State education board Chairman Allan B. Taylor and Education Commissioner Dianna Wentzell both praised the action as an important clarification of the role state tests should play: a goal-setting tool for teachers, not part of a formula for rating an individual teacher’s effectiveness in the classroom. State teacher unions had fought using the state tests as part of teacher evaluations for years.
Smarter Balanced Assessment
Posted inEducation
Tests show gains but about half of students still below grade level
About half of the 234,000 elementary and middle school students tested during the last school year were not at grade level in reading or math, state education officials announced Thursday. But a higher proportion of students were at grade level than in the previous year.
Posted inEducation
Union steps up lobbying despite movement on teacher evaluation
Despite indications the state will delay linking student test scores to teacher evaluations for another year and will scale back how heavily those scores must be weighed, the state’s largest teachers’ union is stepping up its lobbying efforts.
Posted inEducation
Feds say too few students took required tests in 148 CT schools
After thousands of Connecticut students failed to take required statewide achievement tests last spring, federal officials want to know what Connecticut education leaders are doing to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Posted inEducation
U.S. education bill may spell new clash between Malloy, teachers
WASHINGTON — Since the new federal education bill would end many requirements of No Child Left Behind and give states broad authority to fashion their own education policy, Connecticut’s teachers unions are pressing Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to take advantage of the new freedoms. But Malloy has not indicated whether he would do so.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Smarter Balanced test is validation for CT’s hardest-working teachers
I respectfully disagree with the Ann Policelli Cronin’s recently published opinion, “SBAC: Failing most Connecticut children in more ways than one.” I am currently a high school English Language Arts teacher, and I take issue when people who are no longer in the classroom teaching students each day “advise” the rest of us on what to do for kids. I take issue with administrators and consultants constantly seeking to stay relevant by disrupting the educational process in classrooms, with an approach that is long past its prime. The truth is that our students do not measure up, and neither do many teachers, frankly. It’s a nationwide epidemic. Ms. Cronin reports that Connecticut students have some of the highest NAEP scores in the country, but she’s ignoring the real story: namely, that Connecticut is not really servicing all students equitably.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Op-Ed: Common Core can be a success for our children
The Common Core Standards issue is rife with misinformation, none of which helps build a rigorous and competitive educational program that will prepare children for success in life.