In earlier posts this morning, I urged you to send your comments on the federal Department of Education plan to rate teachers’ colleges by the scores of students taught by their graduates. Call this “long-distance Value-Added Modeling.”
It is a bad idea on many counts, not least because VAM doesn’t work when it is applied to an individual (too many variables, too much missing data, too much error). It works even less when an institution will be judged by the test scores of students taught by their graduates.
Here are the proposed regulations.
Comments are due January 2 to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Comments are due to the U.S. Department of Education by February 2.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It occurs to me the following. That if they succeed in this effort, it will enshrine VAM permanently within the schools because without it, they will be unable to evaluate teacher education programs. If VAM falls apart, then states won’t be able to gather the proposed necessary data to “prove” teacher education programs are effective, and it could choke off all TEACH grants due to lack of data – in a sense, it permanently installs RttT/NCLB mandate relief through making the credentialing process contingent on the secondary schools continuing these mandates. And this would be far harder to remove because an ESEA reauthorization COULD remove the drivers of the NCLB mandate relief, and a subsequent administration could release states that accepted RttT money.
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I know this may have been discussed before but who is paying for all this? What college is going to pay to find all their ed. graduates, find out how their particular students’ students are scoring on ‘Pearson’ tests, and then pay to report all this back to the government? What about teachers, like myself, who don’t test students, how will our colleges be assessed since we don’t give tests? Is it where teachers did their undergrad work, or where they got their masters, if a teacher is a change career teacher, which college is responsible for tracking them down? What if we got our degree at two colleges, which college then? Are they creating a whole new government department for keeping track of all this? Is the teacher responsible in any way? Can the college then sue the teacher for not living up to their expectations? How on earth are they going to make sure every college is assessed/judged on every education student they ever had…and what about the ones who dropped out (b.gates)? But most importantly in WHAT other field do they make college keep track of how their students turned out? I mean really…do they keep track of doctors, dentists, lawyers…most importantly politicians! What if we judged colleges on how many corrupt or inept politicians they turned out…now there is something to rate a college on!
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There is no way this is going to happen. Just think of all the “ivy-league” grads who have become TFA’s to show the older teachers how it is done. Now are you saying they had so much success that their students’ test scores made them highly effective? Heck many of them quit before the end of the first year……do THEIR students’ test scores count? OMG…Harvard and Stanford and Yale (etc.) with grads that didn’t change the world of education? Uh-huh. Never gonna happen………….
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Dear Diane Ravitch, I’m almost 84 and I have no connection with our Public Education beyond observation and ‘Citizen’concern for our diminishing civilization. Apparently our society does not perceive the connection between learning in youth … and becoming a productive citizen; maybe because so much of the ‘activity’ in our lives has been electronically replaced… I read bits of your marvelous flow of information, analysis and general review of the dismantling of our ‘survival kit’ (public education – not vouchers; not Charter Schools)
You are on the parapet, undaunted and fighting non-stop to save U.S. ‘democracy’ from collapse. (of course, every former Empire has fallen … usually from internal disintegration … not from Invading Huns. And we continue that pattern)
Please contact Joy Hakim – she writes ‘Text books’ for various grades… that are accepted by state education commissions and put to use… I know her slightly. She is the worker in the field who is part of our salvation … and she needs comrades to join her campaign. Sincerely, Jenefer Ellingston 641 Md. Ave. NE, DC 20002
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I am wondering why people are not posting here the comments they posted through the portal… Here’s mine:
It is impractical to try to judge “the ability of the program’s graduates to produce gains in student learning.” In other words, you would be trying to evaluate a program via a graduate of that program’s success in raising someone else’s test scores? That doesn’t make sense; it’s too indirect.
Why not evaluate the graduates directly for (1) content knowledge and (2) pedagogical preparation? The latter would best be done via a portfolio demonstrating the teaching candidate’s work over the course of the preparation program. An ability to raise someone else’s (students who have had — who knows how much?– contact with that teacher) scores cannot be reliably measured.
Who is going to make this assessment, anyway? How will, for instance, the grade 9-12 health educator be assessed in order to know that that teacher’s preparation program was successful? Will someone be tracking these students for the next decade or two to see if they made healthy choices in their lives? And how are we to judge causality between these choices and that teacher, and hen take it one step even further back to a teacher preparation program once attended by that teacher?
Sounds like a hopeless boondoggle to me.
Penny J. Culliton
Temple, NH
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Dear Diane … I wish there were 10 of you, at least. However, you slipped down a notch when you were foolish to ask “what will Obama’s Educ…legacy etc. ” Having said and done* nothing, *the ‘legacy’ will be blank. Oh, I forgot – the harm Obama has done was the appointment of Arne Duncan – the stupidest, most inexcusable, damaging act of Obama’s presidency … Nevertheless, Thanks for your insight, perseverance and dedication to Public Education … Civilization hangs in the balance.. and may be pulled down into the mire if Charter Schools continue to take over … as they are doing now. Jenefer Ellingston, Green Party
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