories is 'rapport with students', in addition the lesson taught and the level of planning exhibited are part of every observation by both the principal and the curriculum level supervisor. As for test scores how would you deal with the fact that some teachers teach 'above level' students who will naturally have higher test scores than 'on level' students or 'below level' students. If we are evaluated strictly on the basis of test scores you are unfairly punishing teachers who work with on level and below level students. Often times these are the most difficult groups to work with - so if teachers are penalized for teaching them it will become even harder to find teachers for that group. So how would you balance that inequity?
I presume that there are judgments made regarding teacher effectiveness that take all of the conditions you mentioned into consideration, otherwise it would simply be a matte of "hey, you're hired...let me know when you're retiring." There's obviously a lot more monitoring and evaluating going on in between. It doesn't seem like a big stretch for knowledgeable administrators or boards to use the same criteria to award merit pay or to fire ineffective teachers.
>>> How would you deal with the ensuing teacher shortage?
So you're saying, to heck with our kids education, we should keep crappy teachers just because they take up space in a classroom?
You 'presume' an awful lot. Do you have specifics of how this 'merit' pay would work or are you leaving it totally up to the discretion of the administrator? Because it seems it should have some fairly objective criteria - evaluations are pretty subjective. I have seen wonderful teachers get less than wonderful evaluations just because they had questioned a principals policy somewhere along the line. I have seen principals go into a classroom over and over waiting for the teacher to make one small mistake - petty yes but remember principals are just people too. I have been fortunate not to suffer this kind of treatment but I have had principals that have done this to my peers.
I asked what how you would deal with the ensuing teacher shortage - you did not give me any suggestions. I really don't know how you take an honest question and assume I am saying 'the heck with kids' because I do work with that population - the kids who are homeless or in foster care or in extremely dysfunctional families, the kids whose parents may not have completed high school and whose families do not value education, the kids who are so worried about their next meal or where they are going to sleep tonight that they can't really concentrate on learning. But their gains are much smaller than the other students I teach - the 'above level' students who generally come from two parent, professional, households where education is valued, where homework gets done, where tutoring is provided if a student struggles.
I can foresee a situation where 'above level' students scores will result in teacher bonuses while 'working towards level' students scores will not. The result COULD lead a teacher shortage in the area that needs the best teachers - I asked YOU how you would deal with that situation since merit pay is what YOU are advocating - no answers? Didn't think so.
There's obviously a lot more monitoring and evaluating going on in between. It doesn't seem like a big stretch for knowledgeable administrators or boards to use the same criteria to award merit pay or to fire ineffective teachers.
How could
Yes, and when they do they should look at the conditions of the buildings as well.
And don't forget to go on a very hot or very cold day. I know our building is not air conditioned and in May, June, August, September, and sometimes well into October the temperature inside the classrooms can be well over 90 degrees. Just how much learning do you think goes on in that kind of heat day after day? Then again, since our building is so old the heat is not reliable and it is not unusual to see children wearing their coats in the winter months because the heat is not working. We went for a week last year with no heat at all in January but schools were not closed - we just wore coats. Again, how much learning do you think is going on then?
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