NY1 Mischaracterizes Teacher Data Reports

Here is how NY1 leads the story on the publication of Teacher Data Reports:

Parents will soon know if their children's teachers have been earning passing grades, as the city Department of Education is releasing the performance scores of tens of thousands of educators later today, but the teachers' union claims the scores are misleading and based on questionable data.

Notice how NY1 begins the sentence by saying the Teacher Data Reports will show if teachers are "passing" or not, then ends the sentence saying "but the union claims" they are not reliable, are misleading, etc.

The impression given is that these scores are indeed an accurate measure of a teacher's performance, regardless of what the union says, so come on back when we have the names and see where your kid's teacher ranks on the list.

Hell, even Dennis Walcott and Bill Gates say they're unreliable for an overall picture of teacher quality and shouldn't be published, but NY1 frames the TDR story as if it's only the self-interested union coming out against the TDRs

Ah yes - responsible journalism from the Time-Warner-owned NY1.

Expect even worse later today from the Post and the News.

And of course the Times and WNYC have created a "sophisticated tool" to put the data into "context."

As usual, the Times acts like a tabloid but tries to float above as some paragon of journalistic standards.

No word on whether the Times will have Judy Miller working on the accuracy of the Teacher Data Reports.

All horseshit - but remember, the reason these TDR's are seeing the light of day is because the UFT agreed to the pilot program that allowed for the collecting of the data and the creation of the reports in the first place.

Mulgrew can take out all the ads in the press he wants about the unfairness of the TDR's - it was the UFT leadership that brought us this mess by agreeing to the program.

And just as we got assurances back in those days from Randi that this data would never see the light of day in the press and would only be used to help teachers improve their craft, in the new evaluation system agreed to by the UFT and the NYSUT we hear the same assurances from the union braintrust.

You can be sure that the nightmare that these Teacher Data Reports are about to become for the teachers unfairly slandered by them will become a nightmare for EVERY teacher once the new evaluation system based upon value-added data is in place in the next few years.

Leo Casey can shill for the system all he wants at the UFT blog, Edwize.

We have evidence from this TDR mess where the teacher evaluation system is going to go in a few years.

No wonder the UFT, the NYCDOE chancellor, Wendy Kopp, and Bill Gates all don't want these reports to come to light.

They are afraid the "reforms" just agreed to last week that fundamentally change the way teachers are evaluated will be derailed by the TDR's and the way the newspapers and media outlets report on them (Chancellor Walcott alludes to that in his TDR opinion piece in today's Daily News.)

Because today is going to be ugly.

And the ugliness that comes today will make teachers less likely to want to "collaborate" on future "reforms" knowing just where these "reforms" end up and how they are used against them.