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Friday, October 7, 2011

How One CATO Economist Shows Why Testing’s Primary Triumvirate are Wrong | Scathing Purple Musings

How One CATO Economist Shows Why Testing’s Primary Triumvirate are Wrong | Scathing Purple Musings:

How One CATO Economist Shows Why Testing’s Primary Triumvirate are Wrong

From StateImpact, comes this link to an opinion piece by Cato Institute economist Arnold Kling who believes “test scores are not the right metric for evaluating teachers.” Writes Kling:

Pay-for-performance supporters in K-12 education argue that good teachers should receive higher pay than mediocre teachers, while poor teachers should be dismissed.

Opponents of pay-for-performance argue that test scores do a poor job of measuring teacher quality, and that the incentive to “teach to the test” will have adverse consequences.

I agree with both of these points of view. I believe good teachers should be rewarded, and I also believe test scores are not the right metric for evaluating teachers.

Using test scores as the determinant of teacher pay misses what economist Friedrich