NYC Teachers' Grades Will Be Outed, Eventually

Some teachers are totally behind having their grades put out for the world to see (via lensjockey's flickr).

The United Federation of Teachers attempt to keep teacher test results away from the public is not going so well. Yesterday a judge ruled that New York City can absolutely disclose the names of public school teachers along with their grades. Just don't expect to see that info anytime soon since, naturally, the UFT is appealing.

The grades in question are technically called Teacher Data Reports (TDRs) and focus on the progress students under a particular teacher made on standardized tests (and they can, in fact, have issues!). They currently exist for more than 12,000 of the city's 80,000 public school teachers and, though Bloomberg wants them used in tenure discussions, the UFT has been desperate to keep them out of the public sphere.

The UFT has argued that TDRs are not reliable and therefore not worthy of the public's attention. In a statement after the ruling Michael Mulgrew, the UFT's president, still argued that the reports "have huge margins of error and are filled with inaccuracies" and "will only serve to mislead parents looking for real information." But the judge in the matter disagreed, writing "there is no requirement that data be reliable for it to be disclosed."

Further, the judge pointed out that "this information is of interest to parents, students, taxpayers and the public generally." Sure, though it would be of more interest if the info was dependable.

Anyway, good info or bad, these reports will someday see the light of day. Just first the case has a few more rounds of appeals to work through.

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By Garth Johnston in News on January 11, 2011 1:11 PM

Comments [rss]

carishina

the evaluation system also fails because teachers from overcrowded schools in Corona
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05... are tested it in the same way that teachers from super well funded and affluent schools

teacherman

The grading system takes into account almost every possible measurable metric, as well as some variables.

What is doesn't do is grade all teachers for all years. For example, someone who is a 4th grade teacher this year, but has been a 3rd grade teacher for the previous 10 wont have a grade. And teachers with a grade only have one for one or two years worth of students, not the most recent and not the full length of their teaching.

The grading system is flawed on many levels, not the least of which is is doesn't grade everyone and those it does grade are graded on years that aren't current...

ishtar_79

I feel really bad for teachers who are stuck teaching crappy kids with crappy parents.

handsomedevil

True, but you can still be better or worse at teaching crappy kids than your peers. If people around you do better with the same population you should really be looking at why. OTOH if you get 50% improvement and everybody around you gets 20%, that should be enough to make you a star.

Shitty teachers drag everybody down. If one second-grade teacher sucks that's going to mess up the third grade when the deck gets reshuffled.

Rod

yeah, but it's almost never that a teacher is bad.

show me ONE "great" teacher who does well in NYC in a rich school, and then let's put them in the worst ghettos. I'll bet you cash they suddenly don't get the same score averages.

it's always idiots like bloomtard who scapegoat anyone they can find.

we know the mayor is lying because the PRIVATE schools in NYC have abysmal test scores too.

also, no one ever points out that most of the "bad" schools bloomberg has been closing were OPENED by bloomberg.

So, if the school created by mike is "bad", why doesn't he deserve any credit? Is he saying he staffed it with "bad" teachers?

despite the numerous scandals in all city agencies run by mike, the schools are probably his most covered up scandal-plagued arena.

concernednycres

The TDR only takes into account grade, subject, and years taught. It does not factor in the level at which students enter a teacher's classroom, and for this reason alone the data is unreliable. For example, a 7th grade ELA teacher whose students are at 3rd grade reading levels (seen in low socioeconomic neighborhoods) is still expected to have her students perform at the same level of those students in more affluent areas, who are typically at or above grade level when they enter each grade. Progress should be tracked NOT raw test scores. Unfortunately, this is going to drive out a lot of hard-working teachers in our poorest schools. But this is not a concern of our political leaders, as the majority of them do not live in these areas or even send their own children to public schools.

oneoneone

But couldn't you control for school / location which, while admittedly not perfect, would take into account the socioeconomic conditions in the neighborhood. Comparing, for example, all sixth grade math teachers in similar environments.

concernednycres

Definitely, which is how entire schools are assessed. I think if the TDR took into account the demographic of students taught (i.e. socioeconomic status, attendance, suspensions, etc.) more teachers would be supportive of this information being made public, as the ratings would be much more accurate. Teachers who are in our poorest neighborhoods, filling the positions for which are hardest to recruit, have very little incentive to stay where they are most needed because they are compared to teachers representing all socioeconomic areas.

BottomlessChips

I totally love the idea of parents being involved in their child's education; it's probably something we lack here in NYC. However, I bet this turns into a shitshow.