To the editor:
Massachusetts is #1 on state rankings of national student test scores. Business, and now the state’s education commissioner (Globe Apr 17, “Rating teachers on MCAS results”) have come up with a nifty new idea: In evaluating teachers, we should put more emphasis on standardized test scores.
The model for this is Tennessee – which is #43 on state rankings.
When a teacher moves from a low-income district to a high-income district, their students’ scores go up dramatically. Did the teacher change by moving five miles? Is this a plan to drive good teachers out of low-income school districts?
Study after study shows that by far the largest factor explaining low test scores is a child’s family income and neighborhood. If we want to improve student test scores, and much more important student learning, we should guarantee the students’ parents the right to a living wage job, and we should be sure the kids get adequate food and health care.
But to do that we’d have to make rich people start paying their taxes. It’s a lot easier to beat up on teachers.
Sincerely,
Dan Clawson
Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Member of the statewide Board of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, but emphatically not speaking for the MTA
2 comments:
OMG! Finally someone with a clue! Remember the "Bush Era" tax cuts for the wealthy... they are paying lobbyists well to make sure the politicians don't vote against their tax shelters. Congress also needs to reform the social service system and stop enabling poverty- if they get primo health insurance for free, what's going to motivate them to get off their A** to get a job with benefits?
I love these people who talk the talk, but have never walked the walk. If you were born with a silver spoon, you don't get what it's like to wake up hungry, wondering where you will be spending the night and figuring out where you can use a public washroom. Worry about MCAS? seriously? even Maslow has food and shelter on hierarchy of needs as top priorities
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