I was pleased to see that our colleagues in Los Angeles have refused to support their District’s plan to seek fund’s from the District Race To The Top program (see today’s L.A. Times article, L.A. schools fail to gain union backing for grant application).
They join our Sacramento local (see “Sacramento City Teachers Association declines to participate in Race to the Top “) and the one in Fresno (see Anthony Cody’s article, Race to the Top Frozen Out in Fresno ).
In fact, I would be surprised if you see many (if you see any) California locals agreeing. I personally would love to see a complete “shut out.” The requirement to tie teacher evaluations to student test scores is a “poison pill” that is a “deal-killer.”
I’m adding this post to The Best Resources On “Race To The Top” (& On “Personalized Learning”).
Thank you for sharing this news. It’s crucial that more parents and voters understand how misguided the actual standardized exams are and why they provide – at best – a fuzzy snapshot of student learner. Further, student scores remain a very imperfect and often completely distorted lens to evaluate teacher performance. Although it may be unpopular, teachers have a clear right to insist that substance matters more than style, and reject this profoundly wrong-headed idea…. at until the standardized exams do a far better job of actually reflecting student skills and academic performance in authentic contexts. Or so it seems to me.