UFT President Randi Weingarten Responds To NCLB Report February 13, 2007

Feb 13, 2007 12:20 PM

“The Aspen Institute’s report on No Child Left Behind is yet another example of a seemingly total disconnect between academic theory and what really happens in classrooms.

            “The proposal on Highly Qualified Effective Teachers is problematic and irresponsible. For example, many states are still working to meet the relatively new HQT requirements, there is no data to support the proposal and research shows that most state assessments are of poor quality and don’t jibe with the realities of classroom instruction.

“The use of student test scores to assess teacher effectiveness is full of problems. Leading research has concluded that value-added assessment is nowhere near ready for high-stakes use. In fact, the creator of value-added assessment strongly warns against it. Measuring teacher effectiveness will always be as much art as science because students respond differently to different teachers and strategies, as all good teachers know.

“The recommendation to report actual teacher salaries to equalize resources between rich and poor schools certainly sounds good -- until you look closer. The real effect of this would be to destabilize schools with high quality teaching staffs and drive good teachers out. Attracting highly qualified teachers to hard-to-staff schools is best done with smaller classes, safe conditions and professional respect, not raiding another school’s teaching staff.

  “We’re also troubled by the report’s failure to call for more resources for struggling schools and its lack of a plan to fix the narrow “adequate yearly progress” formula. We need a more uniform set of standards – rather than the chaotic system where states have wildly differing assessments – and we need an accountability system that allows credit for progress and growth. That would be much fairer to students, schools and teachers.”