Before the paper edition of yesterday’s Oracle was distributed, The Oracle sent the following email to the faculty of GBS to preemptively notify them of an error/omission in the story. Although the on-line version of the story includes the corrected version of the story, The Oracle wanted to share the correction here as well:

In the issue of our school newspaper that will be distributed tomorrow, a story is published that previews upcoming contract negotiations in our district and that examines a few of the core issues in the CPS negotiation disputes.  Within that examination, the issue of teacher evaluations being tied to student growth is addressed, but, unfortunately, during The Oracle’s editing process, a paragraph was deleted that included key nuances that Principal Wegley explained in an interview with Oracle reporters. The passage in question says that, by 2016, student growth measurement will be a component of teachers’ evaluations. This statement is true. However, the passage goes on to imply that students’ improvement of composite scores on the Explore and PSAE tests will be the only factor in determining student growth, which is not what Dr. Wegley explained to Oracle reporters.  What he did explain is that the state requires that the student-growth portion of teacher evaluations will be based on two factors: the first factor could be either a state-wide test, such as EXPLORE/PLAN/PSAE, or it could be an assessment developed by and for an individual district that meets minimum state standards; the second of the two factors used to measure student growth must be assessments that are developed collaboratively with teachers and that are aligned with individual course goals. Additionally, Dr. Wegley pointed out that, because implementation is not required until 2016, there is still some uncertainty about what exactly schools will be expected to do but that Glenbrook South will continue to work in a thoughtful and collaborative way to do what’s best for students within the requirements put in place by the state. The Oracle regrets these omissions/errors and felt that it would be important for the faculty to be aware of the error before the newspaper is distributed tomorrow.