WHy Teacher Evaluations Can't Be Done Properly Without Factoring in Huge Wealth Disparities

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/education/why-teacher-evaluations-cant-be-done-properly-without-factoring-huge-wealth-disparities



As California tries to come up with a more robust way of evaluating teachers, the biggest hurdle could be something educators don’t have any control over: the state’s increasing socioeconomic disparities.

“The work that teachers do in Watts cannot be compared to [the work done by] teachers that teach in Beverly Hills,” says Morgan Polikoff with the University of Southern California’s Center for Education Policy Analysis. “Evaluations should be based on factors [that teachers] can control in their classrooms, not on things they don’t have any control over … issues like poverty and other socioeconomic limitations.”

According to the latest data, some 60 percent of California’s six million public school students come from minority communities. Half of them live in low-income households, while one in four is a designated English Language Learner.

Academically the state ranks near the bottom in nationwide assessments, including the 2012 National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation's Report Card, in which California placed 47th.

[DrDan]

1. teacher evaluations are an art - not a science

seeking effective boilerplate solutions is fruitless