It’s about confidence and trust in teachers
Emma Alberici on ABC TV’s Lateline talks to Pasi Sahlberg, director-general of the Ministry of Education in Helsinki, about why Finland consistently beats most of the rest of the countries in the OECD in maths, reading and literacy at all levels of primary and high school. The secret, according to him, is to be found in Finland’s highly educated teachers.
Teaching in Finland is a respected and prestigious profession, and it’s paid accordingly. Gaining entry to study teaching is extremely competitive, and nearly every teacher in the country has a master’s degree.
Video and transcript at http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2012/s3441913.htm or available as a Vodcast from the ABC website archives.
Reporting teacher performance using student scores
20 March 2012
The article, Teacher Performance Abusers of Statistics, was written in response to the recent publication of the names of teachers and their “performance scores” by the New York Post (February, 2012).
The Teacher Performance article is a gem. Thanks for sharing Cheryl. Teacher performance payments and abuse of student stats drives me nuts. The author puts my rantings into the right words. I just wish those with the $ and driving force would also listen. The head of the New York education district that seems to be the one they all quote around this topic was an idiot and did not ‘get’ what it takes to be a teacher or to learn.
Wow! What an incredible article. I can’t believe teachers can get paid bonuses (or get penalised) for the results of their students. League tables of schools’ results are bad enough, but this is just unbelievable. The head seems to think that all students are identical. Obviously not a teacher himself!
I really enjoyed the article on confidence and trust in teachers. My mother is Swiss and in Switzerland ( like Finland) teachers are treated with incredible respect and are very well paid. It’s a shame that’s not the case here.