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Topics in the News:
data and accountability
The UFT has long criticized the Department of Education for relying on progress reports to close schools or make other high-stake decisions, using as they do questionable state tests for 85 percent of the grade. Now an independent city budget agency has concluded that the progress reports do not accurately measure annual academic achievement.
Outrageous. That’s the word educator and author Linda Darling-Hammond from Stanford University used to describe the release of the Teacher Data Reports, and she was not alone.
After nearly two years in which the UFT used every legal recourse at its disposal to fight it, Teacher Data Reports will be turned over to several New York City newspapers, TV and radio stations that demanded them under the Freedom of Information Act.
Controversial Teacher Data Reports produced by the Department of Education in 2008 and 2009 may be released to the media in the coming weeks after the state's highest court refused to hear the UFT's appeal to block their publication. UFT President Michael Mulgrew said that releasing the often inaccurate and unreliable reports "would be particularly inappropriate in view of the fact that the Department of Education has already announced that they will be discontinued and replaced with a statewide program."
The UFT will go directly to the state’s highest court in an effort to prevent the public release of the city Department of Education’s Teacher Data Reports, a move made necessary when the union’s efforts to keep the widely discredited reports private were not successful before the lower courts.
Thirty-three percent of high schools earned A grades on their 2011 School Progress Reports, slightly below last year’s 38 percent, the Department of Education announced on Oct. 24. The percentages of C and D schools rose a bit, while the number of Bs was nearly unchanged.
Progress reports for elementary, middle and K-8 schools, released on Sept. 23, were relatively stable this year, though the Department of Education decided to double the number of schools receiving a D or an F.
New York City’s Teacher Data Reports will be going the way of the dodo bird, following a Department of Education announcement on Sept. 15. The DOE said it would no longer produce the reports and instead turn that part of the teacher evaluation process over to the state.
The appellate division of the State Supreme Court in Manhattan ruled on Aug. 25 that the Department of Education's Teacher Data Reports should be released to the public. UFT President Michael Mulgrew said in response, "Experts agree that an ‘accountability’ measure with a 58-point swing — like the DOE’s teacher data system — is worse than useless. Parents and teachers need credible, accurate assessments rather than guesswork."
The city Department of Education announced on July 17 that it was permanently ending the schoolwide performance bonus program which had been in effect for three years.
High school graduation rates rose across the city for a fifth straight year, a testament to the efforts of teachers and students, but the New York State Education Department says that many graduates are not prepared for college-level work.
Some 3,700 teachers and parents in the nation’s capital signed a petition calling for a federal investigation of inflated test scores during former D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s tenure. They want an in-depth analysis and investigators empowered to quiz Rhee under oath about possible test tampering.
They can’t help themselves. The Department of Education — and the city — that is. They just have to purchase complex technology without fully considering the needs of the end users. Think ARIS, I-Zone and CityTime. The latest is SESIS, short for Special Education Student Information System.
Fourth- through 8th-grade teachers trying to verify up to five years of their student data for the next round of Teacher Data Reports were unsurprised that the DOE would want them to clean up Tweed’s mistakes. After all, it’s been well-documented that the DOE’s data collection system is unreliable.
Educators, parents and community members have been saying for years that the Department of Education has placed disproportionate numbers of high-needs students in certain schools, while refusing to provide the resources to address these children’s needs. Now two newly released studies substantiate those claims.
Teachers and staff at 26 city schools will receive bonuses for their work in raising student performance this year, far fewer winners than last year’s 160 schools, after 2010 test scores plummeted when the state raised the proficiency bar.
Finding that “there is no requirement that data be reliable for it to be disclosed,” a Manhattan judge ruled on Jan. 10 that the Department of Education can release the names and rankings of more than 12,000 teachers to the news media. UFT President Michael Mulgrew said, "The reports, which are largely based on discredited state tests, have huge margins of error and are filled with inaccuracies, will only serve to mislead parents looking for real information. We intend to appeal as soon as possible."
Finding that “there is no requirement that data be reliable for it to be disclosed,” a Manhattan judge ruled on Jan. 10 that the Department of Education can release the names and rankings of more than 12,000 teachers to the news media. The UFT intends to appeal as soon as possible and will be asking the Appellate Division, First Department, to halt any release pending its review of Justice Kern’s decision.
A dozen teachers from across the city stood with UFT President Michael Mulgrew on Dec. 19 to put a human face on the issue of the Teacher Data Reports that the news media – with the Department of Education’s support – want released publicly.
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