How to fix the schools

A nice endorsement in the NY Daily News of Klein's plan to improve testing and data collection/analysis, so teachers can better teach students and top performing teachers can be identified and acknowledged (and underperformers can be improved or removed).

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How to fix the schools

NY Daily News editorial, 2/12/07

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/496692p-418631c.html

 

The school reform plan outlined by Chancellor Joel Klein is based on the premise that students will learn more and schools will perform better if teachers and administrators closely track the progress of individual pupils. We've seen the future, and it works.

It's on display at Intermediate School 93 in Ridgewood, Queens, where George Foley (photo), an enterprising principal with a head for computers, developed a system for crunching student data. Foley plots English and math test results for every child in the school on graphs six times a year, and he shares the information with faculty.

 

If students score poorly in one area - finding the main idea in a paragraph, for example, or calculating perimeter - their teacher knows right away that they're slipping. If necessary, the teacher gets help with instructional skills. Teachers who boost achievement are applauded.