The well-publicized Vergara trial in Los Angeles has put a spotlight on teacher tenure and seniority.
The plaintiffs’s lawyers say that the “best” teachers are unfairly assigned to teach white students.
Gary Rubinstein looks at the claims and finds them statistically dubious.
For one thing, they are based on value-added measures, which are themselves of dubious scientific validity.
For another, those testifying for the plaintiffs–notably Tom Kane (who is known for his work for the Gates Foundation)–knows that the math behind his claims is shaky.
He notes that Kane testifies that 5.4% of Latino kids get “ineffective” teachers (as measured by VAM), when only 5% should get such teachers.
Hmmm. Not what one would identify as a smoking gun of discrimination.
The defendants should get a mathematician to punch a hole in these assertions.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Although some of his estimates of the LAUSD population are not right on target, the points that Gary makes are creative and very clever, and I hope that the defense lawyers will use them. The preponderance of Latino students to Black and to White does skewer Kane’s assertions on the witness stand.
Mercedes…can you expand on this please?
Ellen Lubic
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Hi, Ellen. Sorry for the delay. Could you tell me what you would like for me to expand upon? Is it the potentially misleading practice of taking percentages of percentages?
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Hooray…my collie will be so relieved that I got back on to Diane’s site using my name, not his.
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woof!
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Assuming there is no such thing as an ineffective student. This trial is as foolish as the Scopes monkey trial. Just replace the ineffective teachers for one year with effective ones and all the scores should improve, unless it is the students who are the root cause.
Yes, let’s find out which came first, the chicken or the egg.
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Harvard?
In Cambridge, Massachusetts?
Do you mean the Overclass institution with a long history of class warfare and union busting (nyceducator.com/2010/09/ivy-league-union-busters-then-and-now.html)?
Or is there another Harvard?
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“. . . they are based on value-added measures, which are themselves of dubious scientific validity.”
VAM/SGPs have NO SCIENTIFIC VALIDITY.
It really is that simple folks. Ain’t that complicated.
By stating that they are of “dubious” validity indicates that perhaps with some tweaking then they would be fine. That’s still using the edudeformer’s language and helps their cause and not the defenders of the teaching and learning process that occurs in public schools on a hourly, daily basis.
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I’m not surprised.
This is a MI statehouse member’s site, where she’s compiled all the doc they got about EAA from a FOIA request. There are thousands of documents, but what’s really shocking about it is how sloppy they were. They were setting up 15 schools (they thought they were getting 30 schools, but it turned out to be 15) and they really have no plan.
There’s constant communication with the Broad Foundation, and it’s obvious the funding numbers don’t work in the sort of haphazard attempt to explain how the thing will work with per pupil funding, but no one slows down or questions it.
At one point, the Broad person who is running this Detroit EAA show asks if they can make the class sizes larger-in an email- because they’re going to rely, vaguely, on “technology” and it’s now clear (to me) that they can’t offer what they promised given the money they have.
The Michigan governor is interested in 2 things, judging from the emails on his end. Test scores and public relations. That’s really the only “oversight” provided on the state end. Other than that it’s the Broad Foundation and the two ed reformers they brought in from Kansas City.
Anyway, read the docs yourself. It’s enlightening on how these Authority “public school districts” are created. There’s really no demarcation between “The EAA” and “The Broad Foundation”, in my view, between the public part of this and the private part. Broad is so involved in this they may as well be “The EAA”.
http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?ca=8405c248-6e39-419a-8539-d3a1e96bc3ae&c=7dc899a0-9406-11e3-82cf-d4ae527b8c41&ch=7e1a6320-9406-11e3-8345-d4ae527b8c41
You have to scroll down to find the FOIA doc link.
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Here’s the governor’s office conducting “oversight” on the EAA in March of 2013:
“Can you provide any EAA schools that have good sounding marching bands?”
EAA administrator responds that she can’t, because they don’t have any band instruments, although they do have a drum line. 🙂
Click to access LiptonPt1.pdf
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It is all so sick. How ridiculous that this country lets Eli Broad run a school district into the ground. Obviously gov. Snyder is bought by Broad too. The EAA is a total disaster. I find it strange that a billionaire is so egotistical and selfish that he doesn’t care about how harmful he is to others. Bizarre.
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Leaving “effectiveness” aside, I would bet that poor and minority students are taught by less experienced teachers than other students. I would also be that it’s been that way for a long time. Maybe someone else has data that confirms or refutes those points.
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Kane is quite an embarrassment to many Harvard graduates and scientists.
Shame, shame shame
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It is nice to have confirmation that, contrary to a long line of depressing research from scholars all across the spectrum, poor minority kids in bad neighborhoods are just about as likely to have great teachers as rich white suburban kids. So we don’t need to worry about those poor kids’ schools after all. Cool.
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