Value-Added for Kindergarten Teachers in Ecuador | VAMboozled!

Value-Added for Kindergarten Teachers in Ecuador | VAMboozled!:

Value-Added for Kindergarten Teachers in Ecuador

In a study a colleague of mine recently sent me, authors of a study recently released in The Quarterly Journal of Economics and titled “Teacher Quality and Learning Outcomes in Kindergarten,” (nearly randomly) assigned two cohorts of more than 24,000 kindergarten students to teachers to examine whether, indeed and once again, teacher behaviors are related to growth in students’ test scores over time (i.e., value-added).

To assess this, researchers administered 12 tests to the Kindergarteners (I know) at the beginning and end of the year in mathematics and language arts (although apparently the 12 posttests only took 30-40 minutes to complete, which is a content validity and coverage issue in and of itself, p. 1424). They also assessed something they called the executive function (EF), and that they defined as children’s inhibitory control, working memory, capacity to pay attention, and cognitive flexibility, all of which they argue to be related to “Volumetric measures of prefrontal cortex size [when] predict[ed]” (p. 1424). This, along with the fact that teachers’ IQs were also measured (using the Spanish-speaking version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale) speaks directly to the researchers’ background theory and approach (e.g., recall our world’s history with craniometry, aptly captured in one of my favorite books — Stephen J. Gould’s best selling “The Mismeasure of Man”). Teachers were also observed using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), and parents were also solicited for their opinions about their children’s’ teachers (see other measures collected p. 1417-1418).

What should by now be some familiar names (e.g., Raj Chetty, Thomas Kane) served as collaborators on the study. Likewise, their works and the works of other likely familiar scholars and notorious value-added supporters (e.g., Eric Hanushek, Jonah Rockoff) are also cited throughout in support as evidence of “substantial research” (p. 1416) in support of value-added models (VAMs). Of course, this is unfortunate but important to point out in that this is an indicator of “researcher bias” in and of itself. For example, one of the authors’ findings really should come at no surprise: “Our results…complement estimates from [Thomas Kane’s Bill & Melinda Gates Measures of Effective Teaching] MET project” Value-Added for Kindergarten Teachers in Ecuador | VAMboozled!: