Posted on 08/12/2014 10:34:17 AM PDT by MichCapCon
For the last two years, every high school student in the Lansing School District received a letter from the district stating that all three high schools are on the state’s low-performing watch list.
The letters are mandated after a school is designated as one of the worst performing in the state by finishing in the bottom 5 percent academically.
Yet, according to the district, the effectiveness of its teachers is increasing significantly while it has had more schools put on the state’s low-performing watch list.
In 2009-10, the district had one school on the persistently lowest achieving list. That number increased to two in 2010-11 and then eight in 2011-12 and six in 2012-13. The 2013-14 list of low performing schools will be released later this month by the Michigan Department of Education.
In 2011-12, the Lansing School District rated all 887 of its teachers as “effective” — the second highest of four ratings available. In 2012-13, 337 teachers received “highly effective,” 456 received “effective,” 20 received “minimally effective” and 1 received “ineffective.”
In 2013-14, 363 teachers received “highly effective,” 301 received “effective,” 16 received “minimally effective” and 1 received “ineffective.”
In 2,382 teacher evaluations from 2011-12 to 2013-14, the district found only two teachers to be ineffective. The percentage of top-rated “highly effective” teachers has increased from 0 percent to 41.4 percent to 53.3 percent over the same period.
Lansing School District Spokesman Bob Kolt and Superintendent Yvonne Caamul Canul did not respond to requests for comment.
Leon Drolet, chairman of the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance, said this is an example of what happens when laws are passed involving the education establishment and the political class: Politicians can say they are making reforms and schools can say they have highly effective teachers.
“You get perverse outcomes that reward the politically powerful,” Drolet said. “Kids are not getting a good education while teachers are told they are highly effective. This works for everybody but the kids.”
It doesn’t work for taxpayers either
Nothings going to change until vouchers are introduced for everyone.
“Nothings going to change until vouchers are introduced for everyone.”
Government would still be involved. Just dissolve all “public” schools, let parents keep thier money, and let private schools compete in a free market.
” the district found only two teachers to be ineffective.”
That both were happily married white male heterosexuals who vote Republican is just a coincidence.
Sorry, some of these schools have students that nobody could teach w/ the family atmosphere they are given to live in. Destroyed family units can not be easily overcome by teachers that are often given 30 students that need special care. Only so many hours in the day.
Yes, I understand their is bad teachers out there, but putting the best teachers from the highest achieving schools in some of these locations would cause them to run away screaming.
their=there
Bush’s and Kennedy’s “No Child Left Behind” was just plain stupid. They should have made it “No Child With Any Intelligence and That’s Capable of Learning Will Be Left Behind”. The truth is very simple and everyone is afraid to say it. Some people aren’t capable of getting past the 4th grade.
What you don’t understand is that the school building itself was very effective, so it got a good rating. /sarc/ It was the teachers who were ineffective.
Now maybe, just maybe, the students are dumb academically? Anyone think student IQ should be a factor? If jumping 6’ was a requirement for graduation, I wouldn’t make it either.
Unions doing what unions do nowadays: covering for the incompetent.
Good teachers don’t want to work in war zones.
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