Saturday, June 23, 2012

TEACHER RATING LAW LOOKS LIKE ANOTHER EMPTY UFT VICTORY

UFT President Michael Mulgrew is claiming a major win in Albany as a bill has been passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor that will limit release of Teacher Performance Ratings to parents of a student's actual teacher.  As usual in any agreement, the devil is in the details and some analysis has already been done showing that this appears to be another Unity Caucus (ruling party of the UFT) gain that can be easily turned against us. 


The Daily News calls it a step in their direction.  That should worry everyone as their ultimate goal is to end the profession essentially. The News wanted every teacher's rating to be published with their name so they could shame us. Research and experience show that teachers count for only a very small percentage of student performance but the new teacher rating system when negotiated between the city and DOE will make 40% of our annual rating based on growth of student achievement so the new rating system will be a flawed way to judge teachers. The News and NY Post couldn't care less nor could Mayor Bloomberg.


The UFT is claiming a win because the new law doesn't go as far as the News, the Post and Bloomberg wanted.  Since the legislation will only allow a parent to find out how his/her own child's teacher was rated and the public will receive the data with names redacted, this is a big gain according to the UFT.  My friend Jeff Andrusain did a little analysis and sent this to ICE Mail:



No protection at all. Another "victory" for Unity.

Board of Ed puts out "redacted info", parents add their "confidential" info to this and within a short time all is public. All you need is one parent from one class or maybe two classes to figure out the rest. Not too hard for a zealous reporter or a "concerned" parent or PTA.

Mulgrew and company tell us this is a victory. 

We all believe him.

I love my union.



What more can I say?

For further analysis, check out the Accountable Talk blog.






5 comments:

Dr_Dru said...

The "victory" is a sham. Parents have the right to publish or publicize the name of their children's teacher. Soon the mayor and chancellor, or the Papers and Pundits will say it is their duty to do so. Which they already seem to be hinting at. The echo chamber will pick it up and again we will think the UFT did everything it could do to prevent this.

john said...

In the age of the blog it's very easy for just about any parent to OUT the teachers. Not only that, there'll be the whisper campaign between the parents who are trying to find out which teacher is the best one so they can lobby to get their kid in that class.

The UFT still accepts the premise that teachers can be measured by test scores by calling this little compromise a victory. It's outrageous.

Anonymous said...

This is a win much in the way that the battle of Stalingrad was a win for Hitler.
Differentiate This, bald pimp.

Pedro Nicolas Payano said...

In the private sector, employers are regulated by privacy laws to protect the data of their employees. By all reasoning, teachers should expect to receive the same kind of treatment. After all, publishing information about an employee can put that person at risk of personal harm.

Pedro Nicolas Payano said...

The public sector should not be any different in protecting employee information.

By: Pedro Nicolas Payano