This just in from California educator Robert Skeels:
POP QUIZ:
What do you call plutocrat funded “research” that isn’t peer reviewed and is conducted by an organization that has already drawn a priori conclusions? Answer: A policy paper.
Pretty much everything one would ever need to know about The new Teacher Project (TNTP) is summed up here:
TNTP is “a leading voice on teacher quality.” – American Enterprise Institute
With extreme right-wing credentials like that, how can TNTP go wrong with Arne Duncan? Nice the ED department is shilling for private corporations like TNTP. Glad my community’s tax resources are being used to promote junk science like VAM/AGT instead of being using in the classroom or school libraries. You know, stuff that actually promotes learning, instead of testing.
TNTP’s board features members from reactionary Ed-Trust and even Bain & Company, Inc.. The former, of course, being Mitt Romney’s “sister” company from which we get Green Dot Charter Corporation’s nasty little Marco Petruzzi from.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Ok, I’m vaguely familiar with AEI, can you identify the main players and let’s see if they are “right wingers”?
I did find the first paragraph humorous !! That’s how things work in public education too. Remember the Delphi discussion.
AEI is very pro-business. I believe it is fair to label them as right-wing and conservative.
Independent of AEI’s opinion of TNTP, I would like to hear what things, “The Irreplaceables” got right and what things it either missed or got wrong.
The Irreplaceables relies only on test scores, and in 3 of 4 districts only on a one-year change in test scores. Every study done of VAM says that it is least reliable with one year of data.
” Every study done of VAM says that it is least reliable . . .”
“Least reliable”, um, well how about not reliable. Is something reliable or not? If not then it is unreliable not just “least reliable”. “Least reliable” implies that statistical, supposed mathematical modeling has shades of grey???? Reading and understanding what Wilson has to say about reliability and validity can go a long way towards clearing up the confusion.
What is AGT???
@Duane Swacker: AGT is “Average Growth over Time,” a rebranding of VAM by Broad Superintendent Academy graduate and former Gates Foundation employee, Dr. [sic]* John Deasy.* Because VAM was so thoroughly discredited (see NEPC papers) after the LA Times debacle, LAUSD realized that it would be good public relations to call it a different name. Make no mistake, AGT is VAM, and VAM is woefully inaccurate and inappropriate for any high-stakes decision making.
* http://susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.php?id=9593
@MOMwithAbrain American Enterprise Institute (AEI) is a fringe-right free market think tank. Their “education experts” include Rick Hess and Andy Smarick. For an idea of how reactionary their ideas are, see Smarick’s ‘Wave of the Future.’
http://educationnext.org/wave-of-the-future/
Note the cynical corporate charter sector’s plan to bankrupt districts: “The district, despite educating fewer and fewer students, will still require a large administrative staff to process payroll and benefits, administer federal programs, and oversee special education. With a lopsided adult-to-student ratio, the district’s per-pupil costs will skyrocket.”
Notice the tacit admission that charters aren’t educating special needs children, and how special education will eventually break districts and allow them to be privatized. That’s the one handy thing about the reformers that don’t identify with the Democratic party — they’re completely honest and open about what they are doing and what their goals are. DFER, Students First, and Arne Duncan have the same goals, but are much more insidious about how they present them.