Test-Based Teacher Evaluation Earns F, Again | Education | AlterNet

Test-Based Teacher Evaluation Earns F, Again | Education | AlterNet:

Test-Based Teacher Evaluation Earns F, Again

South Carolina is poised to link 40% of teacher evaluations to student test scores. Is that a colossal mistake? 

Teacher quality, including teacher evaluation and pay scales, is a growing national and state concern in education reform -- a trend that can be traced to, and remains reflected in, the Los Angeles Times' repeated publication of value-added models (VAM) of ranking teacher quality.

Catherine S. Durso’s National Education Policy Center review of VAM results calculated for and reported by the Los Angeles Times exposes that once again linking teacher quality to student test scores fails to identify fairly high-quality teachers. The body of evidence shows that test-based teacher evaluation is unstable and counter-productive to evaluating, paying and retaining teachers, explains Durso:

Many researchers have raised concerns regarding the use of value-added models (VAM) for teacher evaluation. Briefly, VAM do not provide guidance for improvement, are comparative rather than absolute measures, assess a small part of teacher’s responsibilities, force different kinds of teaching into one scale, do not produce consistent results for given teachers over time, and may not identify effects actually caused by the teachers.

Test-Based Teacher Evaluations: A Failed Solution without a Problem

 

These conclusions about VAM in California and throughout the country are powerful but ignored