CURMUDGUCATION: VAM on Trial in NY + Jeb's Amnesia

CURMUDGUCATION: VAM on Trial in NY:

VAM on Trial in NY

If you don't know Sheri Lederman's name, you should. She's the New York teacher who, with her lawyer husband, dragged VAM into a courtroom this week and gave it the beatdown it so richly deserved.

Lederman's story is, at this point, the story of millions of other teachers. One year, her VAM score indicated that she was awesome. The next year, her VAM score indicated that she sucked. Not only was she pretty much the same teacher, but her students got pretty much the same scores.

Because of the importance of the case, lots of folks were there to watch. Carol Burris has a great account in The Answer Sheet, and this blog by Alexndra Milleta who has known Lederman for decades is also worth a read. Audrey Amrein-Beardsley has been following the case for a while.Diane Ravitch provides links to the pertinent documents and experts affadavits in the case.

There appear to be two issues that strike the judge in the case as dopey.

The Curve.

How do you set up an evaluation system that predetermines that some teachers must be bad? Judge Roger McDonough wants to know how you can have a fair system that starts with the premise that even if all the teachers are effective, some of the teachers are not effective. How can evaluations be evaluations is they are not actually tied to a real standard?

The Avatars

New York, like most VAM systems, bases its evaluations on imaginary students. The magical formula CURMUDGUCATION: VAM on Trial in NY:

Jeb's Amnesia

Jeb Bush has developed selective amnesia. It's unfortunate, because the thing that has vanished from his memory used to be near and dear to his heart-- the Common Core.

There was a time when it looked like Bush 3.0 would be the only one to stay true to the cause, but in the end, his Presidential aspirations and his Common Core commitment created such violent cognitive dissonance that his brain just spit the Common Core chunks right out of his head.

I first noticed it in New Hampshire. While vacationing, I ended up watching the August 3 New Hampshire GOP Candidate Beauty Pageant. It was about the most non-hostile venue the candidates could hope for, with balls lobbed so soft that they could have been written by the candidates' staffs. The closest thing to confrontation was when the interviewer gently prodded Carly Fiorina to answer the question she had just ignored (spoiler alert: she didn't). The closest thing to genuinely fun moment was when the interviewer offered Rick Perry a do-over on eliminating three government agencies.

The interviewer asked Jeb Bush, "Would you take a moment to tell us the new talking point you're going to use to try to get the stink of Common Core off of you?" (I'm paraphrasing.) The questionish intro to Bush's talking point ended with, "Should state and local school boards reject any so-called national standards?" (You can watch for yourself here at about the 2:01 mark)

They should. They should. States ought to create standards. They should be high. They should be state-driven and locally implemented. The federal government should have no role in the creation of standards. No role in the creation directly or indirectly, no role in the creation of content or curriculum. 

He goes on to say that the feds should hand over money without any strings attached and references 

Jeb's Amnesia