Edcetera

Teaching is the only profession where experience is considered a liability.

The first year is always the hardest for teachers. They are less concerned with how "perfect" they are than in just surviving that first year.
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A know-nothing spews nonsense about things he knows nothing about.

A typical administrator's mentality, but unfortunately this one heads the Department of Education.
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Pearson has now taken over the national board certification exam for teachers who think they are better than their colleagues because they gamed a system where they could get certified.
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When it comes to education "reform," teachers and other educators are not allowed to give their point of view:

We recently had our personal experience with how difficult it is to be heard. On July 26th, New York Governor Cuomo’s Education Commission held its only meeting in New York City. The purpose of the commission is to travel around the state in order to hear from stakeholders regarding suggestions for New York State school improvements.

Prior to the time and place of the meeting being posted, both of us sent a request to testify on the topic of teacher and principal quality. As high school principals, we are deeply concerned about the direction of the Regents reform agenda, especially in regard to evaluating teachers using test scores. We were joined by an outstanding New York City high school principal and two teachers from South Side High School. Both teachers had submitted requests to speak, one sending that request and her remarks weeks in advance.

We were not allowed to speak. That was certainly troubling, but even more troubling was the overall staging of the event to ensure that the weight of testimony would support the predetermined, favored policy agenda. The selected panelists on teacher and principal quality were not practicing educators. The first speaker, former CNN reporter Campbell Brown, spoke about sex abuse and arbitrators’ decisions. Brown has no experience as an educator or public school parent, and she has been inconsistent in disclosing that her husband is on the board of Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst.

This country is truly fucked.

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WCSD's new sup Pedro Martinez has his 90-day "entry" plan out. You can read the thing right here.