Stay Connected
Subscribe to our Biweekly Digest, event invitations, and more.
Sector Spotlight
Report Release: Reforming Teacher Pensions for a Changing Work Force
New Education Sector report examines teacher pensions and details the problems facing current state pension programs.
Sport or Not? A Question for the Courts
Senior Policy Analyst Elena Silva interviewed by the New York Times on Title IX.
Teachers Unions as Agents of Reform
Brad Jupp, an architect of Denver's landmark performance-based teacher pay system, ProComp, is an outspoken advocate of both labor organizing and quality education for disadvantaged kids. In this interview, Jupp talks about ProComp, his views on teacher unionism, and the future of the teaching profession.
Education Sector Welcomes Three New Board Members
Education Sector's board of directors names three prominent leaders in the fields of education and journalism to the board: David W. Breneman, Richard Lee Colvin, and Peter McWalters.
For-profit colleges: Do they shortchange students?
Policy Director Kevin Carey comments on a recent Senate HELP Committee hearing on for-profit colleges.
Media Room
Education Sector in the News
Teachers at Work Featured in Mathews Column
- Web Address:
- http://voices.washingtonpost.c
om/class-struggle/2009/11/why_ not_junk_teacher_evaluatio.htm l?wprss=class-struggle - Publication Date:
- November 20, 2009
- Publisher:
- Washington Post
The Washington Post's Jay Mathews writes about Teachers at Work in a recent Class Struggle column.
Excerpt from "Why Not Junk Teacher Evaluations in Favor of More Preparation Time?":
"I thought rating teachers would be a hot issue, but that was an understatement. Emails and online comments are still popping up on my screen in reaction to the columns I wrote on Nov. 1 and Nov. 8 describing the perils of the District's new teacher evaluation system and the apparent lack of any serious effort towards one in the Washington suburbs. I expect more strenuous comment after next Monday's column, which will explore, for the first time, the secrets of a D.C. teacher's evaluation report.
But in this torrent of interesting feedback on assessing teachers, I have detected rising support among some experts for a radical change of direction that appeals to me.
They point to programs that have had great success giving teachers more time to confer with each other about which methods work best with which students. They are suggesting that we reduce the time spent on evaluating teachers—maybe stop altogether—and give teachers that precious time to compare notes and talk about ways to improve.
The most detailed proposal I have seen is in a recent paper by Elena Silva, a senior policy analyst at the Washington-based think tank Education Sector. The title is "Teachers at Work: Improving Teacher Quality Through School Design." Much of it is about a new model called Generation Schools, the brainchild of educators Furman Brown and Jonathan Spear. ..."
Read more from this Class Struggle column.