In the Beginning…A Response to “Grading Teachers”. (Part 1 of 6, or more…)
The Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
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“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking”. – Joan Didion
Wow, where to even begin. Many of your are already aware of the bombshell that was dropped Sunday, when the Los Angeles Times went ahead and published the first part of a series in which they are actually evaluating individual teacher data and publishing the results online.
If you’ve not read the story yet, stop reading right this right now and check out the actual story published here.
Reaction to both the story’s existence and its contents has been swift from all parties involved, including district personnel (who thought it necessary to auto-dial my cell phone twice with affirming words of love), union reps, edu-bloggers, politicians, not to mention my colleagues and friends who find themselves in the thick of this.
And so, I’m going to try to start (and hopefully finish) something I’ve never attempted before: writing a series of blog posts all revolving around a single, and continuing topic, namely this report. My motivation is twofold. First, there’s no feasible way to actually address all of the issues wrapped up in this debate that is now on the forefront of everyone in LAUSD’s mind. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, I’m still in the process of trying to wrap my head around all of this, and as such, realize that the issues involved are hardly black and white. Writing, much like Didion, helps me to formulate my thoughts, my opinions, and more importantly, what I’m actually going to do in response.
Simply thinking about broad categories, I’m suspecting a 6-part post ought to cover most of the bases (including the ones that my sorry Mets can’t seem to find), although if 6 isn’t enough, I’ll simply extend it to include more. Mwahahaha…
A basic outline:
Part I: Introduction
Part II: Reporting Creating the News
Part III: Napoleon With a Megaphone
Part IV: Chiming In
Part V: The Front Lines
Part VI: A New Hope
Feel free to chime in with any two-cents along the way.
…as a final side note, I just purchased Arcade Fire’s new album, “The Suburbs”. Amazing. In honor, all the songs linked will be from The Arcade Fire.
Themocracy
i too received 4 voicemails the past few days. looking forward to your thoughts on this evolving story, bro.
“Evolving” would definitely be the right adjective, friend.
Just got back from being out of the country for a month. All but 1 of the voicemails on my phone from that entire time were auto-dials from Duffy, LAUSD, etc. Perhaps I don’t even need a phone at all.