Just trust me

The Herald-Zeitung:

Currently, school administrators evaluate SCUCISD’s teachers once a year, but teachers such as Dawn Ryan argue that they should only be evaluated every three years.

I’ve never worked in a job with less than a yearly evaluation. Some were even quarterly. And that’s after proving that I actually produced what I was supposed to.

The Herald-Zeitung:

“I do not believe that appraisals hold teachers to higher accountability standards overall,” said Ryan, a teacher Schertz Elementary School. “I am accountable to the community, to the parents, to my students.”

I really don’t get this statement. Of course she’s accountable to the community, etc. but she’s also accountable to the organization that hired her, the school, which is the community’s representative. And what does that have to do with being evaluated? No matter how she’s evaluated, she’s still accountable to the same organizations.

I’m not dense. I know what she’s getting at is that one 45 minute observation a year is not a fair way to judge her abilities. (Okay, so one every three years would be–never mind.) And she believes that her students doing well in grades and passing the TAKS should be more important than any other evaluation system.

My problem is one: her expressed reasoning/logic is pathetic and will receive no sympathy from the rest of the world that is evaluated at least once a year. Her students are evaluated every six weeks! And two: teachers have been known to boost their student’s scores in inappropriate ways.

The Herald-Zeitung:

“The greatest benefit I can see for a less frequent PDAS is it frees up more precious time for our administrators.”

Uhmmm, yes, of course. They could use that time to interview the teacher’s students and their parents about her effectiveness, you know, the people she says she’s accountable to? But somehow, I don’t think that’s what she would consider a better way for administrators to spend their time.

I can’t hear you!

I have an image of someone with their fingers in their ears humming and shouting, “I can’t hear you!”

Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Local News:

The list of schools suspected of cheating is longer than Texas education officials have reported – and those officials say they aren’t interested in tracking down the latest suspects.A Dallas Morning News analysis has found that at least 167 unidentified schools were flagged as potential cheaters by Caveon, the company Texas hired to hunt for TAKS cheaters. That’s in addition to the 442 schools named by state officials. None of the other schools have been notified that they are on the list.

Texas Education Agency officials say they don’t know which schools they are – and they have no plans to find out.

“The only list of schools we have is the list that has been made public,” said TEA spokeswoman Suzanne Marchman. “That’s the list we plan to work with.”

Do you think they could have come up with any worst response? Just about anything else would have been better. How about, “since we received the classroom analysis first, we are investigating those areas.” Or, “we are looking into why the other schools weren’t included in the list provided to us.” Maybe, “our contract didn’t require the company to provide the information but we are looking into it.”

But nope, after being scoped by the Dallas Morning News two (or is it three?) times regarding the issue, TEA tells the world, we’re not going to deal with it. I guess it would have added too many schools to the list with bonuses and suspicious classroom scores. Or maybe, too many wealthy schools would appear on the list blowing Dr. Neely’s honesty premise.