Arne's new plan..have student test scores linked back to teachers' schools of education.

[madfloridian]

I don't even have words for this. I am speechless.

Duncan unveils plans to improve teacher ed

The U.S. Education Department Friday revealed initiatives it said will reward quality teacher programs, improve education schools and ease regulations.

"Too many future teachers graduate from prep programs unprepared for success in the classroom," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Friday in a release. "We have to give teachers the support they need to ensure that children get the high quality education they deserve. Our goal is to develop a system that recognizes and rewards good programs, and encourages all of them to improve."

Based on authority in the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, the department proposed to reduce the reporting burden on schools of education and states, now required to report 440 different measures annually, Duncan said.

The department said it wants states to identify the best teacher preparation programs and encourage others to improve by linking student test scores back to teachers and their schools of education."

New teacher programs like TFA that recruit new graduates, give them a few weeks training, then send them to the classroom....are embraced by Arne Duncan.

But now he is going to follow the trail of a student's test scores back to the institution where that student's teacher trained? I hope I am reading that wrong.

That takes meaningless high stakes testing to a new level of absurdity.

[hobbit709]

1. Let's start with his degree.

he should lead by example.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. That is indeed absurd

But I'm thinking of a different reason. If we hire TFAs who haven't been trained by schools of education, then which colleges are we going to look at? The Ivy League schools that educate the TFAs? LOL

[madfloridian]

8. lol good point. Just let them start tracking the ivy league schools...

that will never do. :-)

[WinkyDink]

20. No, no. TFA's will prevail AT THE DEMISE OF COLLEGES OF EDUCATION. Arne thinks long-term, people.

[madfloridian]

24. I am still trying to figure why they want to kill colleges of education.

It must be about money, but is it about private colleges and profit?

[tomg]

3. Either he is an utter lunatic

or this is simply the deliberate sabotaging of the American educational system. I am going to be charitable - I think he is a lunatic.

[LWolf]

26. Having been on the front lines for a long time,

I know it is deliberate. There is no question about that on this teacher's part.

[ellisonz]

4. Arne needs to go.

[Harmony Blue]

6. Agreed

Arne doesn't understand the education system at all.

[Angry Dragon]

5. I wonder which school duncan got his teaching degree

[Ruby the Liberal]

10. He doesn't have one.

Sociology from Harvard, then straight to Director roles. Dude never taught a classroom (which should disqualify him right off the bat, IMO).



(looked it up out of curiosity tonight: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arne_duncan )

[grntuscarora]

7. This smacks of a witch hunt.

Next, he'll want to track teachers' parents, churches and all other sources of childhood influence! He needs to go.

[Ruby the Liberal]

9. That is insane!

None the least of which are those teachers who seek employment in the urban areas where they are needed so greatly, where English may not be the first language at home. It sounds like he is proposing dinging the school a teacher attended because they chose to work in a more challenging district than in West Palm or Greenwich.

[madfloridian]

12. Sounds that way. It is insanity.

:hi:

[no_hypocrisy]

11. What about extraneous factors?

Like a person would suck as a teacher no matter where s/he took an education program?

Like socioeconomic conditions that challenged optimal scores at school?

[madfloridian]

13. They don't matter anymore.

It's easier for the reformers to just blame the teachers.

[eppur_se_muova]

14. Punishment will be increased until morale improves.

Remember, the most important part of having authority is punishing people. All the other stuff is secondary.

[DirkGently]

16. That is an excellent point. Pick an arbitrary result, & humiliate all involved until reached.

Great plan Mr. Duncan, and various right wingers and corporate interests bent on turning public schools into profit centers.

[DirkGently]

15. No. That's too much stupid, even for Duncan. No?

[madfloridian]

21. It would seem so. But he just keeps taking it to the next level....

of stupid. :hi:

[JustAmused]

17. Suits his goal

When your goal is to turn public education into the corporate training model, this works perfectly. The real question to me is why does he have Obama's continued support?

[salin]

18. dysfunctional policy

wouldn't the teacher ed programs/schools work harder to send their grads to already top performing schools and try to steer their grads away from working at lower performing higher need schools?

Per the TFA question (which schools get judged) fair is fair - since the teachers were "trained" by TFA, then TFA should be judged by it.

My state's Sec of Ed. pushed this idea for about 2 weeks before the push-back (due to the dysfunction/absurdity) forced him to back away from the plan.

[madfloridian]

23. I agree, but most Democrats accept it because Dems are doing it.

And that is boggling what mind I have left.

[salin]

25. just shows that really bad policy can come from both sides.

Really bad policy, is that: really bad policy.

[WinkyDink]

19. Methodology over knowledge of subject. Sic semper "education".

[madfloridian]

22. $185 million to reward colleges when kids score well on tests....

when taught by a teacher from that college.

The Obama administration announced a new $185 million competition Friday

"The Obama administration announced a new $185 million competition Friday that would reward colleges for producing teachers whose students perform well on standardized tests.

The competition would require states to provide data linking collegiate teaching programs inside their borders to the test scores of their graduates' students. Under the proposal, to be eligible for the money, states would have to ratchet up teacher-licensing exams and close persistently low-performing teacher-training programs.

The competition is part of the administration's planned broad overhaul of teachers' colleges of education, which have come under attack recently for failing to properly train teachers.

In a news conference Friday, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan noted that that nearly two-thirds of new teachers report feeling unprepared to run classes. "What if 62% of our new doctors felt unprepared to practice medicine?" said Mr. Duncan, adding that "the status quo is unacceptable."

In a sign of consensus among often warring camps in education, the administration's proposal received vocal support from the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union, as well as from Teach For America, a Peace Corps-like nonprofit that inspires many of the nation's top college graduates to commit to inner-city teaching stints."

I would LOVE to know where he got his figures of 62% admitting they were unprepared. Of course a new teacher has a case of nerves first day....in fact first day of every year they teach. It's part of teaching. Every class is different. Every year a new challenge.

I feel so good that TFA agrees :sarcasm:, and the unions sold teachers out long ago.

Another way for testing companies to make money.

I am sick to death of the education policies of this administration. They are openly destroying public education and trying to harm the colleges that teach what teachers really need to know instead of 5 weeks boot camp.

:mad: