Alexandra Clark
Education Reform
Feb. 14, 2014
Avoiding Plagiarism Exercise
Step 1: Plagiarize any portion through copying.
Every year, teachers get evaluated for their considered effectiveness in teaching and education. These estimates of value-added and other “growth models” which attempt to isolate the “true effect” of an individual teacher through his or her students’ test scores, are alarmingly error-prone in any given year. This is unfortunate, as it gives us no real measure of a teacher’s worth to any given student.
Step 2: Plagiarize any portion through paraphrasing the structure too closely.
A teacher who gets any given ranking in one year will probably receive a different one the next. These rankings will always be unstable, though some will reflect accurate changes in the teacher’s performance.
Step 3: Plagiarize any portion through paraphrasing too closely with a citation to original source.
A teacher who gets any given ranking in one year will probably receive a different one the next. These rankings will always be unstable, though some will reflect accurate changes in the teacher’s performance (Ravitch, 270-71).
Step 4: Properly paraphrase by restating and citing source.
According to a study conducted by Sean Corcoran on the teacher evaluation systems, teacher’s ratings fluctuate from year to year (Ravitch, 270-71).
Step 5: Properly paraphrase by by restating and supplementing with direct quote including source.
According to a study conducted by Sean Corcoran on the teacher evaluation systems, teachers’ ratings fluctuate from year to year. According to his findings, a teacher “who was ranked at the 43rd percentile compared to his or her peers might actually be anywhere between the 15th and 71st percentile”. (Ravitch, 270-71).