SPARKS –– For veteran teacher Benjamin Tucker, there’s far more to education than test scores. The math department chairman, girls and boys basketball coach and assistant wrestling coach was called one of the top educators at Sparks Middle School by principal Andrew Yoxsimer on Tuesday.
“He’s a great teacher, an awesome teacher,” Yoxsimer said.
A teachers’ union negotiator for the Washoe Education Association (WEA), Tucker expressed concerns that “Race to the Top” federal education funding requirements could drive good teachers away from the schools that need them the most.
“What troubles me is that they want to tie teacher performance to student achievement (based) on one test taken on one day,” Tucker said, referring to the CRT, or Criterion Referenced Test. Tucker worries this requirement could keep inexperienced teachers from challenging themselves at higher-risk, lower-income schools.
MoreI used to work with this teacher, and he is good. And his concerns are absolutely on target, but that's the point of "Race to the Top." It's another way to force teachers out, whether they "voluntarily" leave or they are shitcanned for bogus reasons.
The district has a new superintendent who is an Eli Broad "Academy" flunky, so things are bound to get even WORSE in that district.