By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org

BOSTON – The Boston Globe wants to share local teacher evaluation ratings with the public in a responsible way that doesn’t identify specific teachers, but provides an aggregate of ratings at each school.

But Boston public school officials want to keep the public in the dark about teacher performance.

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“Exempting such information from disclosure serves to protect Boston Public Schools’ ability to function effectively as an employer,” Lee McGuire, Boston schools spokesman, wrote to the Globe in an email.

The Globe submitted a public information request for a breakdown of teacher ratings for each school under a new evaluation system that rates teacher performance in four categories: exemplary, proficient, in need of improvement, or unsatisfactory.

“The Globe requested only aggregate of the teacher ratings at each school and not for individual teachers so that no one would be personally identified,” the newspaper reports. “Similarly, the Globe sought a breakdown of the ratings of more than 130 principals and headmasters as well as other administrators on a district-wide basis so no one’s identity would be revealed.

“But on Thursday, school officials rejected the Globe’s public records requests, saying that the ratings information is part of an employee’s personal file and therefore is not subject to public disclosure.”

The Globe plans to appeal the decision to the Massachusetts Secretary of State, but it seems clear Boston school officials’ efforts to keep teacher ratings under wraps may be futile.

The state education department is currently creating a system to collect teacher evaluation data and report the results to the public this fall, a requirement agreed to in exchange for federal grant money, the Globe reports. Ironically, the district already released evaluation results for more than 3,700 teachers in May.

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That data created a stir because 92 percent of teachers were rated proficient or advanced despite low student test scores in dozens of city schools.

The school-specific evaluation data sought by the Globe is important because a new school-assignment system for students, approved in March, is designed to allow students to attend schools closer to home. Some are concerned that poor and minority students will be trapped in bad schools with bad teachers, according to the Globe.

The Boston Teachers Union, of course, opposes the release of evaluation data because it argues the data is flawed.

“I think parents might be motivated to make a decision based on what we view as faulty data,” Richard Stutman, BTU president, told the Globe. “Given the bias, it’s not scientific enough to make a decision on where to send your child or not.”

That decision should be up to parents, not the union.

Public schools are funded by the public and should be accountable to the public. And there is no way to do that without access to any and all available information.

We believe the Boston school district, as a public institution, should be required to reveal all requested information about district operations, especially teacher performance data, so parents and taxpayers can draw their own conclusions.

Too often public school officials believe they know what’s best for everyone involved, and abuse their positions as gatekeepers of information. That must stop.

Recent Boston schools graduate Dan Chu, who served on the school committee last year, told the Globe he believes parents can gain valuable insight from the data, and supports releasing the ratings in aggregate.

“I think a good indicator of a school’s health and success is if a majority of teachers have been rated proficient or above,” Chu told the Globe. “That is something to be proud of and a good indicator of whether students would want to attend.”