Apparently, President Obama’s Secretary of Education Arne Duncan didn’t get the memo from the Denver Public Schools teachers union that only pestilence and disease can come from the teacher evaluations Colorado passed a few years ago.
PeakNation™, you may remember earlier this year a lawsuit resumed that the Colorado Education Association had put on hold. They did so so Coloradans didn’t notice Gov. John Hickenlooper’s proposed billion dollar tax increase wasn’t so transparently a union money grab. One of the main sticking points in the lawsuit for them was the loss of the ability for the union to thrust bad teachers on principals who didn’t want them. As we wrote then:
…like The Denver Post points out in their criticism of the practice of “forced placement” above, it’s not the well-off schools that usually suffer but the disadvantage ones who are most in need of exceptional teachers.
We don’t know about you PeakNation™ but if a teacher is so bad at their job that after working in a school district long enough to acquire tenure no other school in their district wants them, well, we guess the proof is in the pudding. Kids at disadvantaged schools should not be punished for the sake of upholding an outdated measure.
That very same teacher evaluation system that the CEA and the DPS teachers union cannot speak ill enough of, has one big supporter in Duncan. As Chalkbeat Colorado reports Duncan Saying:
I know new evaluation systems are imperfect and can be unsettling for teachers. But tell me another way to figure out which teachers are succeeding and which are struggling, and how we can help more teachers excel. We need to learn from districts where meaningful evaluation and high expectations are coupled with real support and teacher leadership — districts like Hillsborough County and Denver. [the Peak emphasis]
He would revisit the subject again later as he was interviewed:
Later during an on-stage interview, Duncan referenced his recent visit to Colorado more than once. He said while it’s too early to know how well Denver’s teacher evaluation program, which includes peer reviews and mentoring from fellow teachers, will work, he said it was innovating and promising. [the Peak emphasis]
Dog-ear this page folks, we’ll need to revisit it again the next time a teacher union shill of a politician tries to attack this commonsense reform once again.