Audrey Amrein Beardsley writes here about Houston’s experience with value-added evaluation of its teachers.
The Houston Independent School District (HISD) contracted with William Sanders’ SAS to provide a model to calculate the “value-added” of its teachers from 2007-2017.
Teachers objected that the method of calculating their scores was opaque. They couldn’t learn how to improve their practice because Sanders’ methodology was proprietary and secret.
Teachers were fired based on their VAM scores.
The Houston Federation of Teachers sued to stop the use of the “black box” method.
In 2017, a judge agreed and enjoined the use of VAM.
Thus by now, after a decade of VAMMING teachers, Houston should have identified and removed all the “bad” teachers and employ only “effective” or “highly effective” CONTINUE READING: Houston: Why HISD Should Have the Best Teachers in the Nation By Now | Diane Ravitch's blog
