John Thompson's Book Review: "VAM in Education" -- Who has the Burden of Proof?
Guest post by John Thompson.
Douglas Harris' Value-Added Measures in Education is a masterpiece. Even in the places where I believe Harris is mistaken, he identifies the core issues involved in using value-added for evaluations.
My big complaint is Harris' agnosticism about who carries the burden of proof. I always assumed, and I still believe, that it should be obvious that value-added advocates carry the burden of proving that their reforms are likely to produce more good than harm. And that raises a question. Would reformers have tried to apply value-added to evaluations if they had had to show a preponderance of evidence that it was good educational policy?
Being a former legal historian, I was impressed with Harris' discussion of legal issues that value-added evaluations raise. In some cases, he noted, employers may have to show that value-added "fairly and accurately measures a teacher's ability to perform essential functions of his or her job." When that happens, advocates may wish that they had had the experience of debating value-added on its merits. Conversely, value-added opponents
Douglas Harris' Value-Added Measures in Education is a masterpiece. Even in the places where I believe Harris is mistaken, he identifies the core issues involved in using value-added for evaluations.
My big complaint is Harris' agnosticism about who carries the burden of proof. I always assumed, and I still believe, that it should be obvious that value-added advocates carry the burden of proving that their reforms are likely to produce more good than harm. And that raises a question. Would reformers have tried to apply value-added to evaluations if they had had to show a preponderance of evidence that it was good educational policy?
Being a former legal historian, I was impressed with Harris' discussion of legal issues that value-added evaluations raise. In some cases, he noted, employers may have to show that value-added "fairly and accurately measures a teacher's ability to perform essential functions of his or her job." When that happens, advocates may wish that they had had the experience of debating value-added on its merits. Conversely, value-added opponents