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Teachers union threatens ‘massive boycott’ of Los Angeles Times

VanceMack

Less like the tiger...more like the lion.
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Teachers union threatens

The Los Angeles teachers union president said Sunday he was organizing a “massive boycott” of The Times after the newspaper began publishing a series of articles that uses student test scores to estimate the effectiveness of district teachers.

“You’re leading people in a dangerous direction, making it seem like you can judge the quality of a teacher by … a test,” said A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, which has more than 40,000 members.

Can you IMAGINE grading someone based on test performance??? No WONDER the teachers union is so upset.
 
Teachers union threatens

The Los Angeles teachers union president said Sunday he was organizing a “massive boycott” of The Times after the newspaper began publishing a series of articles that uses student test scores to estimate the effectiveness of district teachers.

“You’re leading people in a dangerous direction, making it seem like you can judge the quality of a teacher by … a test,” said A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, which has more than 40,000 members.

Can you IMAGINE grading someone based on test performance??? No WONDER the teachers union is so upset.

It's funny because the teachers think you can judge a student by a test. :lol:
 
It's funny because the teachers think you can judge a student by a test. :lol:

The article goes on to talk about how it cost millions just to fire 4 substandard teachers because of the unions...and people wonder why the unions have such stellar reps...
 
It's funny because the teachers think you can judge a student by a test. :lol:

Actually, a proper analogy would be thinking that teachers can grade their students based on how well the students' goldfishes do on a test.
 
Teachers union threatens

The Los Angeles teachers union president said Sunday he was organizing a “massive boycott” of The Times after the newspaper began publishing a series of articles that uses student test scores to estimate the effectiveness of district teachers.

“You’re leading people in a dangerous direction, making it seem like you can judge the quality of a teacher by … a test,” said A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, which has more than 40,000 members.

Can you IMAGINE grading someone based on test performance??? No WONDER the teachers union is so upset.

So if you can grade a teacher based on how well their students do, does that mean you can rate CEOs based on how well their unionized employees do?
 
Actually, a proper analogy would be thinking that teachers can grade their students based on how well the students' goldfishes do on a test.

Not at all, you can't teach goldfish anything.

Hey if you guys want to get behind the idea that "not all children learn the same" and shouldn't be compelled to attend taylorist style schooling.
I got your back but I'm betting dollars to donuts, that the vast majority of these teachers believe in that system.

If that's the case, why aren't the results speaking to the education they are transmitting?
 
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Teachers union threatens

The Los Angeles teachers union president said Sunday he was organizing a “massive boycott” of The Times after the newspaper began publishing a series of articles that uses student test scores to estimate the effectiveness of district teachers.

“You’re leading people in a dangerous direction, making it seem like you can judge the quality of a teacher by … a test,” said A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, which has more than 40,000 members.

Can you IMAGINE grading someone based on test performance??? No WONDER the teachers union is so upset.

i like the idea of grading someone on test performance ... as long as it is an objective evaluation
what kind of test performance would be expected of a classroom of historically high achieving students
now, what test results would you expect from a classroom filled with historically poor performing students
if we measured the performance each of the students in each class from the beginning of the year until the end, and compared the improvement in scores over that time, weighted by the student's historic performance - then i think you will have begun to establish an objective measure
and the teacher's assessment of their administrative staff at their schools should be used to the same extent of the administrators' subjective assessments of the teachers (360 degree performance appraisal)
go to RateMyTeachers.com | Teacher and Campus Ratings provided by Students and Parents ... the students know who is and is not a good teacher ... so do the other teachers. they also know who is an ineffective prinicipal

here were a couple of quotes in the story ( Los Angeles ) that jumped out at me:
She quotes a sentiment that Duffy and UTLA officials have made into something of a motto: "It's so subjective, and getting rid of teachers should never be subjective."
in reading this article, we find that a staff of SIX attorneys is unable to process more than seven terminations for cause. only one of which the teacher did not prevail. the lament should be about the piss poor administration (1) which cannot negotiate reasonable terms in the union contract to expedite the out processing of teachers found inadequate; (2) which issues tenure without adequate justification (and why the need for tenure, anyway); (3) which cannot/will not objectively document the record and initiate the outprocessing of inadequate teachers
there is a group in the education system which is clearly not doing it job to properly educate our children - it's the (mis)management of the education system

