Out of the mouth of Bill Gates: All states and districts should collect common data on teachers and students. We need to define the data in a standardized way, we need to collect all of it for all of our students, and we need to enter it in something cheap and simple that people can share. The stimulus bill includes competitive grant funding for these efforts. I hope you make use of it for the people in your state.... Of course, if you do build this system and get this data, you may have to deal with people who don’t want you to use it.... Last year the New York legislature passed a law that says you can’t consider student test scores when you make teacher tenure decisions. That was a strategic win for people who oppose reform – because no real reform will happen until we can evaluate teachers based on their students’ achievement. I understand the legitimate concern of teachers who point out that, without the right design, teacher measurement systems based on student performance could seem arbitrary. But without them, we won’t be able to identify our best teachers, reward them, help others learn from them, or deploy them where they’re most needed. We won’t be able to see what curriculum, instructional tools, and teacher training work best. The solution is not to block teacher evaluations. The solution is to work with teachers who are eager to help build measurement systems that are transparent, that make sense, that lead teachers to say: “This works. It’s fair. It helps me become a better teacher.” These systems would include test scores, but they would also involve classroom observation, parent and student surveys, and video taken in the classroom. Taken from this speech by Bill Gates and found on his foundations website here: gatesfoundation.org/…/bill-gates-national-confer…
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 06:05:03 +0000
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