Posted by: Cynic
on 11, Jul, 2012
Posted by: Cynic
on 21, May, 2012
Tagged in:
working conditions ,
teaching ,
teachers ,
staffing ,
public education ,
professional learning and development ,
Hekia Parata ,
funding mechanisms ,
education spending ,
education politics ,
Class size
Just been reading about Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam - I suspect he and Hekia Parata might end up having some frustrations in common.
But one of his biggest frustrations has been realizing that running government isn’t always just like running a business.
...
Early this year, Haslam unveiled a plan to give school districts the flexibility to adjust class sizes, which would free up money to increase pay for teachers in tough-to-teach subjects or difficult-to-staff positions.
But the plan went down in flames.
Democrats and the state’s largest teachers’ union relentlessly attacked the plan, polls showed almost nine in 10 surveyed thought class sizes should be kept the same or made smaller, and even Republicans couldn’t bring themselves to support the governor’s proposal.
At the local level, school officials were worried that any money saved from raising the average class size would give elected school boards and county commissions reason to reduce education budgets instead of plugging the money into better teacher pay.
Missouri News Horizon
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In New Zealand Hekia Parata has announced changes the staffing ratio - and says it's OK folks - schools can still keep class sizes the same, it's just a funding ratio. The "freed up" money is going to improve teaching quality.
Well let us unpack that just a teeny bit:
Posted by: Cynic
on 08, May, 2012
Tagged in:
school choice ,
research ,
private schools ,
politics ,
Maori achievement ,
John Banks ,
charters ,
charter schools ,
Charter school working group ,
Catherine Isaac ,
ACT Party
Charter schools - New Zealand education for sale - - you can buy anonymously 
it's a captive market, guaranteed income from the taxpayer and regulation free, ... sign up here.
'I can be objective' says Isaac - and my appointment is not political
Well tie me to an anthill and smear my ears with jam! I just couldn't maintain my zen listening to Catherine Isaac on Native Affairs. Cynic is back.
Have a listen to this paragon of virtue on Native Affairs and then tell me she's objective.
Posted by: Cynic
on 02, Dec, 2010
Tagged in:
unions ,
teachers ,
STCA ,
secondary schools ,
salary ,
PPTA ,
pay ,
NZEI ,
negotiations ,
MOE ,
Ministry of Education ,
industrial action ,
Entrenchment ,
Employment Relations Act ,
education spending ,
education politics ,
conditions ,
collective agreement ,
bargaining
Entrenchment refers to a clause in the NZEI primary teachers' collective agreement. This clause is an agreement between NZEI and the MoE, it means that any increases in pay made to PPTA members will also be offered to NZEI members.
If NZEI members accept the offer, being taken out to them by their executive, they will receive an immediate pay-rise.
PPTA members have rejected the miserly mixed up offers of the Ministry - and have said they will continue to fight for improved teaching and learning conditions in secondary schools.
Posted by: Cynic
on 17, Aug, 2010
Been following stories and tweets about the name and shame approach of the Los Angeles Times’ article, “Who’s teaching L.A.’s kids?” (August 14th).
It led me to some interesting and valuable research including the IES report Error Rates in Measuring Teacher and School Performance Based on Student Test Score Gains:
Our results are largely driven by findings from the literature and new analyses that more than 90 percent of the variation in student gain scores is due to the variation in student-level factors that are not under the control of the teacher. Thus, multiple years of performance data are required to reliably detect a teacher's true long-run performance signal from the student-level noise. In addition, our reported sample requirements likely understate those that would be required for an ongoing performance measurement system, because our analysis ignores other realistic sources of variability, such as the nonrandom sorting of students to classrooms and schools (Schochet & Chiang, 2010, p.35)
