L. A. Times evaluates teacher who was out of the country on a Fulbright Scholarship. [View All]

[madfloridian]

That is just amazing to me. They have their little test scores through the years down pat. Only thing is they failed to notice that a teacher they evaluated as being there....wasn't.

The absurdities just keep on keeping on.

"But she's not there..."

I didn't know why the words to this '60s pop tune kept playing in my head. Then I realized, it was all because of Nancy Joanne Vinicor, the teacher who wasn't there. Normally she would have been there, there being teaching 5th graders at Clover Avenue Elementary School in L.A. But instead, Vinicor tells the L.A. Times,

"I was out of the country this past school year as a Fulbright Teacher, a prestigious program granted to exceptional teachers after a thorough application process."

But her absence didn't prevent the Times from evaluating her teaching, along with that of 6,000 other teachers, based solely on their students' standardized test scores and using a new but highly suspect value-added formula.

Interesting comment:

My teacher/brother Fred tweeted an intriguing question:

"If not being there because you were on a Fulbright makes you average, what would being absent to accept a Nobel prize make you?"

Here is Nancy Vinicor's response to the L. A. Times.

Nancy Vinicor's Response

I was out of the country this past school year as a Fulbright Teacher, a prestigious program granted to exceptional teachers after a thorough application process. My question is: what data was used to so-called 'rate' me? Additionally, this rating is not a reflection of the scores or the learning of my students. My school (the last year I was there) had an API of 948. My students are high achieving and happy. The ceiling is a lot closer. A random viewer can now look at personal data that inaccurately labels my performance as a teacher and reach the conclusion that I am an 'average' teacher. It is misleading. The public will not necessarily see beyond this. I, personally, am not threatened by this label, but it is simplistic and unfair to so many dedicated and hard-working teachers.

I find this process unhelpful to everyone. How will this improve teaching practices? An education encompasses so much more than a numerical standardized score. Will this benefit anyone? Accountability is crucial in any profession, especially one with such a huge impact on the future of so many, but this is not accountability. This is witch-hunting in the guise of transparency.