At PS 321 there’s an early morning rally to protest the release of the DOE Teacher Data Reports (TDR) naming teachers. A PS 321 parent, Martha Foote of  Time Out from Testing, is spearheading PS 321’s efforts. On Friday morning other schools are also rallying – all at 8:15AM, including MS51,  the Secondary Schools at the John Jay complex, P.S. 29, P.S. 154 and P.S. 24.

Here is the letter from Martha Foote:

As a member of the PS 321 community, I oppose the public release of the Teacher Data Reports (TDRs).  While I fully support meaningful teacher evaluations, the TDRs – which rate teachers based on their classes’ state test score changes from one year to the next in English Language Arts (ELA) and math – have several problems.

1.      Experts agree that progress based solely on test scores is a poor way to measure student achievement or teacher effectiveness.  Learning is complex; assessment should be, too.

2.      The TDRs are full of errors due to inaccurate and unverified data.  For example, classes have been listed to the wrong teachers and non-math teachers have been given math ratings.  Teachers on child care leave have been given ratings even though they weren’t in the classroom.  One principal reported errors on nearly ¼ of her teachers.

3.      The TDRs are calculated using a flawed model that does not take into account a host of variables that affect test scores.  In fact, a recent analysis demonstrates that the TDRs have an average margin of error of 34-61 percentage points out of 100.

4.      Principals report that many of their best teachers have received poor ratings on their TDRs due to the flawed model.  For example, a minute .05 change in math test scores, from 3.97 to 3.92, landed one teacher in the bottom 6% of the rating scale.

5.      The DOE has used flawed test data to calculate the TDRs.  The State Education Department announced this summer that the state test scores have been inaccurate for the past several years, yet these inaccurate test scores are the basis of the TDRs.

Furthermore, I fear the release of the TDRs will harm public education in New York City as excellent teachers will resign rather than face the public humiliation of an inaccurate bad rating.  Additionally, there will be even more test prep in our schools as teachers will be compelled to drive up test scores instead of providing a quality education for all our children.