A story in the Los Angeles Times says that the United Teachers of Los Angeles has agreed to permit test scores to be part of teachers’ evaluations.
This is in response to a lawsuit brought by EdVoice on behalf of anonymous parents. EdVoice is one of those organizations funded by the Broad Foundation, the Walton Foundation and other members of the billionaire boys’ club who will never leave teachers alone until they teach to the test.
I hope this is not true. As we have seen again and again, judging teachers by the test scores of their students is harmful to the quality of education as it places too much emphasis on testing. It incentives narrowing of the curriculum, teaching to the test, cheating, gaming the system, score inflation.
Value-added modeling, which would be used here, is junk science.
Even Eric Hanushek, the favorite economist of the VAM crowd, says that teachers account for only 7 1/2-15 percent of the variation in students’ test scores.
What about the 60 percent that is usually attributed to the influence of family, especially family income?
If Los Angeles goes down this path, it may well fire the wrong teachers (Houston fired one of its teachers of the year based on VAM data).
Surely there is a better, more constructive way to evaluate teachers than to rely on unstable and inaccurate measures.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Teachers are not stupid. Los Angeles teachers agreed to be judged by student test scores, but NOT on the invalid scores of group tests. My guess is that they will insist on accurate and valid testing, which would mean each child would have to be given an individual pre-test in the fall and another one in the spring. In addition to that, teachers will likely insist that administrators view the results of benchmark tests given throughout the year. The person administering the test to the student would have to make note of extenuating circumstances, e.g. “Jose was in Mexico for three months.”
Oh, great, double the number of tests! There is no way to get this right, especially when you recognize that teachers affect only about 7-15% of score variance.
Epic fail! We use the SGP model you are describing in NJ, and as Dr. Ravitch has expressed it means MORE TESTS! Not to mention it’s still not a valid or reliable model to measure teacher effectiveness, as they proclaim. It’s all a scam. Linda, please read Dr. Bruce Baker’s blog: http://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2012/04/28/if-its-not-valid-reliability-doesnt-matter-so-much-more-on-vam-ing-sgp-ing-teacher-dismissal/
and here: http://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/two-persistent-reformy-misrepresentations-regarding-vam-estimates/
Diane and okaikor:
Teachers already give many tests throughout the year. All I’m saying is that if teachers are going to be evaluated by student test scores, then these scores should reflect what the children have learned in school. Teachers should also keep student work and compositions throughout the year because these often demonstrate academic growth in many areas.
During these difficult times teachers must go on the offensive and come out on top. If they insist on expensive tests that are valid and individually administered, I believe districts will pull back on all the testing. If a teacher is deemed “ineffective” based on a ten-dollar group test, I’d like to see her go to court. If she does, she needs to be equipped with lots of proof of student progress.
Perhaps I’m wrong, but I don’t think teachers can fight this testing mania by just refusing to go along. As we can see, the courts are siding with a district’s ability to judge teachers by test scores. Well, at least let’s make certain those test scores reflect the learning that took place in a teacher’s classroom.
And what will I be judged on? I teach social studies and that test gets given in the 5th, 8th, and 10th grade only.
Where will the money come from to develop valid tests? Why is that money not spent on restoring counselors to school, janitors and secretaries? Oh, and teachers.
I will say that as this is a judicial ruling, UTLA may simply have it’s hands tied. Don’t like it. We were way behind the curve on this. The offense should have come long before the lawsuit. At this point we are just talking about degrees of compliance.
And one more thing…I passed my National Board Certification in 2000 and 2010 and can think of no greater method of evaluating a teacher. Why do folks want to waste money on finding worse ways to evaluate accomplished teachers?
There IS no money to develop valid tests. That’s my point. The only thing teachers can do now is insist on valid tests and challenge any that are invalid.
Yes, teachers were WAY behind the curve on this. The best they can do now, in my opinion, is to insist that each child be tested individually (preferably by a licensed psychologist) to demonstrate progress in school during one academic year. This will be prohibitively expensive but teachers should demand it if their evaluations are to depend on measured student progress. I’m retired now but that’s what I would want. What teachers need to fight is evaluation based on a ten-dollar group test. The testing experts are on their side.
“The only thing teachers can do now is insist on valid tests and challenge any that are invalid”
All tests (even teacher made) have validity issues stemming from the logical impossibility of quantifying a quality. Perhaps if we all understood all of the logical errors that are glossed over as shown by N. Wilson in “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577 and his essay book review of the “bible” of educational testing, “The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing” (2002 ed) put out by the APA, AERA and NCME entitled “A Little Less than Valid: An Essay Review” found at:
http://www.edrev.info/essays/v10n5index.html , we might be able to have a “paradigm shift” away from the logical fallacies and irrationalities that are current educational standards, grading and standardized testing. Maybe we can alleviate/ameliorate the harm that those standards, grades and testing do to children.
Until the word is spread far and wide and educational practices are changed away from current sorting and separating educational practices students will continue to be mis/mal-educated.
“The testing experts are on their side”.
