Chicago has a new educational plan that's heavy on data (and on "educationese", according to the article in the Chicago Sun-Times). Feedback will be provided to teachers and parents via the web:
Teachers need only click on a specific skill assessed on each test to see which kids need fundamental help with it, which ones merely need some practice and which ones are ready for advanced work. It also suggests ways to teach each skill to each ability group and provides a short battery of questions to determine mastery...By spring, parents will get a detailed report on their children and ways to help them improve at home...The goal is not to encourage test preparation, but to regularly identify where kids are and how to help them move forward, said Grow Network CEO David Coleman.
And what article on education would be complete without an inane quote from a teachers' union representative?
Chicago Teachers Union President Deborah Lynch is somewhat wary..."If it's going to be used to help teachers help students, we welcome it," Lynch said. "Are they going to use it to judge teachers? That would be a question we would ask."
Because, you know, teachers shouldn't be subject to judgment of how well they perform their jobs - that's only for the rest of us employed folk.