Partnership for Educational Justice

New Study: Ignoring Teacher Performance in Layoffs Hurts Kids

Matt Barnum | The 74

Performance trumps seniority when it comes to deciding teacher layoffs — if the goal is to minimize negative effects on student learning.

A new study by Brown University professor Matthew Kraft finds that laying off teachers based on how long they have been in the classroom rather than how effective they are hurts student achievement in math. It’s the first evidence based on actual layoffs that the policy known as LIFO, or “last-in-first-out,” has harmful consequences for students.

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Key & Peele Imagines What It’d Be Like if We Obsessed Over Teachers the Way We Do Athletes

By Aisha Harris, Slate

By now, the lament about how our culture privileges athletics over education is an old one—but Key & Peele has breathed new life into it in their latest sketch, “TeachersCenter.” A spot-on parody of SportsCenter’s hyperbole-laden talking heads, busy CGI ticker screens, and obsessive play-by-plays, the clip cleverly reimagines athletes as the educators we entrust our children to every day.

Campbell Brown: Bad Laws, Unions Keep Dangerous Teachers on the Job

By Jason Russell
Washington Examiner

“NEW ORLEANS — Abusive teachers prey on students in classrooms across the country — and too often there’s nothing parents can do about it. Laws actually protect many teachers from being fired even when it’s clear they are guilty of wrongdoing.”

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The Importance of Teacher Evaluations

By Jenny Sedlis
City & State

“The greatest single factor impacting a student’s ability to learn is the quality of the teacher in the classroom. But right now, parents across the state cannot count on a system that rates 95 percent of teachers across New York state as effective, despite the fact that just a third of public school students are considered proficient in English and math. Something doesn’t add up and something has to change so students across the state get the education they deserve no matter what school they attend. Central to that improvement is developing a better system to assess the educators.”

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Most New Yorkers Say Exam Results Should be Used to Rate Teachers: Poll

By Carl Campanile
New York Post

“Two-thirds of New Yorkers say student results on Common Core exams should be used to rate teachers, according to a poll released Monday.

Of the 67 percent of voters who support linking test results to teacher evaluations, 39 percent said the results should count for 25 percent of an educator’s score, 19 percent it should cover half the grade and 9 percent said it should count more than 50 percent, the Sienna College Poll found.”

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