Teleconference on effective teaching Tuesday in Doylestown
Posted: Sunday, October 30, 2011 12:00 am | Updated: 5:57 am, Sun Oct 30, 2011.
The Bucks County Intermediate Unit will host "Making the Grade Virtual Town Hall Meeting on Effective Teaching," a statewide video conference for educators, parents, business and government officials and others concerned about public education in Pennsylvania.
Open to the public, the event will run from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at the BCIU offices at 705 North Shady Retreat Rd., Doylestown.
This town hall is part of a statewide effort sponsored by the Pennsylvania Association of Intermediate Units (PAIU) and Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children (PPC).
Educators in schools that are piloting new teacher evaluation systems and state Education Secretary Ron Tomalis will lead a discussion about the impact of their efforts on teaching and student achievement.
Register at www.bucksiu.org.
3 comments:
Threadjack alert!!
I've seen numerous letters from SOCers in the courier times. I'm seeing a lot of signs around town for them as well. I am concerned that the MM team is not doing enough to get the truth out there. If a lie is repeated often enough, people will believe it. I hope there is some master strategy to rebut the letters published and get the truth out to the masses beyond what is posted on these websites.
If you are worried you should be helping the cause. You can help greatly by talking to whoever you can to getting the facts out there.
From today's BCCT.
Evaluating teachers focus of town hall meeting
Evaluating teachers focus of town hall meeting By BILL DEVLIN STAFF WRITER Calkins Media, Inc. | 1 comment
More than 1,400 people gathered at 30 sites throughout the state Tuesday night to discuss how to grade Pennsylvania’s teachers.
The virtual town hall meeting was held at the state’s 29 Intermediate Unit sites, including Bucks and Montgomery counties.
Approximately 70 people were at the Bucks County IU in Doylestown Township to hear about a pilot program tested last year in a handful of western Pennsylvania districts and Allentown to develop a new tool for evaluating a teacher’s effectiveness.
Phase II of the evaluation pilot program will start in January and include the Palisades, Quakertown, Pennsbury, and Morrisville school districts as well as the Bucks County IU.
Secretary of Education Ron Tomalis served as moderator of a panel discussion that included teachers and administrators who had participated in the initial teacher evaluation program.
Joan Benso, president and CEO of Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, said Tomalis and Gov. Tom Corbett “have identified teacher evaluation” as a key to improving education in the state.
“We are taking steps to make sure every child in Pennsylvania has an effective teacher,” said Benso.
Tomalis said the traditional “satisfactory or unsatisfactory” rating of teachers is not effective. According to the education secretary, 99.4 percent of teachers are rated satisfactory.
“That has to be updated,” he said, noting that the evaluation tool used in the pilot program includes more defined criteria including student achievement.
“We in the Commonwealth believe now is the time to address this issue,” said Tomalis.
He said that state Rep. Paul Clymer of Upper Bucks, who is chairman of the Republican Education Committee, will be addressing the issue of teacher evaluation Thursday with committee members.
The tool used in the pilot program was the Danielson’s Framework, which rates teachers in four areas: planning and preparation, classroom environment, instruction and professional responsibilities. However, Danielson’s constituted only 50 percent of the evaluation; the other criteria included various data involving student achievement.
Nina Esposito-Visgitis, president of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, said while teachers had some initial concerns about participating in the pilot program, they appreciated the feedback they received from the evaluations.
“Teachers want to hone their craft,” the union president said. “If we (the teachers) are moving forward then the students are moving forward.”
Citing a Harvard University study, Donna Belas, superintendent of the Cornell School District, a participant in the pilot program, said the top three factors in a student’s success in school are the education level of the mother, the household median income, and classroom instruction.
“We can’t control the first two,” Belas said, “but we can can control the third factor.”
Michael J. Masko, assistant executive director of the Buck County IU, said that this month administrators from the Bucks schools participating in the second pilot program will receive training in the new evaluation tool to use beginning in January.
Masko said other districts will participate in the evaluation pilot in the next few years.
“The state assembly will have to approve the changes,” said Masko.
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