The Pedagogy of the 21st Century

New York City Ranks Its Teachers

Big news last week as the New York City public schools published rankings of its 18,000 teachers. A huge step forward for teacher accountability.

Here's the deal:
1.Student learning can be measured with frequent and varied assessments.
2.Yes, the current testing is in a primitive stage, with wide margins of error. But that will improve.
3.Teachers should be evaluated on how well they help students learn.
4.Teachers consistently in the bottom 5% of all teachers should be let go.
5.Teachers consistently in the top 5% of all teachers should share their techniques with other teachers.

In New York City around 600 teachers were found to be consistently in the bottom 5% and about the same number consistently in the top 5%.

The student learning measure is value added assessment, which means it only measures the learning gained, or lossed, during a given year. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best Teaching Tip of the Week

Boost completion rates with extended time.

Boost completion rates and academic achievement by allowing those students who need it some extended time for taking final exams, submitting final papers and other work.

True Story:  An African-American male student in Lynn Mack's math class at Piedmont Tech did not show up for the final exam.  But she really wanted him to pass. Two weeks later, he showed up, took the test, and aced it getting a 94.  

With society greatly needing not only graduates with good math skills but also more minority graduates, Lynn Mack served her college, community and society by offering extended time. 

End Last Hired, First Fired

The 2009 Minnesota Teacher of the Year was fired. Schools fire (lay off) many of their best teachers. They keep many of their worst teachers.

Eight years earlier, Amber Damm was laid off following her first year of teaching. For the good of all, she did not give up and got another job.  The same thing happened to the 1990 Minnesota Teacher of the Year, according to an article by Chris Stewart and Charlie Weaver in the St. Paul Pioneer Press last week.

Teachers not only make a difference, the make THE difference.  The New Teacher Project found that sutdents wyho have had an ineffective teacher make 2.5 to 3.5 months less progress in a school year than students who have had even an average teacher.  The good news: Teacher accountability is coming.

Best Teaching Tip of the Week

Use links rather than downloads for other material

When using other material on the web, it is better to link to the original site than download the material to your site, says Stanie Waddell, chief information security officer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

He says most complaints about improper use of content come when faculty download other material rather than link to it.  Linking to other sites and other material is widely recognized as legitimate and proper.

Best Teaching Tip of the Week

Hold a "Failure Week."

We do not recognize, encourage or reward failure.  And failure is how we learn.

This is especially true for female students, who are far less likely to take risks and embrace failure.  Here's a story of a top girls' school that instituted a "Failure Week" to help girls take more risks and not feel bad about failure.

Best Teaching Tip of the Week

Archive.org is a great source for free audio.

They have a huge inventory of public domain music, as well as music licensed under creative commons or other "copyleft" means. I have gotten audio files for backing tracks for podcasts. I have used audio books for Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Wizard of Oz, and Main Street for my history classes. And, I have used some of thier speaches for my history classes.

Submitted by Rick Burkett, Carterville, Illinois