Audrey Amrein-Beardsley is one of the nation’s leading experts on teacher evaluation. She has the advantage of having been a middle school math teacher before she became a scholar so she has a deeper understanding of the classroom than many other experts in the field.
Audrey A-B has just started her own blog, where she will have ample opportunity to spread light on the facts and myths about value-added assessment and other test-based forms of teacher evaluation.
Here are her first contributions. See VAMunition; read why VAMs and merit pay are not fair; read how teachers are more “accountable” for test scores than ever before.
I look forward to reporting on her work regularly, as she can help all of us wade through the dense manure that surrounds one of the hottest topics in education today.
By the way, Audrey A-B will be publishing a book on this topic next spring, which will show how useless most value-added assessment is. I have read an early copy of the book and can’t wait for it to appear in print so that you can read it too. If we are incredibly lucky, people on the staff of the nation’s policymakers will read it, and perhaps some policy might be informed by evidence instead of their own bad hunches or the herd impulse that now governs federal and state policy.
I’m more and more convinced that evidence is not something policymakers care about. Voters should take note, though!
I just went to Amazon. Publication date: April 13, 2014. Author: Audrey Amrein-Beardsley. Title: Rethinking Value-Added Models in Education: Critical Perspectives on Tests and Assessment-Based Accountability [Paperback] Price listed: $39.95.
Thank you for the heads up.
🙂
Oh my gosh! You rock!! This is so great!!! Fielding questions as I write. THANKS!!
From: Diane Ravitch’s blog <comment-reply@wordpress.com> Reply-To: Diane Ravitch’s blog <comment+p6kq961q1_6oknj-_jdhm4jd@comment.wordpress.com> Date: Sunday, November 3, 2013 12:00 PM To: Audrey Beardsley <audrey.beardsley@asu.edu> Subject: [New post] VAMboozled! Welcome to the Blogosphere, Audrey!
dianerav posted: “Audrey Amrein-Beardsley is one of the nation’s leading experts on teacher evaluation. She has the advantage of having been a middle school math teacher before she became a scholar so she has a deeper understanding of the classroom than many other experts “
Thanks, Diane, (said both with heartfelt thanks and a bit of sarcasm) now I have another place to corral members for the Quixotic Quest Bandwagon.
Sorry, Audrey that was not meant as a reply to you but a general comment.
But be forewarned that I will be reading (and most likely completely agreeing with you) your blog. I’ve read some of your work in the EPAA archives since the late 90s and have found them to be some of the more astute observations/research. Thanks for those readings!
Much of what I write deals with Noel Wilson’s dissertation. I’d be quite interested to hear your thoughts of “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error”. I have tried to find refutations/rebuttals and can find none. Do you know of any?
Look forward to participating in your blog, but for now it’s time to retire as 4:30 comes around quickly.
Duane
I just happened across this given a post I just wrote on VAMboozled! Would you mind posting this comment on our site (now that you’re a subscriber — thanks!!)? I want to get this one (i.e., post and reference in need of a review)
in the queue!
Audrey,
I posted a couple of things on your blog earlier. See what you think!
Duane
Plus, I’ll add another comment on the vammunition post.