If Newspapers Are Going To Publish Teachers’ Value-Added Scores, They Need To Publish Error Margins Too
It seems as though New York City newspapers are going to receive the value-added scores of the city’s public school teachers, and publish them in an online database, as was the case in Los Angeles.*
In my opinion, the publication will not only serve no useful purpose educationally, but it is also a grossly unfair infringement on the privacy of teachers. I have also argued previously that putting the estimates online may serve to bias future results by exacerbating the non-random assignment of students to teachers (parents requesting [or not requesting] specific teachers based on published ratings), though it’s worth noting that the city is now using a different model.
That said, I don’t think there’s any way to avoid publication, given that about a dozen newspapers will receive the
