Teachers tied to test scores.... more and more.....

(Excerpts from) Boston gets an F in teacher appraisals; Report criticizes evaluation system, termination rules, The Boston Globe, Tue Feb 23 2010, James Vaznis (emphasis mine)

A new state law that bolsters a superintendent's ability to fire teachers at underperforming schools could be undermined in Boston because administrators routinely neglect a basic task: evaluating teachers. ...... according to a report commissioned by the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education that was provided to the Globe yesterday.

Under the law, superintendents can terminate teachers at a failing school only for ``good cause,'' elevating the importance of job evaluations to provide evidence for dismissal or as a way for teachers to challenge their firings.

The findings could also affect the debate in Boston on merit pay for outstanding teachers. Without regular evaluations, Boston leaders could face accusations of favoritism when determining which teachers should be rewarded.
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Increasing the scrutiny of the nation's teachers is a key component of President Obama's education overhaul agenda, which would link teacher performance to students' standardized test scores. Massachusetts education officials have promised the Obama administration that they would develop more data-driven teacher reviews.

Last night, the Boston Teachers Union panned the report as ``antiteacher.'' ....... ``The overall premise of much of the draft report is faulty, essentially: Teachers need to be `fixed' and the `fixing' needs to be done to them, not with them,'' wrote Richard Stutman, the union's president. ``And principals, though flawed and often inexperienced, need to have full flexibility to do what they need to do.''

In an interview, Stutman said the teacher-quality group that conducted the report had analyzed other urban cities, such as Seattle and Hartford, drawing similar conclusions. He said the National Council on Teacher Quality is on a crusade against teachers.
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