UFT wrong to fight Joel Klein's attempt to release teacher data, says leading education researcher

Eric Haunshek with a another spot-on op ed:

 

While I would not like to see personnel decisions made solely on the basis of value-added scores, I do think that it is an essential element. Typical evaluations today are useless, because only a minuscule number of teachers are rated anything but great and because these ratings are never used in making personnel decisions.

 

Unless and until a broader evaluation system is in effect, I would nonetheless fall back to a value-added system.

 

The need to improve our schools, and to ensure that there is an effective teacher in every classroom, is too great simply to dismiss such information as imperfect. The current system of evaluations is not just imperfect; it is completely broken. Unions either must participate in developing a thorough evaluation system or live with what comes out of the statistical models.

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UFT wrong to fight Joel Klein's attempt to release teacher data, says leading education researcher

 

By Eric Hanushek

www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/10/27/2010-10-27_uft_wrong_to_fight_joel_kleins_attempt_to_release_teacher_data.html

Wednesday, October 27th 2010, 4:00 AM

 

New York City's schools chancellor, with the support of Mayor Bloomberg, wants to release the value-added test score results for 12,000 teachers - revealing for parents and the public the student learning gains attributable to each instructor. News organizations have requested the data; the city is ready to comply. The city's United Federation of Teachers has challenged the release, and a judge will decide next month.