Teacher Quality and Accountability: A Failed Debate
EducationDec 1, 2011“Value-added and other types of growth models are probably the most controversial issue in education today,” argues Matthew Di Carlo in his “What Value-Added Research Does And Does Not Show.” Di Carlo carefully examines, with ample evidence and a fair hand, the most recent cycle of education reform that has targeted teacher quality and accountability.
One essential point offered also by Di Carlo is that the leading voices in the reform movement during the Obama administration—Arne Duncan, Bill Gates, Michelle Rhee, and others—have often framed the teacher quality/accountability argument carelessly, stating directly or implying that teacher quality is the most important and sole causational element in student learning. For example, the Obama administration’s blueprint for reform states directly: “Of all the work that occurs at every level of our education system, the interaction