Tennessee teachers push back on evaluation process

[alp227]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — When Tennessee was competing for a half-billion dollars in federal education money, teachers agreed to allow the state to ramp up its use of student test scores for evaluating educators.

But since winning the $500 million Race to the Top competition in 2010, teachers say the state has gone too far in using student test scores to assess their performance.

Teachers say that isn't what they signed up for when the state was competing for the prestigious and lucrative Race to the Top grant. They are now calling for legislation to place a moratorium on the use of so-called TVAAS scores until a special committee can review them. Teachers also want legislation that prohibits the scores from being tied to teacher licensing.

The Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System, or TVAAS, was adopted by state lawmakers in 1992. It wasn't intended to grade teachers but to help school directors gauge student progress, according to Jim Wrye, chief lobbyist for the Tennessee Education Association, the state's largest teachers' union.

full: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/tennessee-teachers-push-back-evaluation-process

[madfloridian]

1. Good for them. Michelle Rhee & ex hubby Kevin Huffman, TFA are attacking them hard.

New TN education commissioner is a VP of Teach for America. Rhee there also as anti-union.

The Republican governor's selection is Kevin Huffman, vice president of public affairs at Teach for America, a program that has tried to improve classroom teaching by placing recent college graduates in low-income schools and is often criticized by teacher unions.

Huffman, 40, will manage the state's $500 million in federal Race to the Top education grants and its ongoing relationship with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has pledged $90 million to the troubled Memphis school system.

..."The 20-year-old Teach for America has been criticized by the National Education Association and other teachers' unions for putting inexperienced 20-somethings with just five weeks of training in classrooms and for letting top graduates experiment in public education for a couple of years before moving on to something else.

More:

And his ex-wife, Michelle Rhee, is taking time out from wreaking havoc on Florida schools and heading to Memphis. In Florida she recommended that 8% of the state's teachers be fired.