Faking Student Data
The Education Lab Blog at the Seattle Times today shares some of the stories of four teachers this past year using Washington's new TPEP evaluation system.
Teachers are cited as saying that they found the student growth goals component of the evaluation to be something of a joke. "Teachers were literally joking (I hope) about grading everything ridiculously hard the first time, and then just being easier on the kids the next time."
I appreciate this teacher's desire to be idealistic, but I'm quite sure that a number of teachers in Washington this year did just that. When you make student growth a component of someone's evaluation and then give them control over how that growth is scored, this is bound to happen.
I don't think it's that teachers are evil, or out to get off easy, as one commenter suggested:
"Is anyone surprised that the first thing these teachers tried to do was game the system or somehow cheat the system into the results they wanted"
In my experience, teachers in many public schools barely have time to do the fundamentals of their job (planning, teaching, and assessing). For teachers on the comprehensive evaluation this year, it was about as much work as teaching an extra class.
Before working in the Highline School District, I worked in Washington DC. There, in 2009, Michelle Rhee rolled out a new evaluation system known as IMPACT. It did many of An Urban Teacher's Education: Faking Student Data:
Teachers are cited as saying that they found the student growth goals component of the evaluation to be something of a joke. "Teachers were literally joking (I hope) about grading everything ridiculously hard the first time, and then just being easier on the kids the next time."
I appreciate this teacher's desire to be idealistic, but I'm quite sure that a number of teachers in Washington this year did just that. When you make student growth a component of someone's evaluation and then give them control over how that growth is scored, this is bound to happen.
I don't think it's that teachers are evil, or out to get off easy, as one commenter suggested:
"Is anyone surprised that the first thing these teachers tried to do was game the system or somehow cheat the system into the results they wanted"
In my experience, teachers in many public schools barely have time to do the fundamentals of their job (planning, teaching, and assessing). For teachers on the comprehensive evaluation this year, it was about as much work as teaching an extra class.
Before working in the Highline School District, I worked in Washington DC. There, in 2009, Michelle Rhee rolled out a new evaluation system known as IMPACT. It did many of An Urban Teacher's Education: Faking Student Data: