Not long ago, I did a story pointing out that some states have passed laws that basically prohibit the linking of student- and teacher-data systems. New York and California are the high-profile examples.
Presumably, these data could inform a variety of different initiatives, both low- and high-stakes: performance-based pay, teacher evaluations, tenure decisions, professional development, and the determination of which teacher colleges produce the strongest graduates.
Now, it looks as though dismantling these firewalls might be a prerequisite for qualifying for “Race to the Top” discretionary funds, reports my colleague Michele McNeil over at Campaign K-12.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan admonished states that have prevented student-achievement data from being linked to individual teachers, apparently throwing Wisconsin’s name into the mix, at a recent address at an education research conference here in Washington.