Wednesday, December 8, 2010

International Test Score Data Show US Firmly Mid-Pack
Scores for the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), an international assessment of 15-year-olds' capabilities in reading literacy, mathematics literacy, and science literacy, were released today. US students ranked average in reading and science literacy and a little below average in math. It’s likely that the Department of Education will use these scores to push for revision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, especially regarding low-performing schools. The Washington Post, December 7, 2010

Here's the response from Washigton Post blog, the Answer Sheet: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/standardized-tests/hysteria-over-pisa.html

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

More pay for more students? More pay for great teachers?

from Teaching Now Blog

Duncan: Stop Paying Teachers Like 'Interchangeable Widgets'

The secretary responded that he supports increasing compensation both for higher quality teachers and for those with more students. From a parent's perspective, he said, he would prefer to put his child in a class that had 26 students and an exceptional teacher rather than a class with 22 students and a mediocre one.

"I think our great teachers, we desperately underpay, undervalue. And so, pick a number: 80 grand, 100 grand, 120 grand. ... If you are a great teacher, whatever your class size is, you should be compensated in a very different way," Duncan said. "And if you take three or four more students, we shouldn't just pay you for being great, we should pay you more for taking those [additional] students."

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2010/11/duncan_cut_school_budgets_without_cutting_teacher_pay.html