The Tennessee Education Association filed a second lawsuit against the use if value-added assessment (called TVAAS in Tennessee), this time including extremist Governor Haslam and ex-TFA state commissioner Huffman in their suit.
The teachers rightly say that the evaluations are unfair, a point on which most reputable researchers are in their corner.
“TEA’s lawsuit was filed on behalf of Knox County teacher Mark Taylor, an eighth grade science teacher at Farragut Middle School. Taylor was unfairly denied an APEX bonus after his TVAAS estimate was based on the standardized test scores of only 22 of his 142 students.
“Mr. Taylor teaches four upper-level physical science courses and one regular eighth grade science class,” said Richard Colbert, TEA general counsel. “The students in the upper-level course take a locally developed end-of-course test in place of the state’s TCAP assessment. As a result, those high-performing students were not included in Mr. Taylor’s TVAAS estimate.”
“While Mr. Taylor’s observation score was ‘exceeding expectations,’ his low TVAAS estimate based on only 16 percent of his students dropped his final evaluation score below the threshold to receive the APEX bonus,” Colbert said.
“Unfortunately, Mr. Taylor’s situation is not an uncommon one. Many teachers across the state – particularly at the high school level – are being unfairly evaluated on an arbitrary percentage of their students.”
Gosh, Arne Duncan only recently hailed Tennessee as one of the stars of Race to the Top. Not so much.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What’s the VAM score for VAM? From the perspective of scientific and mathmatical integrity, it scores very poorly.
Well, the more teachers it drives out of the system, especially senior ones, the more value added!
Good for TEA!
We must engage in the fight for our profession even though we see the incredible waste in resouces such a fight requires. It would be wonderful to devote to the classroom the energy and money wasted on fighting the foolishness called “reform.”
“It would be wonderful to devote to the classroom the energy and money wasted on fighting the foolishness called “reform.””
+1
Yes!
http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/education/2014/03/20/teachers-union-takes-aim-tn-gov-ed-commissioner-new-suit/6661005/
Before going into higher education, I was a member of TEA for many years. I found TEA to be generally staffed by good, well-meaning people who were often out-maneuvered by opponents, and would subsequently drop the ball at times. I sincerely hope that TEA will make this its top priority, follow it through to the end, and prevail.
Lawsuits are a great way to go. The other thing we need to do is to educate the public about privatization. I’m certain that the average taxpayer does not know that it is legal for an individual or corporation to take over the local public school, pocket all the tax money and make ALL decisions regarding the school WITHOUT taxpayer input. How did that one ever pass?
I agree Linda. Our state senate just passed a charter authorizer bill that bypasses our democratically elected school boards.
http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2014/03/20/senate-approves-charter-school-authorizer-bill/6651593/
I’m pleased to see the two recent VAM-related lawsuits, but the complaints of both focus on a misapplication of TVAAS. At some point I’d like to see one that contests VAM on the grounds that its well-documented flaws make it an inappropriate measure of individual teachers in any situation.
In my view, the inaccuracy of VAM should be grounds for a lawsuit. It is like firing someone based on a coin toss, or a dart thrown at a dartboard.
“. . . a dart thrown at a dartboard.”
Careful with that analogy as some of us (when practiced enough) can hit a trip 20 or 19 or 18, etc. . . with quite precision (forget the bull*, that’s easy). Perhaps you mean a “blindfolded person throwing a dart at a dartboard”.
*Talking steel tipped not the pseudo darts that keep score for you that you see in most places these days.
Someone knowledgeable with stats correct me if I’m wrong but I believe VAM has worse odds of being accurate than the 50/50 chance of coin tossing.
It varies by formula, but you have it about right Duane. Dr. Bruce Baker and his intellectual progeny have found about the same results as flipping a coin, except for the odds of ever obtaining due process rights, that is far less likely. You might as well take any “performance bonus” and try your luck at Vegas so you can retire, you are more likely to be fired than have a long career.
As a retiree I can only wonder–how did it go from throwing in a little bonus now and then for exceptional teachers or those doing something extra to this Frankenstein mess?
I hope the lawsuit goes somewhere.
This is going to be a lawsuit to watch. If we can win this one, it will impact our state’s evaluation system that has been foisted upon teachers. There will be more to come after this one. I hope we can take down TVAAS in TN and open the way for other states to do the same. Remember, we are the home of the author of value added, so what a great place to start.