Mr. Ruelas was known as a teacher who stayed late and came in early to help his students but when the Los Angeles Times released a database of every teacher in L.A school district, he was rated "less effective than average." Colleagues and family member say that he became more depressed afterwards and they are certain that this is what lead to his suicide. Now it is being debated whether or not this database which is used nationally is a flawed assessment of teachers and their teaching. My team's policy is one that focuses on elementary school children and getting them to college. This report makes me think twice about the ways in which we may have been planning to assess teachers in our program.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/10/education/10teacher.html?hp
-Victoire Iradukunda
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This is a very sad case. This teacher put in such an effort to have all of his work done and spending his time dedicated to his students. How can a database rate how effective a teacher is? This also makes me think twice about what is the most appropriate way to evaluate a policy.
ReplyDeleteYes, this is a sad story but in contrast to what the article suggests I believe that the database was not the main reason that lead to his suicide. I'm sure it may have initiated it somehow but there has to be other personal issues that are not discussed to an extent. I can conclude that this teacher was mentally ill or even depressed. There should be some type of policy implemented that tests for mental disorders in teachers.
ReplyDeleteActually, I think that this is a perfect example of the flawed system of using test grades as an indicator for how good a teacher is. Systems and formulas like this completely fail to acknowledge the amount of students in a class from poor home lives and students with IEPs that statistically are less like likely to do well on tests, among other things.
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