Diane Ravitch

says she is "furious" over the L.A. Times' dishonest use of "value-added" scores to measure teacher "effectiveness," when in fact this notion is inherently flawed.

And so I concluded that value-added assessment should not be used at all. Never. It has a wide margin of error. It is unstable. A teacher who is highly effective one year may get a different rating the next year depending on which students are assigned to his or her class. Ratings may differ if the tests differ. To the extent it is used, it will narrow the curriculum and promote teaching to tests. Teachers will be mislabeled and stigmatized. Many factors that influence student scores will not be counted at all.

It's all about the kids, who are not "data" to be manipulated.
 

No comments:

Featured Post

Pilot Rock Trail Hike

Today, I went on an interpretative hike with a small group sponsored by Friends of the Cascade-Siskiyou Monument to the base of the geologic...