Aftermath: My Note to the Gates Foundation
by Frederick M. Hess • Apr 24, 2014 at 8:51 am
Cross-posted from Education Week
Cross-posted from Education Week
A few weeks back, I wrote about a note I'd received from teacher and blogger John Thompson. At a Shanker Institute event in February, I'd told a skeptical audience that the people I know at education foundations are smart, well-intentioned, and entirely willing to hear from critics, so long as criticism is offered up constructively and in a spirit of mutual respect. The problem, I said, was how rarely skeptics reached out in that spirit. I'd said that if critics did so and hit a wall, I'd be willing to see if I could help.
Thompson wrote with some reasonable concerns about the Gates Foundation's Measures of Effective Teaching project and asked if I'd help him connect with the foundation. I wrote an RHSU post that sought to do just that, and was impressed at how promptly and seriously the Gates folks reached out to Thompson. Anyway, Thompson and Gates research honcho Steve Cantrell ultimately had an extended, robust exchange of views. They didn't "solve" anything but I think this kind of honest, civil disagreement makes it a helluva lot easier to think about finding workable ways forward. So, when they offered to share their takes on the whole deal, I was game. Here's what they had to say.
John Thompson:
Rick Hess, in "A Small Request for My Friends at Gates," was kind enough to urge the Gates Foundation to consider three of my research proposals. Their purpose is to better estimate the bias resulting from the inability of value-added models to adequately control for peer effects. If it worked out, I hoped, Rick might invite me to his next encounter with a "UFO," or Unidentified Federal Official, where we try to explain that policy people and teachers who question the current school reform policies are not "wingnuts."
I am pleased to say that Steve Cantrell, the Senior Program Officer for Research and Data at the Gates Foundation, responded and we talked for nearly 1-1/2 hours. I would first like to thank him for his time. During that conversation, I learned that the data from the Gates' Measures for Effective Teaching (MET) project is now available at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Cantrell and I began with my policy recommendations, and I started sounding like a wonk. Fortunately, we rushed through the academic topics and agreed that what we really need is discussions informed by research.
I explained why the predictable result of value-added evaluations, even when balanced by "multiple Aftermath: My Note to the Gates Foundation :: Frederick M. Hess:
