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San Jose teachers, board adopt landmark teacher evaluation system
Breaking new ground in California, San Jose Unified has adopted an innovative teacher evaluation process that gives teachers a role in reviewing their peers and greatly revises the current – and some say outmoded – method of measuring teacher success. The new system would deny automatic raises to unsatisfactory performers and give evaluators the option of adding another year to the probationary period for new teachers – a provision at odds with the state teachers union. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Evaluations, Featured, Reporting & Analysis, Teacher Collaboration, Teacher Pay, Teacher Unions, Tenure, U.S. Education Policy
Q&A: What do early childhood educators need to know?
Dr. Marcy Whitebook has been part of the early education world since the early 1970s, when she graduated college and went to work as a preschool teacher. Today she’s the director of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley. As part of a new, occasional Question and Answer series with leaders in California education, EdSource Today’s Lillian Mongeau sat down with Whitebook in her office in January. The conversation delved into … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Kindergarten and Preschool, Preparation, Q&A, Reporting & Analysis, Teacher Pay, Teachers
Policymakers react to StudentsFirst’s ‘F’ for California
California’s policy efforts to improve student achievement earned an F from StudentsFirst, the Sacramento-based advocacy group led by Michelle Rhee, the former Washington, D.C., schools chancellor. The state ranked 41st in the nation on education policies in three major areas involving teachers, parents and school finance and governance. No state earned an A, and more than two-thirds of states received D’s or F’s on the group’s State Policy Report Card. “While there is great momentum for … Read entire article »
Filed under: Advocates for Education, Evaluation, Reporting & Analysis, School Choice, Systemic Change, Teacher Pay, Teachers, Tenure
New Assembly Education chair skeptical of plan for weighted funding
Any bill to change the way that California funds its public schools will have to go through Joan Buchanan, and that could present problems for Gov. Jerry Brown. Buchanan is the new chair of the Assembly Education Committee, and, as she made clear in a lengthy interview with EdSource Today (see transcript), she’s skeptical of Brown’s weighted student formula, which he plans to reintroduce next year. Her views reflect those of suburban and demographically better off school … Read entire article »
Filed under: Charter Schools, Common Core standards, Equity issues, Evaluations, Facilities, Featured, Funding and Taxation, Getting Down To Facts studies, Reporting & Analysis, Student spending, Teacher Pay, Teacher Unions, Technology, Tests & Assessments, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
San Jose Unified, teachers reach breakthrough evaluation, pay plan
The superintendent of San Jose Unified and leaders of the district’s teachers union have agreed on an innovative evaluation and compensation system that, if implemented, would be significantly different from any in California. With education groups in Sacramento and legislators still bruised over a grueling, failed effort to revise the state’s teacher evaluation law last summer, the San Jose plan offers hope that a progressive compromise on divisive issues is possible. Among the significant features in … Read entire article »
Filed under: Evaluations, Featured, Parents, Reporting & Analysis, Teacher Pay, Teacher Unions
Undiscussed in Chicago: Recruiting the best to teach the poorest
“Our most glaring problem is still recruitment/preparation of good teachers & principals and that’s no closer to being solved.” So tweeted Seth Lavin (@SethLavin), a teacher in Chicago, in reaction to the recent settlement of the high-profile teachers strike in that same city (a strike he supported). Not only do I wholeheartedly agree with Seth, but I believe the entire political-spectacle-slash-debacle we just watched unfold in the Windy City illustrates everything, and I mean everything, that … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Commission on Teacher Credentialing, Evaluations, Featured, Teacher Pay, Teacher Unions, Tenure
Far-reaching plan to strengthen teaching in California
To reinvigorate its force of teachers and principals, California doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel. It could start by fixing the one that’s bent and broken because of years of neglect. That’s one of the messages from Greatness by Design, an extensive report from Superintendent Tom Torlakson’s 48-member Task Force on Educator Excellence, cochaired by Stanford University education professor Linda Darling-Hammond and Long Beach Unified superintendent Christopher Steinhauser. On Monday, the task force released its 90-page … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commission on Teacher Credentialing, Featured, Preparation, Reporting & Analysis, Teacher Collaboration, Teacher Pay, Teachers, Tenure
Imagine teachers as free agents before adopting pay for performance
(This commentary first appeared in TOP-Ed.) U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and a raft of supporters in the foundation world fervently want to replace the tried-and-true teacher salary schedule with pay-for-performance schemes. They should be careful what they wish for. The idea seems straightforward: Replace raises conditioned on years of service and education beyond the minimum required for a teaching license with conspicuous rewards for good teaching measured, at least in part, by student test scores. Unsuccessful teachers would see the lack of salary advancement as a sign that they should seek another line of work. Successful teachers would be incentivized, take home tangible rewards, and encourage other teachers to follow in their wake. A circle of virtue would ensue. Hardly anyone would disagree that high-performing teachers deserve rewards and recognition, but the policy … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Teacher Pay, Teachers
Negotiate student achievement goals into teachers’ contracts
(This commentary first appeared in TOP-Ed.) Collective bargaining lends itself to lots of different conversations, but it’s hard to talk about what matters most: how spending money will or won’t make education better. An illustration: Jacob Adams, a Claremont Graduate University colleague, has edited a new book, Smart Money, which shows that effective school districts spend their money differently than those with lower student achievement gains. In the book, and in an Education Week commentary, he argues for a “simple, powerful principle,” linking collective bargaining and other forms of resource allocation to student achievement. The smart-money approach is to adopt cycles of continuous improvement — goal setting, instruction, assessment and analysis — to tailor resource allocation to classroom needs. But where, in a school system filled with large and small interests, including … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Evaluations, Teacher Pay, Teachers
Staffing a universal preschool program will be no small task
April 9th, 2013 | 3 Comments | By Marcy Whitebook
President Obama’s rhetorical plea for universal preschool has yet to be translated into an actionable policy proposal, but we can reasonably assume that any expansion of early learning services for young children will create a demand for more preschool teachers. And not just more teachers but trained ones: Twenty-nine state-funded preschool programs currently require educators with a bachelor’s degree, and many of them demand additional teacher certification. Two days after the State of the Union, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Early Childhood, Featured, Preparation, Teacher Pay, Teachers