Where We Stand
CTA President David A. Sanchez's response to the controversial Los Angeles Times article, Grading the Teacher: Who's Teaching LA's Kids?:
"Publishing the database assembled by the LA Times as an accurate measure of teacher effectiveness or even as a 'value-added' assessment model is irresponsible and disrespectful to the hard-working teachers of Los Angeles. This LA Times model oversimplifies what defines an effective teacher and is based solely on one set of student test scores -- tests, I might add, that were never designed to measure teacher effectiveness or even student growth. The California Standards Tests are designed to measure grade-level standards, not student growth from the beginning of the school year to the end of the year. So trying to use that single test to create a value-added model in Los Angeles is impossible. In addition, all education research has concluded that using value-added models as a primary measure for evaluating teachers is not appropriate as the measures are too unstable and too vulnerable. It is impossible to fully separate out the influences of students' other teachers as well as school conditions, classroom assignments, and student attendance. Parents know their child is more than a test score, and so are teachers.”
What are your thoughts? How do you feel about the article and what it is proposing? Your stories are needed to help educate the public - what is it really like in the classroom? How do your students react to standardized testing?
In the News
Politics, not evidence, drive education reform | SFGate.com
Method to grade teachers provokes battles | New York Times
One number can't illustrate teacher effectiveness | Los Angeles Times
Big questions about the LA Times teachers project | Washington Post
There's teaching, and there's learning | Los Angeles Times
Judging teacher performance is difficult, experts say | California Watch
Research
EPI Briefing Paper | Economic Policy Institute
Recently released research co-authored by scholars convened by the Economic Policy Institute focuses on problems with the use of student test scores to evaluate teachers.
Teacher Effectiveness | CTA
For any high stakes purpose associated with personnel decision making or compensation, multiple measures should be used, as all measures give a partial picture of teacher performance and are subject to error.
Using Student Test Scores | CTA
Research includes many cautions about the problems of basing teacher evaluations substantially on student test scores.
Letter Report to the U.S. Department of Education on the Race to the Top Fund | National Academies
Value-added methods to assess teachers not ready for use in high-stakes decisions.
'Value Added' Gauge of Teaching Probed | Education Week [multiple sources]
Studies suggests that “value added” methods for determining the effectiveness of classroom teachers are built on some shaky assumptions and may be misleading.
Blogs
The best kind of teacher evaluation | Washington Post [written by Sacramento teacher Larry Ferlazzo]
LA Times Joins The Teacher-Bashing Parade | Colorlines.com
Education Experts Slam LA Times Teacher Assessments | Calitics.com
The LA Times Goes Astray | Learningfirst.org