"The items are ambitious, but not unattainable...We must be ambitious."
Ambitious?
I'd say it's quite ambitious to put out a new slate of state and local tests aligned to a new curriculum that is completely untested anywhere and not backed by any research and develop a whole new teacher evaluation system tied to those tests using an untested value-added measurement with an unknown margin of error and an unknown stability standard and fire teachers who come up short on that measurement.
That sure is "ambitious," all right.
Especially when Dr. King couldn't put out the 4th-8th ELA and math tests this year without a plethora (Common Core word!) of errors that undermined the validity of the testing system and the confidence students, parents and teachers have in the system.
Even more so when the NYCDOE couldn't put out a few foreign language exams without a bunch of embarrassing errors as well.
And the cherry on top comes with the development of the value-added measurement these geniuses at the NYSED plan to use on NY State teachers.
They haven't developed that measurement yet, but the VAM the city used on 4th-8th grade teachers had very large margins of error (maximum MOE of 87%) and wide swings in stability.
Since the tests and the VAM have yet to be developed fully and will not be piloted before a statewide roll-out, you can be sure there will be more than a few hiccups in this system.
Yes, these sure are ambitious plans Dr. King, Regents Chancellor Tisch and Governor Cuomo have in mind.
That's life in modern America these days - our corporate overlords and their functionaries like Dr. King are all about ambition and the rest of us - in this case the students, teachers, and schools on the front lines of the education reform battle - pay the price when they fail (as they mostly do.)
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