Gates' warning on test scores
In a recent op-ed article, he cautions against overusing students' standardized test scores in evaluating how well teachers are doing their jobs.
A recent op-ed article in the Washington Post warned against overusing students' standardized test scores in evaluating how well teachers are doing their jobs. There would be no surprise about that — if it had been penned by the leader of a teachers union. But it was written by Bill Gates, arguably the most influential voice over the last few years in pushing for the use of test scores to rate teachers.
Gates' warning was based on a study released in January that his foundation funded. It determined that student scores have a useful but limited place in measuring a teacher's work, and that some other measurements, such as student surveys,are more consistent.
The billionaire philanthropist's reasoned perspective is appreciated; the problem is that schools in this country are already well down the testing-and-evaluations road. Prodded heavily by reform groups, many of which receive funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, states and school districts have in some cases taken the use of students' scores to extremes that have no grounding in research, making them count for half or more of a teacher's rating, or hastily concocting tests to measure unmeasurable subjects — and then applying the results to teachers. The most mocked