That said, preliminary results of the $45 million Measures of Effective Teaching study -- sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation -- support the use of value-added data to predict future teacher performance.
The study found that student improvement on standardized tests reflected gains in learning and critical-thinking skills, not memorization, as some critics have suggested. Furthermore, the value-added predictions were corroborated by the results of student surveys, which often identified the same teachers as the most effective.
This from the Los Angeles Times:
Teachers' effectiveness can be reliably estimated by gauging their students' progress on standardized tests, according to the preliminary findings of a large-scale study released Friday by leading education researchers.
The study, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, provides some of the strongest evidence to date of the validity of "value-added" analysis, whose accuracy has been hotly contested by teachers unions and some education experts who question the use of test scores to evaluate teachers. The $45-million Measures of Effective Teaching study is a groundbreaking effort to identify reliable gauges of teacher performance through an intensive look at 3,000 teachers in cities throughout the country. Ultimately, it will examine multiple approaches, including using sophisticated observation tools and teachers' assessments of their own performance...
The approach estimates a teacher's effectiveness by comparing his or her students' performance on standardized tests to their performance in previous years. It has been adopted around the country in cities including New York; Washington, D.C.; Houston; and soon, if local officials have their way, Los Angeles.
More on the study at Education Week, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.
Other views of value-added:
L.A. teachers union rejects pay cuts, proposed evaluation system: The Los Angeles teachers union is balking at efforts to cut educators' pay and tie evaluations to students' test scores through a value-added system. The district wants students' scores to account for at least 30% of teachers' evaluation, but United Teachers Los Angeles prefers using data to improve instruction. The contract with the union, which already has seen teachers' pay cut through furloughs, expires in June. A $142 million school system deficit is projected for next year. (Los Angeles Times)
Why test scores can't measure teacher effectiveness: There are many qualities that effective teachers have that cannot be gauged by student test scores or other measures, according to a North Carolina teacher and reading specialist. Cindi Rigsbee writes that effective teachers are committed to their students and to the profession, build relationships with their students and have a passion for learning. Effective teachers also look for ways to improve through professional development and other opportunities, she writes. (Teacher Magazine)
Survey - Teachers need higher pay, but ineffective ones should be fired: More than half of Americans surveyed in a new poll by The Associated Press and Stanford University believe teacher pay is inadequate, but 78% said it should be easier to dismiss poor-performing teachers. About half of respondents said pay should be linked to student test scores and evaluations, while 35% said they believed underperforming teachers are a major problem in U.S. schools. (The Associated Press)
1 comment:
Mr. Montell acts as if Kentucky has received nothing from the federal government. We received a good chunk of change for our educational programs under President Obama, as was printed on this website several montrhs back.
I could not conceal my chagrin when he said it was time to return to our position of "educational prominence." When exactly was that? Was that when Horace Holley was making Lexington the "Athens of the West" in the 19th century?
Charter schools? Oh, How Kentuckians jump to embrace trends. Charter schools, I fear, will only serve to divide to us....
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