Interesting

Is this the future of education?

The L.A. Times published a story (thanks to John Merrow's blog, Taking Note, for linking to the article) in which they shed light on two teachers whom they have tracked for several years. Both teach the same grade and subject. Yet, after analyzing the test data, one teacher's kids are always far ahead on the standardized tests at the end of the year compared to the other teacher's kids.

Teachers, what do you make of this?

The article names names and calls educators out on the carpet.

Is this the future of education?

Should terrible teaching be tolerated? We all know it is. And for anyone who has raised their hands and then shrugged and thought, well, what can you do about it? The teacher is tenured.

Well, publishing a story in the paper about them might fix that!

Furthermore, the Times has stockpiled the results of years of test data. They even have a place in the story where teachers can actually log in to see their students' results!

Think about that. Imagine your local newspaper putting out the test results of your students.

I haven't taught Comp 9 for a number of years, but what would it be like if The Times published my name and stated that 12 kids passed the BST writing test with a 4, one earned a 5, and three failed?

Or what if I taught AP and they published the number of those who passed and failed the test?

Interesting times in which we live and work. That's for sure.