It's been released!!!!!

Here's a link to the recently released  teacher data reports for NYC public school teachers: http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/02/24/teacher-data-reports-are-released/ 

This is a monumentous time in education reform. For months, the union and the Chancellor have battled over the release of the Data Reports. Since this is only my first year teaching, my data is not on the website. But I DID find some juicy (!) info about Mr. Buchell. Mr. Buchell has taught over 400 students in his "career" and is ranked in the 40th percentile. Pretty high for someone who really doesn't do anything, right? But in his 2010 data report, he's only in the 9th percentile. Wow.

I do agree that the release of this report is both controversial and unreliable. Many teachers have wrote that there has been a mismatch between the number of students on their report and the number they actually taught, etc. However, the release of this data might also be beneficial to parents and teachers. In many cases, it celebrates success, like in the release data report of Miss Gonzalez, the fourth year pre-algebra teacher at my school.

I believe that the public has the right to know about the types of teachers that their children will have next year. And while this may not be the best measure of teacher quality, and certainly FAR from perfect, it's more transparent than not having anything.