David B. Cohen and Alex Kajitani: Test scores poor tool for teacher evaluation - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial Sacramento Bee:
"Education Secretary Arne Duncan is in Sacramento today to promote the new Race to the Top grant program, which offers a chunk of $4.5 billion in federal funds to states that meet federal guidelines, including a requirement to allow standardized test results to be used in individual teacher evaluations.
The link between test scores and teacher performance may seem obvious to the casual observer, but this is a case where appearances and intuition are misleading. As two of California's teachers – the 2009 California Teacher of the Year and a National Board-certified teacher – we urge Duncan and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to go back to school regarding the use of test scores for teacher evaluations."
"Education Secretary Arne Duncan is in Sacramento today to promote the new Race to the Top grant program, which offers a chunk of $4.5 billion in federal funds to states that meet federal guidelines, including a requirement to allow standardized test results to be used in individual teacher evaluations.
The link between test scores and teacher performance may seem obvious to the casual observer, but this is a case where appearances and intuition are misleading. As two of California's teachers – the 2009 California Teacher of the Year and a National Board-certified teacher – we urge Duncan and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to go back to school regarding the use of test scores for teacher evaluations."
