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Monday, May 28, 2012

Two Persistent Reformy Misrepresentations regarding VAM Estimates « School Finance 101

Two Persistent Reformy Misrepresentations regarding VAM Estimates « School Finance 101:


Two Persistent Reformy Misrepresentations regarding VAM Estimates

I have written much on this blog about problems with the use of Value-added Estimates of teacher effect (used loosely) on student test score gains on this blog. I have addressed problems with both the reliability and validity of VAM estimates, and I have pointed out how SGP based estimates of student growth are invalid on their face for determining teacher effectiveness.


But, I keep hearing two common refrains from the uber-reformy (those completely oblivious to the statistics and research of VAM while also lacking any depth of understanding of the complexities of the social systems [schools] into which they propose to implement VAM as a de-selection tool) crowd. Sadly, these are the people who seem to be drafting policies these days.
Here are the persistent misrepresentations:
Misrepresentation #1: That this reliability and error stuff only makes it hard for us to distinguish among all