Posted on 04/12/2006 7:12:47 PM PDT by summer
Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein yesterday accelerated his drive to hold educators accountable for student achievement, announcing that New York City's more than 1,400 schools will be graded each year just like students, from A to F. Principals whose schools persistently fail could be removed, he said.
Mr. Klein said schools' grades would be determined largely by a more sophisticated analysis of annual standardized test scores. In addition, officials would look at a new set of satisfaction surveys, to be completed by parents, teachers and students.
Any effort to remove principals based on the new grades could require changes in their contract, according to their union. Under their current contract, principals are rated satisfactory or unsatisfactory, and critics say even poor principals are rarely penalized.
Mr. Klein and his aides said the most critical factor in deciding the schools' grades would be how individual students' test scores improve from one year to the next....
Special emphasis will be placed on a school's ability to raise the performance of its lowest-achieving students.
This kind of analysis differs from New York State's rating system under the federal No Child Left Behind law because it would follow individual students from year to year ....
...It is also intended to give parents critical information about their schools. Officials said the grades would be posted online.
Jill S. Levy, president of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, the principals' union, said ...the new report card system was like "a sword of Damocles" over principals' heads.
The chancellor said that the new system was a work in progress...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
FYI.
BTW, I enjoyed reading your comments on that other thread. :)
FYI.
Do they grade schools in your state?
FYI.
FYI.
FYI.
Maybe you guys can answer my question in my post #1. :)
This is my problem with the whole grading system. Some of the scores are not the teachers fault. My daughters old school was closed and we are temporarily at a new school.
The new school has horrible test scores. Whose fault is it? Well, here are some of the factors:
1) student turnover- kids come in for a month or two and then leave. Lots of times they are months or years behind their classmates.
2) ESL students - we have a high amount of hispanics (probably parents are illegal) whose first language is Spanish. Their parents don't speak (or read) English, so there is not parental support at home to do homework, etc.
3) Just plain poor kids who don't have much parental support. They have behavior problems, etc.
Now, the test scores do indicate that there is a problem with the school, but those students probably won't do well anywhere.
Now, the bad part is that if the schools scores go down, then the school has to focus on reading/writing/math. They don't have music, science, art, social studies, history because those aren't tested. This is okay for the students that are doing poorly, but it is horrible for the kids at the school that are doing great.
I think we need more school choice. I think there should be some schools for kids that are struggling, and then there should be schools for kids that are doing well. Even in a school, it seems like they should be able to split the students up and provide the enrichment activities for the kids that are doing well.
We're trying to get to a new school for next year. We're on the wait list for a charter school.
"Any effort to remove principals based on the new grades could require changes in their contract, according to their union. Under their current contract, principals are rated satisfactory or unsatisfactory, and critics say even poor principals are rarely penalized."
Why do educational professionals need a union?
Yes, summer, they do, and have been doing so for over 10 years now I think. They post the "report cards" online here, and also each year every student gets a printed report card on his/her school and the district to take home.
Archived report cards can be found at this link, and somewhere (don't have time to look for it now) there is a website that lets parents compare potential schools and districts based at least in part on the report card data.
Thanks. I actually enjoyed it as people actually tried to have a discussion for once.
Everybody in our district here receives a review every three years. It's quite a thorough process.
Do teachers have the opportunity to "grade" or evaluate their own principals in our district? That is something I have not seen, but I think should happen.
Do teachers have the opportunity to "grade" or evaluate their own principals in our district? That is something I have not seen, but I think should happen.
ABSOLUTELY they do, and it is the major basis for the scores on the principal. I wasn't aware that it didn't happen elsewhere.
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