Late last week the Los Angeles Unified School District and its teachers union (UTLA) reached an agreement on including student test scores in teacher evaluations. The agreement does not include all of the details (UTLA has posted a summary and the full provisions), but it is clear that they will not be using a teacher’s individual value-added score. Instead, they will be using school-level valuContinue Reading »

“Nay” on value-added evals. A Chicago Public Schools-backed report, released today, shows that many of the 2,300 teachers surveyed don’t want student achievement included in their evaluations. The report comes just as school officials begin negotiations over teacher evals. (Chicago Tribune)

Ruffling feathers. An education professor wants more teachers to foster constructive dContinue Reading »

Pizza works its way toward veggie status. Federal lawmakers released a spending bill this week that would undo many of the efforts made this year toward healthier school lunches, including limiting the use of potatoes, putting new restrictions on sodium, and increasing the use of whole grains. It would even count tomato paste on pizza as a vegetable. (Associated Press)

Ohio moves toward Continue Reading »

Republican views on education. The Republican candidates for president all want to see federal government removed from education, but to what degree and in what ways varies. Here’s a brief rundown. (Associated Press)

Checking law school numbers. Senators are gathering job placement rates and student loan debt figures of law school graduates, in response to questions surrounding law schooContinue Reading »

For-profits and job placements. An investigation into an Illinois-based, for-profit college firm last week found that officials inflated job placement rates. Of the company’s 49 schools nationwide, 36 had placed fewer than 65 percent of their 2010-11 graduates into jobs, which is required to maintain their accreditation. Education Sector analysts examined gainful employment reporting requiremenContinue Reading »

Fifth-grade courses in college? Educators in a Chicago suburb are addressing college readiness. One example: College of DuPage and six local high schools are working together to improve the math curriculum at the high school level because about 75 percent of college freshmen there who are in remedial courses are taking math. The college offers math courses, beginning at the fifth grade level, tContinue Reading »

Student pressure. One University of Minnesota student is pushing her teacher preparation program toward more accountability and transparency in a campus letter-to-the-editor. The university’s College of Education has thus far opted out of an analysis of teacher preparation programs nationwide, to be done by the National Council on Teacher Quality and U.S. News and World Report. The teacher-to-bContinue Reading »

Together! On stage! Agreeing! Today, we hosted U.S Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at the Capital Hilton, where he released his plan for teacher preparation reform.  Among the approximately 170 education reformers in attendance were National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel and Teach For America Founder and CEO Wendy Kopp. Afterward, a diverse panel shared a lively discussioContinue Reading »

Last week’s back-and-forth over the LA Times value-added analysis illustrated the still delicate nature of value-added models, leading Harvard’s Tom Kane to conclude: “But we still don’t know yet which [model] was the right one and how far off from the truth the various estimates are.”

A small Australian company might have the answer. The February 11 issue oContinue Reading »

In a post about measuring quality teaching of college professors, Kevin makes a really good point about how there’s a difference between good-enough-for-scholarly-research and good-enough-for-policy:

In other words, you’re better off using reasonably accurate information about the right thing than extremely accurate information about the wrong thing. And if you step back for a miContinue Reading »