Why Evaluating Teachers is Complicated, No Matter What You Think of the Chicago Strike
The Chicago teachers' strike has prompted a lot of commentary along the lines of -- "Duh, judging teachers by how much students learn is a great idea! I get evaluated at my job!" -- and while I agree that more stringent, detailed teacher evaluations are important, measuring how much students learn over time, and how much of their knowledge can be attributed to their classroom teacher (as opposed to their parents, tutors, or peers), is a complex proposition. I'd like to review what some of the challenges are.
Historically, when adult incentives are tied to children's test scores, the curriculum is narrowed to what is included on the test. The must-read book is Measuring Up, by Harvard psychometrician Daniel Koretz.No test can encompass the broad sweep of what we want children to know, not only in a given subject, but also in terms of critical thinking, decent behavior, curiousity, and so on and so forth.
That said, teaching to a good test--like an International Baccalaureate or Advanced Placement exam, with free-
Historically, when adult incentives are tied to children's test scores, the curriculum is narrowed to what is included on the test. The must-read book is Measuring Up, by Harvard psychometrician Daniel Koretz.No test can encompass the broad sweep of what we want children to know, not only in a given subject, but also in terms of critical thinking, decent behavior, curiousity, and so on and so forth.
That said, teaching to a good test--like an International Baccalaureate or Advanced Placement exam, with free-