Research turns thumbs down on using student test scores to evaluate teachers.
Value added teacher evaluation, teacher performance reviews based on student test scores is all the rage. Arne Duncan and President Obama rave about it. Arne even claims, as he did all over the talking head shows on Sunday, that teachers want it.
None that I know.
Even the national union leadership, pressed by the Department of Ed and the media, concede that the problem with it is that it needs to be part of a larger evaluation process.
But four former presidents of the American Educational Research Association; two former presidents of the National Council on Measurement in Education; the current and two former chairs of the Board of Testing and Assessment of the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences; the president-elect of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management; the former director of the Educational Testing Service’s Policy Information Center; a former associate director of the National Assessment of Educational Progress; a former assistant U.S. secretary of education; a member of the National Assessment Governing Board; and the vice president, a former president, and three other members of the National Academy of Education, have all put their names on a report that turns thumbs down on the concept.
Ironically, one of the authors of the report, Linda Darling-Hamilton, was on Obama’s list to be appointed Ed Sec. Unfortunately, Obama wanted to give the job to his basketball buddy, Arne. A decision that baffles us all.
Play this up and share it, because Arne is starting to become more conciliatory before the midterms. It might very well be just a White House strategy, but it never hurts to have data at your fingertips,and don’t they claim that data counts?