Comments on: Landslides

By: 2009 in Harrisonburg | hburgnews.com

2009 in Harrisonburg | hburgnews.com — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:27:46 +0000

[...] the subsequent Democratic sweep of city council were the biggest Harrisonburg stories of 2008, the Republican resurgence has to be the biggest political story of ‘09. The pendulum swung back with full force this [...]

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By: JGFitzgerald

JGFitzgerald — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:28:56 +0000

There has to be a name for the ability to respond earnestly to being mocked.

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By: bryan

bryan — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:18:29 +0000

“And most people non-teachers are working more way than 200 days for their salary.”

failure at making a sentence.

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By: Dave Briggman

Dave Briggman — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:02:49 +0000

Joe, to be accurate, the F16s in Virginia are Air Reserve resources…Langley is the first completely deployed wing of F22s.

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By: eso

eso — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:33:01 +0000

Joe,

You were a failure at running a small city. You control exactly nothing. Don’t be a sore loser.

xoxo,
eso

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By: eso

eso — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:01:17 +0000

I don’t think $38K is exceptionally high coming out of a four year college.
Most any Chemistry or Physics major is going to be making more than that. I’m not sure about “life sciences”. Probably depends a lot if you are the traditional kind studying live/dead animals ( large scale ) or the newer ones dealing on a DNA level. Business majors? Vastly overpaid. English majors? Majority are teachers anyway. And most people non-teachers are working more way than 200 days for their salary.

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By: JGFitzgerald

JGFitzgerald — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:38:59 +0000

Eso,

I am a Democrat and we control the United States government. That government has the largest military in the world. It is larger than all the others combined. In Virginia alone, it has aircraft carriers, jets, bombers, bomber jets, fighters, F-16s, M-16s, tanks, anti-tank weapons, cannons, and a couple of hundred thousand trained fighters. Do you really believe that your guns are safe? I’ve already talked to the VLWC (the Vast Left-Wing Conspirary) and they’re going to come to your house and take your guns either Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on weather. The Republicans said it would be OK so long as we don’t raise taxes to do it. Sorry.

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By: eso

eso — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:21:34 +0000

I don’t agree with all the Republican social policies, but at least our guns will be safe. I’d like to hope they would do something about illegals, but truth be told they don’t have that much power over “immigration” [sic] on a local level.

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By: Dany Fleming

Dany Fleming — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:02:42 +0000

Great feedback, Jeremy.

Denver has a promising system using multiple measures and approaches. Minnesota has an interesting approach. New Haven just announced a new system with cheers from Arne Duncan and their teacher’s union (connected to the innovative group TURN). Dallas appears to be having good results. Rochester, NY was an early leader in this work. Chicago charters have lots of good results that are not over-burdensome.

Cincinnati? …a good early effort at getting the union and district to somewhat collaborate. The initial result, though, was a watered-down program; relying too heavily on the union’s idea of pay incentives based on teacher’s acquiring more “knowledge and skills.” The problem is, ironically, research shows no correlation between advanced teacher credentials and student test scores gains. (though I certainly don’t stand behind those tests as great measures).

DC?…I’m not buying into that new Superintendent just yet.

A lot of the early merit-pay systems have certainly uncovered issues, e.g. does relying too much on test-scores just lead to “teaching to the test.”Lots of union folks have jumped on that. But don’t make the perfect the enemy of the good – or we’ll never make any progress. Lots has been learned.

As your teacher notes, the evaluation systems used by many districts is a useless rubber stamp of “perfect.” (Feel free to weigh in on how Harrisonburg’s teacher evaluation system works). Your teacher’s quote is compelling speech – though I’m not convinced she can pull any real data to support her larger claim. Her points are still important to understand and take seriously.

However, it also does not reflect how administrators in merit-based pay systems are evaluating their teachers. As a matter of fact, the research shows that merit-based pay principal’s evaluations are actually one of the most highly correlated system to student performance.

And that’s the real issue – how do you connect teacher classroom behavior and student performance?

But, to your point about school administrators. What are administrators supposed to do if not to make sure their teachers are doing their job well?! Principals jobs are very multifaceted and difficult. However, I think they’d welcome the chance to have more charge of their staff. And, do you think principals aren’t the sharpest observers of their teachers? I’m pretty sure they know who their star teachers are.

Peer evaluation is also a great tool and being used in a number of places. And you know what, it turns out that people actually don’t sugar-coat the evaluations of their peers. They do a pretty good job of sorting themselves out.

Sorry for the long-winded response. But it’s a good and important conversation…

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