Maybe this is related to Susan Jacoby. Maybe even Postman. I don't care; I wanted to bring this up.
Recently (and I'm sure Ms. Fletcher has heard of this), the Los Angeles Times did a review of LA County's teachers and gave them all a score. Now, this ruffled the feathers of teachers' unions, parents, and administrators. But none of this is compared to what has just happened.
A 5th grade teacher, who was a favorite of his students and was cited as a motivational influence, committed suicide out of apparent depression from his low score in the Times. Worse, this story gets the front page on the LatExtra section of the paper.
Without remorse.
I lost a little bit of respect for my favorite newspaper from this. This score system is needlessly affecting the effective. It is also letting teachers' bosses get some background when it's time to hand out the pink slips.
I want to know what YOU think about this. Media exploitation? Teachers getting flak from the system? Comments appreciated.
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That's shocking! Why are they ranking teachers? Who is to say a teacher is good or bad? One person might love a teacher due to their teaching while another person might dislike that teacher due to their teaching. This is media exploitation.
ReplyDeleteThe way they rank them is by a written test system. I am in no position to explain it; let Ms. Fletcher if she ever comes across this blog.
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