NY Should Try a Pilot First

A thoughtful blog from Aaron Pallas, this time on teacher evaluation systems, focusing on NY but of much wider interest. He discusses balancing efficiency with fairness, notes big holes in so-called 'value added,' asks whether an unfair system will decrease the numbers of people willing to go into teaching, wonders how NYC, for example, will train 1500 principals or other raters to reasonably provide classroom evaluation. He suggests pilot projects make more sense. And one commenter notes that efficiency can contradict effectiveness.

NYC Favors Eval Plan Making it Easier to Fire Teachers

Mayor Bloomberg’s administration has declared its keenness to embrace Governor Andrew Cuomo’s teacher evaluation proposals, and replace the 2010 law with one that makes it easier to fire low-rated teachers and spells out how they can appeal a poor evaluation. The article is in EducationNews.org.

NGA Supports More State Control

The National Governor's Association wants Congress to give states lots of running room when it comes to crafting their accountability plans, according to an interim proposal outlining NGA's priorities for reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (aka the No Child Left Behind Act.) The governors are asking lawmakers to reshape the federal role in K-12, focusing it on sharing information and research, and helping states collaborate on "innovations to better serve students." They like the idea of federal incentives, but not a lot of federal control. This excerpt is from a post in the Education Week Politics Blog.

Tomorrow, Thursday, February 9, House Briefing on Assessment by the Forum on Educational Accountability

Assessment and accountability play central roles in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, in both the current No Child Left Behind and in legislation for ESEA reauthorization. The Forum on Educational Accountability (FEA) calls for major changes in the law. The February 9th briefing will address how to use assessment to improve learning while providing accountability. Issues include:

growth measures,

performance assessments,

the use of classroom and school-based evidence of learning,

computer-based assessing,

universal design for assessment,

the use of student test data for evaluating teachers, and

FEA’s recommendations for ESEA reauthorization.

FEA bases its work on the Joint Organizational Statement on NCLB, now signed by 156 national education, civil rights, religious, disability, parent and civic groups. FEA has published reports and provided recommendations for overhauling ESEA regarding assessment, accountability, school improvement and opportunity to learn. Registration and all materials are on the FEA website at http://www.edaccountability.org.

Funding for K-12 Education May Improve

After cutting K-12 education spending substantially during the recession, states generally expect to increase funding this year, according to a report released today by the non-partisan Center on Education Policy.  Already, a number of governors, including Republicans Rick Scott of Florida and Gary Herbert of Utah, have made increasing funding to education a top priority. Scott called for an increase of $1 billion for schools, while Herbert called for $118 million, part of which would go to a modest raise for teachers.