William Sanders, a pioneer in the early implementation of value-added measurement in Tennessee, was an agricultural statistician when he realized that children could be measured in their test score growth like cattle or corn, and that teachers could be held responsible for that growth in test scores from year to year. His TVASS system was adopted by Tennessee in 1993. If it worked as its proponents devoutly believe, Tennessee should be #1 in the nation in test scores by now. It is not. It is not even close.
Our blog poet, who calls him/herself “SomeDam Poet,” wrote the following ode to Professor Sanders:
“If I have seen farther, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants” — Isaac Newton, who invented differential calculus and wrote down what are now known as Newton’s Laws of Motion
“If I have seen fodder, it is by standing on the horns of cattle” — William Sanders, who first applied VAM for cattle to teachers and wrote down Sanders’ Laws of Self-promotion and teacher demotion
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Love SomeDam Poet.
Ditto
I guess that’s why teachers get farmed out to grade for other schools.
It reeks of snake oil and the black and white portion of the Wizard of Oz. It really makes you rethink Farmville.
Things that appear awful, offensive and stupid on their face are often awful, offensive and stupid.
If I had a vammer,
I’d vammer in the baseline
I’d vammer in the summative
All over this land,
I’d vammer out ranges,
I’d vammer out ineffectives
I’d vammer out all meaningful links between my brothers and my sisters and all of the children
All over this land.
If all you have is a vammer everything looks like a bovine tumor.
Vammer sounds close to Hummer and we know what hum jobs are so what are VAM jobs?