Update: Teacher allegedly disciplined because her students' scores are too high

[Paulbot99]

…Coyle, who was reassigned from her classroom to a clerical job at the end of April, said her students have consistently scored above average on state tests, winning her the highest possible rating on the pupil performance section of the state's Annual Professional Performance Review.

But her students' solid work has become a problem for Rhame Avenue School teachers at the next grade level and for the school as a whole, according to White.
The New York State Education Department's performance rating system is designed to reward instructors and schools when students show academic improvement from one grade to the next, White said.
But Coyle's students’ scores either don't improve or get worse while they are in fifth grade. As a result a few fifth grade teachers have been rated as less than effective and the school's entire score has been pulled down, which could pose a threat to state funding, according to Coyle.
The instructor said her superiors have regularly encouraged her and her colleagues to avoid overachieving and to keep their scores from exceeding the state rating of "effective."
"One faculty member said our job is not to be optimal, but to be adequate. That underlying message of mediocrity was promoted," Coyle said. Teachers were also told to accept that a third of their students would understand the material, another third would be average and the rest would fail, she said.
"You’re assuming from the start that you are abandoning a third of the children," she said…

http://www.fios1news.com/longisland/...1#.U7sy038o7mz

Do not outperform your co-workers look bad, Comrade. The school needs those funds!

[mad cow]

Kinda reminds you of a bucket of crabs.

[Paulbot99]

Kinda reminds you of a bucket of crabs.

If one tries to climb out, the others pull it back down? Sounds about right.

[KingRobbStark]

She cheated. Obviously.

[I<3Liberty]

http://www.fios1news.com/longisland/...1#.U7sy038o7mz

Do not outperform your co-workers look bad, Comrade. The school needs those funds!

My university takes a similar approach with a lot of the weed-out courses. Only a certain percentage can pass. If the average is too high, they can curve down or "make the tests harder" which pretty much means make the questions more convoluted to the point where it intentionally misleads students instead of testing their knowledge of the material. Without this, they know a lot more people would meet the requirements for competitive majors and their post-graudation employment rate would no longer be so impressive. Also, a lot of K-12 and universities are trying to fight 'grade inflation.'

School isn't always fair. There's a lot of politics and messed up intentions muddying academia. Their intention to educate the public isn't as pure as liberals portray it.

[juleswin]

Wow, when I saw the headline, I said to myself that there no way it could mean what it actually says. I thought it was one of those attention grabbing headline that after reading it reveals the true story behind the headline with something like "teacher was disciplined after being caught padding the grades of her pupil" but that is not the case here.

I have to wonder if there is no private school that would want to grab this talent away from the incompetent public school system? And while we are at it, can we please end the dept of education? Their incentive system is killing education in this country.

[Paulbot99]

Wow, when I saw the headline, I said to myself that there no way it could mean what it actually says. I thought it was one of those attention grabbing headline that after reading it reveals the true story behind the headline with something like "teacher was disciplined after being caught padding the grades of her pupil" but that is not the case here.

I have to wonder if there is no private school that would want to grab this talent away from the incompetent public school system? And while we are at it, can we please end the dept of education? Their incentive system is killing education in this country.

Hopefully someone will.

You thought it couldn't be true? You overestimate human nature.