Breaking News: Houston Teachers Suing over their District’s EVAAS Use
It’s time!! While lawsuits are emerging across the nation (namely three in Tennessee and one in Florida), one significant and potentially huge lawsuit was just filed in federal court this past Wednesday in Houston on behalf of seven teachers working in the Houston Independent School District.
The one place I have conducted quite extensive research on VAMs, and the Education Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS) and its use in this district in particular, is there in Houston. Accordingly, I’m honored to report that I’m helping folks move forward with their case.
Houston, the 7th largest urban district in the country, is widely recognized for its (inappropriate) using of the EVAAS for more consequential decision-making purposes (e.g., teacher merit pay and in the case of this article, teacher termination) more than anywhere else in the nation. Read a previous article about this in general, and also four teachers who were fired in Houston due in large part to their EVAAS scores here. See also a 12-minute YouTube video about these same teachers here.
According to a recent post in The Washington Post, the teachers/plaintiffs are arguing that EVAAS output are inaccurate, the EVAAS is unfair, that teachers are being evaluated via the EVAAS using tests that do not match the curriculum they are to teach, that the EVAAS system fails to control for student-level factors that impact how well teachers perform but that are outside of teachers’ control (e.g., parental effects), that the EVAAS is incomprehensible and hence very difficult if not impossible to actually use to improve upon their instruction, and, accordingly, that teachers’ due process rights are being violated because teachers do not have adequate opportunities to change as a results of their EVAAS results.
“The suit further alleges that teachers’ rights to equal protection under the Constitution are being abridged because teachers with below-average scores find themselves receiving Breaking News: Houston Teachers Suing over their District’s EVAAS Use |: