Teachers plan strike in northeastern Pa. district

Teachers are planning to strike next week in a small community in northeastern Pennsylvania, reports the Associated Press. Officials in the Old Forge school district say the walkout is set for Dec. 20. That’s two days before winter break starts. Superintendent R. Scott Jeffery says the teachers union notified him Wednesday of the planned strike. The district says no reason was given for the walkout…

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Comparing the leading classroom observation tools

Different observation tools are available to suit various needs.

Policy makers in states from coast to coast are demanding more rigorous teacher evaluations that lead to real improvements in instruction—and school systems are changing their practices as a result.

Central to this effort are software tools that help school leaders record their observations during classroom walkthoughs and share this information with teachers to foster their professional growth.

Many programs include free apps for conducting walkthroughs using a mobile device—though not all solutions can be used both online and offline. Other features to compare include the software’s flexibility (can it be customized to meet each school’s evaluation needs?) and what sharing and reporting capabilities it includes.…Read More

How effective are student surveys in teacher evaluations?

Should student surveys hold weight in teacher evaluations?

Student surveys about their classroom teachers have merit and could be useful, but school leaders should take care to not be too influenced by student feedback, according to a new review of a large-scale study of teacher effectiveness.

A report from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s “Measures of Effective Teaching” (MET) Project gives advice on administering and using information from student surveys to evaluate teachers and provide feedback to them.

Asking Students about Teaching” aims to learn whether student surveys are a valid tool to help evaluate teachers. The report also offers guidance and best practices for using student feedback surveys.…Read More

Study chides D.C. teacher turnover

The District has higher-than-desirable teacher turnover, but a report released Nov. 8 finds that the public school system is succeeding in holding onto its best teachers at nearly twice the rate as its lowest performers, reports the Washington Post. Still, far too many excellent teachers are leaving the school system each year, according to TNTP, a nonprofit teacher recruitment organization that conducted the study…

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District’s ‘Teacher of the Year’ laid off

Michelle Apperson, recently awarded the title of “Teacher of the Year” for the Sacramento City Unified School District, has lost her job, the Huffington Post reports. Apperson is one of nearly 400 Sacramento City Unified teachers who received lay-off notices last month due to budget cuts. Neither her nine years at Sutterville Elementary School nor her best-teacher honor could shield her from state law, which carries a “last in, first out” policy, requiring that teachers be laid off by seniority — starting with the most recently hired. Sometimes, teachers who are more junior can avoid lay-offs if they are qualified in an area with a teacher shortage — like special education or math and science — or can teach across subjects and ages.

It hurts on a personal level because I really love what I do,” Apperson told KXTV. “But professionally, politically, I get why it happens.”

Sacramento City Unified district officials approved $28 million in cuts this year, the Sacramento Bee reports. The system could see another $15 million in cuts if Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax hike initiative fails to pass by voters in November, forcing additional furlough days……Read More

Amid massive budget cuts, teachers opt to work for free

A group of teachers at Benefield Elementary School in Lawrenceville, Ga. are offering free reading classes to students this summer, the Huffington Post reports. Led by teacher Karon Stocks, more than 40 teachers are volunteering three hours once a week during the summer months to keep kids’ minds sharp, helping them review what they learned during the academic year. Around 100 families have already shown up for the classes in the three weeks the teachers have been operating.

“I think it’s really important that the [kids] not just be on the computer or watching TV,” Stocks told WGCL-TV. The initiative by Stocks and her coworkers comes as Gwinnett County schools is facing an $89 million revenue shortfall. The drop in funding is attributable to environmental changes like declines in tax revenue, loss of federal stimulus funds, increase in health insurance premiums for employees and the need to hire more teachers due to enrollment growth…

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Watch: Teachers find that higher degrees do not mean higher pay

A controversial Florida state law limits how new teachers may receive bonus pay based on advanced degrees, preventing an art teacher, for example, from earning a bonus for having a Ph.D. in English, the Huffington Post reports. Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, one of the law’s co-authors, says the Student Success Act of 2011 was designed to incentivize teachers to focus on student results, and includes not compensating teachers for advanced degrees that do not directly translate to student learning. Brevard Public Schools have taken the law to mean that degrees must correspond to teaching certificates for all new teachers, Florida Today reports. Previously, teachers received a stipend — which can go as high as $5,200 for a doctorate — just on the basis of possessing an advanced degree in any subject. The law has sparked outrage among more than a third of 141 new teachers hired by Brevard Public Schools this past year, including 25-year-old Scott Johnson…

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Meet the ‘worst’ 8th grade math teacher in NYC

For 10 months, Carolyn Abbott waited for the other shoe to drop. In April 2011, Abbott, who teaches mathematics to seventh- and eighth-graders at the Anderson School, a citywide gifted-and-talented school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, received some startling news, says Aaron Pallas, professor of sociology and education at Teachers College, Columbia University, for the Washington Post. Her score on the Teacher Data Report, the New York City Department of Education’s effort to isolate a teacher’s contribution to her students’ performance on New York State’s math and English Language Arts (ELA) tests in grades four through eight, said that 32 percent of seventh-grade math teachers and 0 percent of eighth-grade math teachers scored below her. She was, according to this report, the worst eighth-grade math teacher in New York City, where she has taught since 2007…

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Maine teachers to get ‘financial literacy’ how-tos

Maine teachers will get some training on how to help their students manage money, the Associated Press reports. The 3rd annual financial literacy conference will be held Thursday at the Augusta Civic Center. Educators from across Maine are expected to attend the day-long program, which features state and national experts. They’ll offer specialized resources and best practices to incorporate financial education in K-12 and post-secondary levels. American schools have long relegated personal finance to a home economics course, and many students got their lessons at home. Now some states, excluding Maine, require public high schools to offer a personal finance course…

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California middle school teacher fired over porn film role

A Southern California middle school science teacher who once appeared in a porn film has been fired by her school district over concerns the issue could pose a distraction to students, officials said on Thursday, Reuters reports. The five-person Oxnard school board voted unanimously on Wednesday night in favor of the dismissal of Stacie Halas, who had been a teacher at the Richard B. Haydock Intermediate School for almost three years. Superintendent Jeff Chancer said that, as a result of Halas’ role as a porn actress, the district found she had displayed immoral conduct, dishonesty and evident unfitness for service.

“To have Ms. Halas back at school would cause continued distraction and disruption, and it would be difficult for the students to concentrate,” Chancer said. “I don’t know Ms. Halas, but I feel badly for her.”

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Pink slips sent to more than 4,000 teachers

In a repeat of last year’s mass layoffs, approximately 4,100 teachers in the Detroit Public Schools district received notices in the mail this week that they would need to reapply for their jobs for the coming school year, the Huffington Post reports. The new round of terminations goes into effect Aug. 24. The district mailed the letters out Tuesday, and administrative staff and non-union employees received similar notices several weeks ago. The tactic was used last year by Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb, who oversaw the state’s receivership of DPS prior to current Emergency Manager Roy Roberts.

“They are doing this again like they did last year and it’s going to be chaos again in September,” Keith Johnson, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers told the Detroit News. “I’m preparing for battle.”

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