Posted on by arotherham

Bay State Action

Stand for Children and the Massachusetts Teachers Association struck a deal last week to head-off a ballot proposition on the November ballot. But some other unions in Mass are balking at the deal.  Could get awkward for teachers union leaders, stay tuned.

Also from Massachusetts, Worcester Telegram looks at the deal and also force transfers there:

As Worcester school administrators scramble this month to honor some 200 requests from teachers seeking transfers to other assignments, they are dealing with a step that, while new to the sprawling school district, is commonplace in the private sector.

For the first time, transferring employees must sit down for interviews with their prospective bosses: principals.

It is a requirement that critics say should have long been an obvious part of the process, and it comes amid growing calls at the state and national levels for teacher accountability and more stringent methods of evaluating teachers’ effectiveness…

3 Replies to “Bay State Action”

  1. Ecstasy in Professional Education Reform Movement land:
    RIP to Michael Winerip.
    Mr. Winerip to leave the New York Times.

    But not without a final parting shot (also known as just the facts, ma’am)

    So on May 15, Florida’s education commissioner, Gerard Robinson, held an emergency conference call with State Education Board members, while 800 school administrators from all over Florida listened in. The board voted to lower the cutoff to 3.

    Presto! Problem solved. The proficiency rate for fourth graders was now exactly what it had been in the 2010-11 school year, 81 percent.

    For 10th graders, the results actually improved, to 84 percent from 80 percent, meaning scores plummeted but proficiency increased.

    For those like Dr. Vogel who think proficiency should reflect the mastery of a specific set of skills rather than the score that pops up after state officials wiggle things around, this was distressing. “Making an arbitrary change without finding out what happened could result in people losing confidence in accountability,” he said.

    Though this may be the worst breakdown in 15 years of state testing, it does not appear that Florida politicians have any interest in figuring out who was responsible. The commissioner? Department officials? Someone at Pearson, the company that scored the writing tests?

    The Buros Center for Testing, the consultant the state pays $100,000 to do annual audits, wrote that there was nothing to worry about, concluding that the scoring “was in keeping with the best practices of the profession.” (Imagine what the worst practices are.)

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/11/education/florida-backtracks-on-standardized-state-tests.html?_r=2&ref=us

  3. The establishment response in Chicago:
    “At a time when our graduation rates and college enrollments are at record highs — two successes in which our teachers played an integral role — we cannot halt the momentum with a strike,”

    Records highs?
    Momentum?
    Sounds like the 5 year agricultural plans of the Soviet Union.

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