Wednesday, August 20, 2008

I'm Mad at Advocate Headlines, Trump Meeting

I'm fighting off a temper tantrum. The Advocate’s article about last night’s Trump meeting provides no answers and leaves gaping, obvious questions. Either the article is incomplete, or the Board did not get any important questions answered. Unacceptable!!!

Maybe I should have gone to this meeting and asked questions, but other people were there who were supposed to do that. I didn't finish dinner until after 8, so I thought it would be silly to park in that creepy Gov't Center lot at night to catch, what, 20 minutes of the meeting? Rrrr! More on this later because I need to go to the gym, big time.

I'm also mad at the Advocate right now because of a couple of extremely inaccurate headlines.

1. "City cites Trump lessons"
No, it doesn't! There was no info in that article about that. Can someone please point out one lesson that got mentioned except maybe this: Trump Parc has proven hazardous because it is being built on a small parcel with little barrier between it and the streets, Barnes said. The type of work being done there tends to generate a lot of debris, he said.
That's what we figured out? Basic construction concepts? Change that headline to "City offers same obvious info we've been hearing for the past 3 months."

2. "Students' test scores become part of teachers' evaluations"
Well then why does the article only talk about observations? There is nothing in the article that says teachers will be judged on their students' test scores.
I read the article three times to triple check. I'm a teacher, so this topic affects me directly.
The same article was published the next day in the Greenwich Time with the headline "Teachers judged on students' test scores." Don't title the article that if it's not what it is about! That would be a completely different, more controversial article. However, if teachers are going to be evaluated on their students' test scores, do let me know about it with some actual info.

OK I have to go to the gym and relax.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

re: teachers and test scores. I think you are misunderstanding this. I mean to use "test scores" in a broader sense than simply CMTs. Perhaps it should read "performance" instead. But I think it is evident in the article.

Anonymous said...

excuse me, I think the mean to use ;-)

Anonymous said...

wow. "I think they mean to use..."

Stamford Talk said...

anonymous, whew, have you had your coffee today?
Thank you- your comment calmed me down a little... BUT, isn't the only line about test scores this one:
"And for the first time, those critiques will be based on both observations and students' performance on anything from quizzes to homework."

I really think in today's educational climate, "test scores" suggests standardizes tests. Quizzes and HW are assigned in the classroom and often made by the teacher- TESTS are often standard, and I don't think the article addresses that. The headline seems unduly inflammatory.

irenesbooks said...

You are not the only one who's had it with the Advocate, I know several people who canceled their subscription.

Let's hope that the new owners are better and/or listen to the staff.