Accountability in Education — The Missing Link
There is a big difference between SUBJECTIVE and OBJECTIVE ratings — be it rating of bridges or teachers or even pencils. Do they do the job they were produced to do?
There is a big difference between feeling/looking nice and actually producing a demonstrable result.
For teachers to be judged subjectively, “probably by their own peers”, as the New York story conveys, is not good enough. Teachers rated “effective” are not necessarily able to bring forth students who read or do math at grade level. http://www.activistpost.com/2015/12/the-fall-of-america-signals-the-rise-of-the-new-world-order.html?utm_source=Activist+Post+Subscribers&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=f034b7162c-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_term=0_b0c7fb76bd-f034b7162c-369048093
Not so in Australia — if their plan for producing effective teachers goes ahead.
The news from Australia is that teacher training is now under the glass. Numeracy and literacy proficiency is expected from newly trained teachers and they are to be screened and tested. The full plan is yet to be implemented, but a trial run with 5000 trainees shows that 10% of trainees did not pass. Upon full implementation, these candidates would not receive teaching certificates.
What is dismaying is not only what’s going on in Canada or New York but from the very head of the venerable PISA measurements (Program for International Student Assessment). Andreas Schleicher, in a foreword to a recent OECD publication — Schooling Redesigned: Toward Innovative Learning Systems — says:
“Some will call for a robust scientific evidence base . . . to distinguish what is truly innovative and effective from what is simply different . . .The report therefore avoids references to “proven” or “best” practices.” (Pg 3-5 http://www.keepeek.com/Digital-Asset-Management/oecd/education/schooling-redesigned_9789264245914-en#page6 )
Please read just these three pages (3-5) and see if you discern any commitment from the PISA chief to continuing to provide hard measures about education performance and accountability.
[To SQE Dec 02, 2015]