In speeches, interviews and a letter over the past few weeks, the governor has said that he thinks the state's
teacher grading system, only in its third year, is too easy to pass, making it too difficult to fire underperforming educators.
Not exact matches
All of us fret and kick against the steel bands of institutionalism; the
teacher against the
grading system, the social worker against the artificiality created by the very fact of his being a professional representative of the state commissioned to deal with human needs, the worker something of whose very life is «bought» against the employer, and the sensitive employer who buys that portion of that life against the
system, the public official against the role which political necessity assigns to him.
Says
teacher Nancy Bonne: «The
system makes efficient use of space and resources, and it has solved the shortage of teaching staff, since formerly each church had to recruit
teachers for every
grade level, even with only three or four in a group.
Prior to joining Woodland Star, Ms. Pearl was a long - time Waldorf kindergarten
teacher and taught
grades 1 - 3 at Aurora Waldorf School and taught in the public school
system in Alaska.
What a shame... and standardized testing, what a revolting way to judge the merit of a school
system (more specifically ~ an individual educator) I was horrified to find out from a family friend who was a Special Education
teacher a few years ago (who is now my sons 7th
grade, general Ed., Language Arts
teacher), that the BOE pays for the special Ed
teachers to go to a 3 day long In Service, instructing them how to get their Spec.
An educator since 1985, Tommi has worked as a class
teacher, subject
teacher, and block
teacher for
grades K - 8 and, prior to pursuing Waldorf Education, taught kindergarten and first
grade in the public school
system.
I am fortunate enough to have a wonderful public school
system for my children, but it just makes me laugh when I see so many parents continue to get caught up in always wanting «the best»: the best 2nd
grade teacher, the best soccer coach, the best swim program.
Board Members also heard updates on several major CCSD projects: the proposed adoption of new instructional materials for math classes across
Grades K - 12, which will provide
teachers with a
system of integrated text and online resources that eliminates the need to seek out additional resources in order to cover all standards and individualize instruction; and the implementation now underway of a new business management
system that increases the efficiency of timekeeping, payroll and personnel operations, which will save CCSD time and money.
Also yesterday, the Assembly passed legislation to institute a new
teacher - evaluation
system that will
grade instructors in part on students» performances on standardized English and math exams.
Sheri Lederman, a fourth -
grade teacher in Great Neck, has a legal challenge against the
system pending in State Supreme Court in Albany.
The Conference in Manchester heard that the introduction of a new
grading system will move the goalposts on what is considered to be a «good» pass, with negative consequences for pupils and
teachers.
Dr. Vanden Wyngaard and district staff will provide an overview of state exams and how the Common Core Learning Standards are changing instruction for students at all
grade levels, as well as information about how the tests are used in the new statewide evaluation
systems for
teachers and principals.
«The voucher
system scares me to death,» said Lynn Harrison, an 8th -
grade English language arts
teacher at the East Fordham Academy for the Arts in the Bronx.
Adding to a
system that includes ELA and Math tests from 3rd to 8th
grade, the New York State Report Card and AYP ratings (Adequate Yearly Progress), New York State is incorporating the new Annual Professional Performance Review or «APPR» which measures
teacher performance based, in part, on standardized state tests.
There was something for everyone on the menu: using Apple technology, developing research - based practices to teach students in the early
grades, engaging students through digital instruction, understanding the new
teacher evaluation
system as set by state law, preventing high - risk student behaviors and how Community Learning Schools meet the needs of students and their families.
Our Solar
System - Through the Eyes of Scientists (TES) is a solar system thematic science and language arts based curriculum for students and teachers in grades
System - Through the Eyes of Scientists (TES) is a solar
system thematic science and language arts based curriculum for students and teachers in grades
system thematic science and language arts based curriculum for students and
teachers in
grades 1 - 6.
Teachers who hand out misleading
grades thereby allow some students, already let down by a school
system that has failed to prepare them adequately, to be blindsided.
Because students in elementary
grades are assigned to one
teacher for most of the school day, advisory
systems would be duplicative and are therefore not used by elementary schools.
(The digital
grade - cards (PDF) provide a real - time picture of student progress toward mastery, and the school uses the 21st Century Partnership for STEM Education's online
grade - card
system, which is a proficiency - based assessment that gives access to the school's parents and
teachers.)
In their article, «The Relative Equitability of High - Stakes Testing versus
Teacher - Assigned Grades: An Analysis of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS),» Harvard Graduate School of Education researchers Robert T. Brennan and James S. Kim, and UMass Boston researchers Melodie Wenz - Gross and Gary N. Siperstein compared 736 student results on the MCAS with teacher - assigned grades in order to analyze the relative equitability of the two measures across three subject areas — math, English, and s
Teacher - Assigned
Grades: An Analysis of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS),» Harvard Graduate School of Education researchers Robert T. Brennan and James S. Kim, and UMass Boston researchers Melodie Wenz - Gross and Gary N. Siperstein compared 736 student results on the MCAS with teacher - assigned grades in order to analyze the relative equitability of the two measures across three subject areas — math, English, and sc
Grades: An Analysis of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment
System (MCAS),» Harvard Graduate School of Education researchers Robert T. Brennan and James S. Kim, and UMass Boston researchers Melodie Wenz - Gross and Gary N. Siperstein compared 736 student results on the MCAS with
teacher - assigned grades in order to analyze the relative equitability of the two measures across three subject areas — math, English, and s
teacher - assigned
grades in order to analyze the relative equitability of the two measures across three subject areas — math, English, and sc
grades in order to analyze the relative equitability of the two measures across three subject areas — math, English, and science.
Second, if states wanted to try to make vesting more of a retention incentive, they could offer
teachers a «
graded» vesting
system, where workers are eligible for a growing share of their employer's retirement contributions over time.
If a
teacher's subjective
grading system is giving students an inaccurate picture of their performance, that
teacher is also giving herself an inaccurate notion of how well she is doing at teaching her students.
Of all of the work in the development of a competency - based learning environment, the work in developing competency - based
grading systems came closest to day - to - day
teacher practice and, as a result, has become the tail that wags the dog.
This resource is perfect for students and
teachers who want a clear visual understanding of how the 1 - 9
grading system applies to the GCSE Art Assessment Objectives.
«We've introduced a new
grading system and reporting
system to our
teachers, students and parents,» Fred Holmes told Education World.
Unfortunately, they are often seen as the adversary themselves...» Students know that there is subjectivity inherent in
teachers»
grading systems, which supplies students with the ready excuse that when they perform poorly in a class, they can blame it on the
teacher for being too hard or unfair, rather than taking responsibility for their own needs for improvement.
Instead, we ask
teachers to develop their own
grading systems based on their professional judgment and interpretation of learning standards and school policy.
Teachers» assessments and
grading systems are not developed using rigorous psychometric techniques to ensure validity and reliability.
These new
systems depend primarily on two types of measurements: student test score gains on statewide assessments in math and reading in
grades 4 - 8 that can be uniquely associated with individual
teachers; and systematic classroom observations of
teachers by school leaders and central staff.
And he answers, «certainly not because I have any direct self - interest — no... I'm not profiting from my involvement in charter schools (in fact, I shudder to think of how much it's cost me), and I have little personal experience with the public school
system because I'm doubly lucky: my parents saw that I wasn't being challenged in public schools, sacrificed (they're
teachers / education administrators), and my last year in public school was 6th
grade; and now, with my own children, I'm one of the lucky few who can afford to buy my children's way out of the NYC public
system [in] which, despite Mayor Bloomberg's and Chancellor Klein's herculean efforts, there are probably fewer than two dozen schools (out of nearly 1,500) to which I'd send my kids.»
«
Teachers have been really great — they have really embraced the new system and we have found we have quite a few technology champions who are helping other teachers with the system,» Cameron Taylor, the eLearning coordinator for grades 7 to 1
Teachers have been really great — they have really embraced the new
system and we have found we have quite a few technology champions who are helping other
teachers with the system,» Cameron Taylor, the eLearning coordinator for grades 7 to 1
teachers with the
system,» Cameron Taylor, the eLearning coordinator for
grades 7 to 12, said.