Duffy disagrees with her assessment, saying, "The vast majority of teachers are doing a good job. I can't begin to tell you how many vindictive principals there are."
there are LOTS of administrators in positions of authority who abuse that authority because their subordinate is someone with whom they personally dislike - frequently because that teacher will not act obsequious
my wife is a retired teacher; i am an active union official (but not of a teachers' union). abuses of authority by principals was frequently found ... but almost always ignore by the higher ups

our kids deserve good teachers
they need a good education
but it is the management of the education system which is inadequate
that is where the change needs to happen
 
our kids deserve good teachers
they need a good education
but it is the management of the education system which is inadequate
that is where the change needs to happen

Agree with most of what you say but the system is going to eat itself before any change happens.

I don't want a system at all.
So much abuse and waste it's ridiculous.
 
Actually, a proper analogy would be thinking that teachers can grade their students based on how well the students' goldfishes do on a test.

riiiight...because the teachers arent paid to teach...and their students performance of course is no indicator of the effectiveness of the teacher.

WTF...no standards...lets just let ANYONE be a teacher. Oh...wait...maybe thats why Johnny cant read and we are doing such a miserable job educating the youth.
 
Teachers union threatens

The Los Angeles teachers union president said Sunday he was organizing a “massive boycott” of The Times after the newspaper began publishing a series of articles that uses student test scores to estimate the effectiveness of district teachers.

“You’re leading people in a dangerous direction, making it seem like you can judge the quality of a teacher by … a test,” said A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, which has more than 40,000 members.

Can you IMAGINE grading someone based on test performance??? No WONDER the teachers union is so upset.

Actually, the teachers have a point. The environment of the school and the community has a large input in determining test scores as well. Any teacher could get better results in a suburban school district with a strong educational culture than in the inner city or Appalachia where such a culture does not exist.
 
So if you can grade a teacher based on how well their students do, does that mean you can rate CEOs based on how well their unionized employees do?

CEOs SHOULD be judged on the productivity of the company they are hired to lead. Foremen would more likely be directly responsible for their workers prodcutivity, training, etc.

Teachers on the other hand SHOULD be held accountable if they prove they cant get the job done.
 
Actually, the teachers have a point. The environment of the school and the community has a large input in determining test scores as well. Any teacher could get better results in a suburban school district with a strong educational culture than in the inner city or Appalachia where such a culture does not exist.

Of course. No expectations...no standards. Why...you would think that MIGHT lead to the problems we have NOW...

Oh...no...Im sure they are all FABulous teachers...ALL of them...and there should be NO standards.
 
Not at all, you can't teach goldfish anything.

Hey if you guys want to get behind the idea that "not all children learn the same" and shouldn't be compelled to attend taylorist style schooling.
I got your back but I'm betting dollars to donuts, that the vast majority of these teachers believe in that system.

If that's the case, why aren't the results speaking to the education they are transmitting?

I am a strong support of tracking, but where I taught in Georgia it was not allowed because it was considered racist...
 
Of course. No expectations...no standards. Why...you would think that MIGHT lead to the problems we have NOW...

Oh...no...Im sure they are all FABulous teachers...ALL of them...and there should be NO standards.

You have the same teacher, both very competant -- you put one in a culture of educational excellence and another in the inner city and which one do YOU think will get better test results???
 
Yes, you can judge a student by a test, but can you judge a teacher by the student's tests?

A series of tests over multiple years, possibly.

I don't agree with taylorist style schooling, by and large these people do.
When they are put to the fire, which should support their beliefs, they retreat. :shrug:

Either you can impart knowledge in a uniform, managed way for all students or you can't.
All this does is show that the teachers are doing their job poorly or the system itself is set up wrong.
Bad for the establishment both ways.
 
So if you can grade a teacher based on how well their students do, does that mean you can rate CEOs based on how well their unionized employees do?

In the words of Sheldon, "Bazinga"
 
So if you can grade a teacher based on how well their students do, does that mean you can rate CEOs based on how well their unionized employees do?

CEOs are graded based on worker performance. CEOs are graded on keeping costs low, productivity high and revenues growing. Worker performance impacts all three.
 
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