The worst eighth-grade math teacher in New York City

[Luminous Animal]

It's difficult to simply pull four paragraphs to really understand what is going on here so the article is well worth reading in full.

The title of the piece accurately reports that Ms Abbott is rated the worst teacher in NYC based on the ludicrously inaccurate teacher rating system. The article is explains how she ended up with that humiliating and public title.

She is leaving teaching.

http://eyeoned.org/content/the-worst-eighth-grade-math-teacher-in-new-york-city_326/

Using a statistical technique called value-added modeling, the Teacher Data Reports compare how students are predicted to perform on the state ELA and math tests, based on their prior year’s performance, with their actual performance. Teachers whose students do better than predicted are said to have “added value”; those whose students do worse than predicted are “subtracting value.” By definition, about half of all teachers will add value, and the other half will not.

Carolyn Abbott was, in one respect, a victim of her own success. After a year in her classroom, her seventh-grade students scored at the 98th percentile of New York City students on the 2009 state test. As eighth-graders, they were predicted to score at the 97th percentile on the 2010 state test. However, their actual performance was at the 89th percentile of students across the city. That shortfall—the difference between the 97th percentile and the 89th percentile—placed Abbott near the very bottom of the 1,300 eighth-grade mathematics teachers in New York City.

How could this happen? Anderson is an unusual school, as the students are often several years ahead of their nominal grade level. The material covered on the state eighth-grade math exam is taught in the fifth or sixth grade at Anderson. “I don’t teach the curriculum they’re being tested on,” Abbott explained. “It feels like I’m being graded on somebody else’s work.”

The math that she teaches is more advanced, culminating in high-school level algebra and a different and more challenging test, New York State’s Regents exam in Integrated Algebra. To receive a high school diploma in the state of New York, students must demonstrate mastery of the New York State learning standards in mathematics by receiving a score of 65 or higher on the Regents exam. In 2010-11, nearly 300,000 students across the state of New York took the Integrated Algebra Regents exam; most of the 73 percent who passed the exam with a score of 65 or higher were tenth-graders.

[PDJane]

1. This stuff is ridiculous.

Uniform testing helps the mediocre teacher and leaves the really, really good ones in the lurch. I find it an outrage, because you're losing the teachers who would make a difference.

[Doremus]

2. It's time to start calling this what it is: The purposeful destruction of public schools

Two-fold purpose:

1. Funnel public monies into private pockets
2. Create a large population of compliant cannon fodder.

[nenagh]

10. I'm so curious about this myself...

I had a look at a math test for grade 3 students in Florida this past spring and found to my surprise essentially..fractions...

The 1st test problem asked about a fraction of 4/7 and was it greater or less than half..iiRC..

The little students, in addition to having to read complex words used in the math problems... Also had to know the <,> &= in the multiple choice problems.

I realized that my youngest son, now 30 and a computer engineer from a Canadian University... was slow to read

Looking at the difficulty of the test, I immediately saw that he would have been a failure in Grade 3 especially because the phraseology of the questions were complex. Then the math was complex.

I could only think that these schoolchildren are being failed for a purpose... Or that some corporations were making a killing selling schools the gadgets necessary to involve the kids in learning fractions in grade 3...

Terrible shame... some of these children could barely print their names correctly...

[TomClash]

11. +1

[Bozita]

14. +1000

[bluestateguy]

3. While it is possible she is not a good teacher

I am uncomfortable just using test scores to make that blanket assertion.

I'd like to hear from her current and former students, see her lesson plans, her teaching in the classroom. These factors are not being included in these assessments.

[11 Bravo]

4. I'm curious, what are your qualifications to evaluate her lesson plans or her classroom style?

[Luminous Animal]

8. That is a very good question.

[bluestateguy]

9. I'm not going to go down that rabbit hole right now

Because 1) that's not my job, and 2) I would leave that to professionals in the education field to hash out and yes teachers should be a part of that process.

What I do reject is this notion that somehow it is impossible or elusive to determine what constitutes a good teacher.

[Luminous Animal]

5. Her principal says that she is an excellent teacher

and when her students were tested on the content that she ACTUALLY teaches, they passed with flying colors.

Anderson is an unusual school, as the students are often several years ahead of their nominal grade level. The material covered on the state eighth-grade math exam is taught in the fifth or sixth grade at Anderson. “I don’t teach the curriculum they’re being tested on,” Abbott explained. “It feels like I’m being graded on somebody else’s work.”

The students are being tested in 8th grade for material that they learned in 5th and 6th grade. So Abbott is right, she is being assessed on a test that covers material that was taught by another teacher 2-3 years previously...

How do her students perform on the content that she actually does teach?... All but one of the students in the honors section took the Regents Integrated Algebra exam in January; the other student and most of the regular-section students will take the exam in June. All of the January test-takers passed with flying colors, and more than one-third achieved a perfect score of 100 on the exam.

[TomClash]

12. Why go down that road?

"While it is possible she is not a good teacher" and it is also possible you are a nazi. Two propositions completely devoid of support.

[HiPointDem]

15. Did you read the story? She's anything but a bad teacher. Her score is *totally* the result

of applying the results of these tests to a special case they don't apply to.

Not that I think the tests should be applied to anyone.

[xchrom]

6. ...

[Rosa Luxemburg]

7. The education system should be changed - it's useless

[Doremus]

17. That is a RW meme

Sure, after the rotten bastards have ruined whatever government agency they place in their sights, some corrective action is needed.

It involves rebuilding, not demolition, as the repukes have already seen to that.

Best place to start is by arresting the vermin who tore it to pieces.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

21. not RW meme - if other countries are better than us

we fail to provide a good system so it should be vastly improved. Teachers are treated like dirt.

[Suji to Seoul]

13. hey, we don't do this for police or elected officials.

War on Women, the Poor, Minorities, the Constitution and Drugs.

Thank you GOP. You love America. . .hate Americans.

[progressoid]

16. Angry rec.

[malthaussen]

18. Ya know, they do this in baseball

It's called "Wins Above Replacement Value."

There's only one difference... baseball is a game.

-- Mal

[Starry Messenger]

19. It is pseudo-science to cover for the privatization of education.

It's all bullshit. More great teachers will be leaving in droves.

[WI_DEM]

20. All the GOP wants to do is humiliate and demean teachers