Rhee open to releasing value-added scores

[Starry Messenger]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcschools/2010/08/rhee_open_to_releasing_value-a.html

Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee says she would consider making public data that show how effective individual teachers are at raising their students' test scores -- their so-called "value added."

"It would have to be managed in the right way and...given the right context," Rhee told The Los Angeles Times Monday, a day after it published an analysis of teacher effectiveness in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The newspaper used seven years of reading and math test scores to estimate the impact that individual elementary school teachers had on their students. It said the findings confirmed what school district leaders such as Rhee have long contended -- that highly effective teachers can help their students make major strides in a year's time, despite disadvantages posed by poverty or limited English skills.

Unlike Los Angeles, the District has started to use value-added data, making it 50 percent of the annual IMPACT evaluation for some teachers. Last month, 26 educators were dismissed for poor overall evaluation scores. It is not known whether the value-added piece was decisive in any of the cases.

<snip>

Rhee told The Times that releasing value-added statistics could also confuse parents and create logistical problems for administrators. What she didn't say is that there might also be privacy issues, since the data is part of a personnel evaluation. Despite the potential obstacles, Rhee said disclosure of the scores could empower parents to demand better instruction for their children.

"Even though it would certainly cause potential challenges for the district, it's the right sort of pressure we want to see to reform the system," Rhee said.

I'd be really surprised if the numbers confirmed jack considering how they've been massaging stats for this entire ed reform scam.


I mostly posted this as an excuse to pass along a little piece of local Rhee gossip that I thought was hilarious but not really "Education" related. Hizzoner Kevin Johnson of Sacto and Michelle Rhee (young Broadites in love) are getting married out here Sept. 4th. She mailed out the chi-chi wedding invites with a huge spelling error--the name of the host was misspelled. :evilgrin:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/reliable-source/2010/08/this_just_in_rhee_etc.html


http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcschools/2010/08/who_is_angelo_tsakopoulos.html

Who is Angelo Tsakopoulos?

His name may not mean much on this coast--and it was reportedly misspelled on Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's wedding invitations--but in California Democratic politics the host of her Sept. 4 reception is about as big as it gets. Tsakopoulos, 74, is the patriarch of a real estate development empire in northern and central California and a huge source of cash for Democratic politicians, including Rhee's husband-to-be, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson.

According to the Sacramento Bee, Tsakopoulos hosted a fundraiser for Johnson's 2008 campaign and helped underwrite the mayor's swearing-in ceremony. He also was an early member of the board of St. Hope, the non-profit that runs Johnson's charter schools (Rhee was also a member). Gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides, a one-time business partner, received nearly $5 million from the Tsakopoulos family for his unsuccessful 2006 run, according to AllGov, including $1.25 million from his daughter, Eleni Tsakopoulos Kounalakis, who was named U.S. Ambassador to Hungary earlier this year (They were pretty generous to the Obama campaign as well. Tsakopoulos' son, Kyriakos, was on the national finance committee). Angelo Tsakopoulos' name appears on a 1997 list of Democratic deep pockets who spent a night in the White House Lincoln bedroom, courtesy of President Bill Clinton.

Oops.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. How many points did Rhee get on her evaluation for taping kids' mouths?

Let's see that evaluation.

[Hannah Bell]

2. +100. she got top marks for brown-nosing, though. some people will walk over their grandmother for

money & power. sickening.

[Catshrink]

3. I want to see her miraculous test scores.

She claims she raised reading test scores by some huge amount but dang, the school she was at couldn't find the records. I read about this on DU - probably a MF or HB post. This would be a good thing to research. I wish Rachel was on this....

[Starry Messenger]

4. And what the heck does "value-added" even mean?

I can't figure that out. Where does this phrase come from? I've heard of the value-added tax in some European countries for luxuries, etc. I've never heard it to describe workers, ever.

[Catshrink]

5. We're a commodity, just like the kids.

The business model applied to education because hey, all kids are alike.

[Starry Messenger]

7. And yet they accuse *us* of treating the kids like they are widgets.

The Orwellian projections are the most maddening part of this crap. That and the right-wing stereotypes of "teh terrible teacher".

[Catshrink]

8. Don't forget the big bad teachers' unions.

They're eeeevvvvviiiiillllllll!

[Starry Messenger]

9. Oh right.

They lurk like the Death Star, blasting away at the hopes and dreams of innocent little children. Isn't that next on our secret agenda? I signed up to bring chips to that meeting.

[MichiganVote]

6. Oh what a fucking joke..every parent in her district will want the *preferred* teacher.

Then she can waste her time mediating with parents about this bullshit. And when she won't her administrators will rebel and leave in droves.

Its about time for this idiot to join the fed's in education isn't it?