The so-called testing experts are as wrong as the eugenics experts were way back when. And standardized testing is the red headed bastard step-child (and I apologize to any human red headed bastard stepchild for comparing you to standardized testing) of the eugenics movement.
Yet, there is one truly “testing expert” (former head of standardized testing in the State of New South Wales in Australia) that no one is listening to: NOEL WILSON!!!!
I challenge all who read this site to read the above referenced works by the true testing expert, Wilson, and to try to debunk/refute what he has to say.
Until all whose position is to educate others realize just how wrong, unjust and unethical current education practices of sorting and separating, grading, using “standards” and standardized testing the harm to children will continue along with “collateral damage” damage to teachers’ careers and lives.
Wake up, folks, read, become educated! And then act! Do your part to spread the “truth” of our current practices.
I’d like to make one more point. When I was a reading specialist I discovered that the vast majority of teachers work extremely hard (surprise!) and almost all students made good progress when tested individually. When individual tests are given, it’s easy to see where a student started and where he is in June. For example, I saw many students enter first grade with just a little English and almost no ability to read or write in any language. By the end of the year most of these children were speaking, reading and writing quite well. If accurate tests are used, the public will be surprised at how much most children learn at school. If compared with a privileged child from Beverly Hills, “Maria” from Mexico might not look as though she learned much in school, but when compared against herself, we can see that the child learned a great deal.
I hope teachers insist that their efforts be fairly measured and recognized. The public needs to know that most of these dedicated people get excellent results.
I accept your statement with one change “I hope teachers insist that their efforts be fairly ASSESSED and recognized.
It is impossible to “measure” a teacher’s efforts.
I started out with the word “assessed” and changed it to “measured.” I confess that I don’t know the difference in meaning but one sounded better than the other.
Linda,
Interesting response in a number of ways. My assumption that you are not alone in not understanding the difference between measurement and assessment. Let me explain the difference.
Roughly “measurement = counting” Assessment is the broad category of describing something or someone and that may or may not contain descriptions in terms of measurement. Conversely, measurement can be a part of assessment. “Johny is 10 years old today, weighs 35 lbs and is five feet tall. Johny’s height and weight are abnormal and he is very easily distracted and doesn’t sit still in class.” The first sentence is the measurement part of the total assessment which includes a narrative description in the second sentence, both of which make up the total assessment. And that assessment does not equal “measurement” as it is more than just the measurement but assessment can, at times be measurement only–the board is six feet by two by four inches.
You stated “. . . but one sounded better than the other.” And that is what makes your response interesting as it hints at something deeper occurring that one may not even aware of–that of the current educational discourse meme of “measuring student achievement” with which we’ve been bombarded for the last dozen or so years. There is a reason for that discourse and that is to “normalize” the concept so that it seems natural and good. And because of that you felt that measurement “sounded better”.
Brainwashed and not even knowing it (although brainwashing is too strong a term, as there was no singular intent to have you believe that measurement is the better choice.) But it does point to the insidiousness of language usage, identified by Bernays and others over the years as to the effectiveness of certain ways of communicating to “manufacture consent” And that usage of “measurement” then implies a whole host of other things, like grades, standards and standardized testing which, you probably know, I believe should have no place in public education due to the errors and invalidities involved as identified by Wilson and the resulting harms caused to children.
A normal 10-year-old boy weighs between 40 to 90 lbs. His height is between 50 and 58 inches
Duane Swacker, I meant the testing experts are on the side of the teachers. We know that a group test cannot measure the progress of each child in the class as well as the effectiveness of the teacher! Almost all testing experts agree with this.
This is the way I see it in California: There has been a law on the books (Stull Act) since 1970. This law requires teachers to be evaluated according to the progress of their students but it does not specify the type of evaluation to be used. For forty years, the Los Angeles Unified School District has ignored this law and now teachers and “the unions” are getting the blame. The courts have ruled that Los Angeles Unified must now comply.
Of course I agree with everything you said about testing but what do teachers do now? They must deal with the court order. All I’m saying is that they should insist that this testing be as valid as possible. I know from my own teaching that it is not that difficult to demonstrate the progress of a child over a year’s time, but it takes the involvement of a trained professional. Teachers MUST fight the current effort to evaluate them based on a ten-dollar group test.
What do you think Los Angeles teachers should do now? Thank you.
Linda,
Thanks for clarifying that about the testing experts, although, I still contend that these so called experts are peddling a snake oil product.
What needs to be done then is to try to get the Stull Act off the books. And the teachers need to insist that they be the ones to produce individual classroom assessments that show student learning. And I’m not talking about class tests, although that might be part of it, although I suspect is what would happen, but narratives that include student/parent input as much as possible. Yep a tad pie in the sky but that is what I would be pushing for if it were me.
Why not go before the judge with Wilson’s work, make it be part of the record to show just how wrong “measuring” progress is in relation to logical thought. “Assessing” a student in conjunction with his/her and parental input whenever possible is what needs to be done. But then one would have to have drastically reduced class sizes so that the necessary “conferences” could take place.