Test Scores and Teacher Firings -- it's Real
May 29, 2007 12:17 PM
In response to a post by Beth last week, blogger Alexander Russo wrote: "...it's easy to read this and end up thinking that teachers are losing their jobs over kids' test scores. They're not."
He was disagreeing, sorta kinda, with Beth, who had raised concern about the issue before concluding, "Teachers are not yet losing their jobs because of students’ poor test performance."
It turns out that at least one teacher did lose her job because of test scores, according to this comment on Beth's post:
FYI: I did lose my job because of student test scores. I taught at a public inner-city high school with a 95%+ poverty rate and large numbers of recent immigrant students. When we failed to make AYP for two years in a row, all teachers were fired.
Russo titled his post The "Lost Teacher Jobs "Myth. But the myth may have become reality -- something he didn't see coming and something even Beth didn't anticipate happening so soon.
UPDATE: Russo responds on his blog and in our comments section. Being a blogger, I can't stop beating a dead horse, so I respond to his comment below. We can argue about whether "myth" or "reality" is the right term, but statements that it's absolutely not happening are clearly false.
Comments
sorry -- it's still a myth. given how many teachers there are out there, a few handfuls of fired teachers don't make it real.
Posted by: Alexander | May 30, 2007 11:21 AM
Myth? Reality? Just trying to keep them straight. I guess if you're the teacher who lost a job because of test scores, you wouldn't think it was a myth.
Posted by: John at AFT | May 30, 2007 11:48 AM