Op Ed: Budget Cuts or Not, Teacher Lay-Offs Should Not Be Tied to Standardized Test Scores
An Op-Ed by Dr. Wayne Au
The approval of the education reform bill by the Washington State Senate in support of laying off teachers based on “performance evaluations” brings a critical issue back into the public conversation: In the midst of drastic cuts to public education, standardized tests are too inaccurate to be used in determining teacher layoffs.
On the surface, the logic of using tests to evaluate teachers seems like commonsense: The more effective a teacher is, the better his or her students will do on state tests.
Supporters of using standardized tests to evaluate teachers continually remind us that teachers play an important role in student achievement. Many of us instinctively know this to be true, and the research supports this position.
However, just because teachers contribute to student achievement does not mean teachers are solely responsible for how a student performs on a standardized test, nor does it mean we can equate effective
