The fundamental flaws of ‘value added’ teacher evaluation
Evaluating teachers by the test scores of their students has been perhaps the most controversial education reform of the year because while it has been pushed in a majority of states with the support of the Obama administration, assessment experts have warned against the practice for a variety of reasons. Here Jack Jennings, found and former president of the non-profit Center on Education Policy explains the problem. This appeared on Huffington Post.By Jack Jennings
American tourists are often amused when traveling on the London “tube” to hear the announcement at each station to “mind the gap.” This attention-getting advice is meant to warn passengers exiting the subway car to step over the space between the car and the platform.
American education has its own gap, and it might be helpful if we repeatedly heard public announcements to “mind” it. This gap is the distance between what policymakers are