Portland Association of Teachers lets down its students and taxpayers
?District officials and teachers also couldn't reach consensus on how the grant should be used.?
The Portland Association of Teachers has again let down its
students and its taxpayers. Because of the opposition of PAT, Portland Public
Schools is unable to submit an application for federal funds for development of
personalized education plans. A possible $40 million dollars is at stake.
From the Oregonian article ?Portland Public Schools gives up on Race to the Top efforts? by Nicole Dungca (here):
Portland Public Schools has given up its chance to compete for up to $40 million in federal funds after failing to reach an agreement with its union about using test scores in teacher evaluations, one of the grant's requirements.
The district in August filed an intent to apply for a Race to the Top grant but
has dropped its efforts after officials could not obtain the union's support,
another requirement for the application.
And:
Melissa Goff, Portland schools' executive director of teaching and learning, said she was disappointed to give up the effort. "We felt highly committed as a district that we want to be shoulder to shoulder (with the union) in our work," she said.
The sides disagreed mainly on the requirement of using test scores as a factor to evaluate teachers, even though the controversial practice will soon be mandated in Oregon. District officials and teachers also couldn't reach consensus on how the grant should be used, and concerns arose about the application process' tight timeline, Goff said.
Gwen Sullivan, president of the Portland Association of
Teachers, said the union couldn't agree with the grant's definition of a
rigorous teacher evaluation model, which would use student test scores in some
manner. "The reality is that we're opposed to tying everything to
standardized test scores in math and reading, and ignoring other important
areas," she said.
(1)?? The
Portland Association of Teachers should once again be ashamed. They are holding
back progress in?education in Portland.
I am not a fan of high-stakes testing on very limited dimensions of student
skills, but I have no problem using such test results as one factor among many
in evaluating teachers. Nor should teachers object.
(2)?? I wish Dungca had teased out more information on the phrase ?District officials and teachers also couldn't reach consensus on how the grant should be used.? I would like to know what in the way of ?developing personalized education plans? the District was proposing. I fear that, beyond teacher evaluation methods, the PAT is opposed to many forms of online learning which are at the core of developing personalized education.
(3)?? The fear I blogged about in early September has become reality. I wrote (here):
My fear is that PPS, in its devotion to the status quo, will? not even try to compete with a final application and fall further behind as an outdated, inefficient education system.
So it is. In not even submitting a final application, PPS falls further behind. Shame on the Portland Association of Teachers.
?
exton ricky williams kurt warner kurt warner missouri primary minnesota caucus knowshon moreno