Nineteen of the 50 new
teachers — or 38 percent — had the added pressure of teaching subjects and
grade levels where the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment
System (MCAS), the state's high - stakes test, was administered.
The methodology in this classroom in the Volksschule Spiss, a primary K - 4 school, is a necessity: There are only eight children in the isolated village's school, and Klingenschmid, as the only full - time
teacher, must instruct all
grades with a
system of short, direct teaching intervals in various subjects.
Focusing on the
systems as a whole also would have encouraged districts to be more honest in their observation ratings rather than creating the incentive for subjective observation ratings to compensate for value - added results that, by definition,
grade teachers on a curve.
But baking that expectation, quite literally, into accountability
systems is destined to deflate the
grades of schools like Sawgrass and demoralize their
teachers, students, and families.
Notable recently were the Gates Foundation's call for a two - year moratorium on tying results from assessments aligned to the Common Core to consequences for
teachers or students; Florida's legislation to eliminate consequences for schools that receive low
grades on the state's pioneering A-F school
grading system; the teetering of the multi-state Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessment consortium (down from 24 to 15 members, and with its contract with Pearson to deliver the assessments in limbo because of a lawsuit that alleges bid - rigging); and the groundswell of opposition from parents,
teachers, and political groups to the content of the Common Core.
As I've argued before, the federal requirement that is driving the over-testing concern isn't the mandate that states test students annually in
grades 3 — 8; it's the mandate (dreamed up by Arne Duncan as a condition of ESEA waivers) that states develop
teacher - evaluation
systems that include student achievement as a significant factor.
First and most obvious, we've organized the entire, massive K — 12
system around an age - based,
grade - level, 180 - days - per - year calendar; around mostly self - contained and generally low - tech classrooms; and around a pedagogical model centered on a single
teacher teaching a uniform curriculum to twenty to thirty children for a prescribed amount of time each day, children who don't have much in common except that they're more or less the same age and (usually) live in pretty much the same community.
The promise of the Common Core included not just multi-state standards but also multi-state assessments, assessments in more - or-less every
grade with results at every level of the K - 12
system: The child (though not by name, except to parents and
teachers), the school (and, if desired, individual classrooms and, by implication,
teachers), the district, the state, and the nation, with crosswalks (in pertinent
grades) to international measures as well as to NAEP, the primary external «auditor» of state and national achievement.
But in general, instruction is both lively and practical, such as in one classroom where a biology
teacher, donning a lab coat, leads a lab on extracting DNA from strawberries, or a ninth -
grade math class in which a
teacher integrates a Texas Instruments navigator
system into every part of her lesson; she has her class turn assignments in via a graphing calculator and checks for comprehension with every student in real time.
Teacher Brooke Armstrong agrees that the
grading system provides a «more accurate measure» of how her students are doing, and she notes that work ethic seems to be the biggest hurdle for many students.
Sally Hunt, UCU general secretary, stressed that the report is not a criticism of hard working
teachers tasked with the «impossible job» of
grade predicting, but a criticism of a «broken
system».
This manifested in new
systems — from School
Grades to new College - and - Career Ready assessments, to meaningful
teacher evaluation — things that we can say changed the landscape by telling the truth and putting students and families at the center of all decision - making.
Both parts of this have a common source - great teaching in great schools, so it's vital we support head
teachers in a
system where the right behaviours and experiences are just as important as the right
grades.»
It's a Web - based
system that can be accessed from anywhere, making it possible for
teachers to upload
grades and complete other operations from home as well as school.
If you haven't come across a money
system created by fifth -
grade teacher ~ Rafe Esquith ~ you need to read his second book «Teach Like Your Hair is on Fire.»
Because of this
system,
teachers are placed in the situation of viewing students first and foremost as test takers and
grade makers.
The newly released Double Helix Lessons cover everything a
teacher is required to teach in
Grades 5 and 6 science, including natural disasters, energy and light, and the solar
system.
Two
teachers talk with Education World about the
systems they developed and the benefits to students and parents of their improved
grade - reporting
systems.
Another educator, language arts / humanities
teacher Nancy Slentz of Meridian Middle School in Lynden, Washington, was searching for a way to boost the homework completion rate among her eighth graders, so she developed a
system that allows students to record their own
grades.