Parents Across America has called on states to take advantage of the Every Student Succeeds Act and abolish VAM.
PAA has been critical of high-stakes testing.
PAA also produced a one-page fact sheet to demonstrate the failure of value-added-measurement.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Nicely done.
Slowly we are getting the message out.
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Yesterday, I revisited the Challenger space shuttle disaster by rereading the news reports and subsequent findings. I am still saddened. The fact this could have been avoided by listening to the engineers closest to the situation rather than higher ups, demonstrates the problem of emphasizing process over substance and ignoring those with hands on experience. Yet whether the ACA web site rollout, car ignition systems, or Flint water supplies, over and over we see the mistakes repeated. It is time to listen to teachers in the classroom – VAM doesn’t work.
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MathVale, the same point about listening to the people who do the work–is made in James Scott’s “Seeing Like a State.” It shows how government planners come up with brilliant schemes, impose them on vast numbers of people without listening to anyone with practical knowledge, and the great schemes fail.
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So true, thanks for the reference. And when schemes fail, those responsible have moved on or are coated with Teflon. Unfortunately, and add Wall Street’s meltdown to the list, no one is held accountable. Did anybody go to jail from Wall Street? Will Snyder be held accountable or anybody charged for poisoning Flint’s water? And now we have schools in Ohio closed for lead testing results. Accountability seems to be a selectively applied concept.
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Often, as in the case of Challenger, the willful disregard of contrary evidence is more than just a “mistake”.
The Morton-Thiokol engineers who designed the rocket boosters (particularly Roger Boisjoly) fully understood the implications of launching in cold temperatures and were telling their superiors NOT to launch but higher-ups at Thiokol and NASA nonetheless went forward.
And, as is so often the case, no one was really held accountable for something that cost people their lives.
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The “collateral damage” of VAM (teachers who have lost their livelihoods) is something that garners very little attention in the mainstream media.
It is something for which people like Hanushek, Chetty, Friedman and others should be called to answer for. These people hide in their ivory towers and make statements like teachers “should be fired sooner rather than later”, while understanding full well the serious problems with VAM.
It’s criminal — or at least should be.
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And the silence is not just in the mainstream media.
By and large, it also extends to the universities where people like Hanushek, Friedman and Chetty work.
How many Harvard or Stanford statisticians have evaluated the work of such people?
That the colleagues of Chetty and the others may not wish to involve themselves in “controversy” is a very poor excuse.
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Under the Cuomo moratorium on the use of Common Core tests in grades 3 to 8, teachers are no longer subjected to VAM scoring. Instead we must show growth through pre-established target goals such as this NYSED example for those who teach the Regents level HS, two-year course, “Gobal History”
What is the expected outcome (target) of students’ level of knowledge of the learning content at the end of the instructional period?
The district has determined that there is a minimum target for this course:
75% of students will show growth of at least 30 percentage points on the summative assessment as compared to their score on the pre‐assessment. In addition, all students will be expected to reach at least proficiency (65% or higher) and for some this will require more than 30 percentage points worth of growth.
HEDI Scoring
How will evaluators determine what range of student performance “meets” the goal (Effective) versus “well‐below” (Ineffective), “below” (Developing),
and “well‐above” (Highly effective)?
H
The district has determined the following HEDI scoring criteria:
92‐100% of students showed growth of at least 30 percentage points and have received at least a 65% on the summative assessment as
compared to their score on the pre‐assessment will equal highly effective.
E
67‐91% of students showed growth of at least 30 percentage points and have received at least a 65% on the summative assessment as
compared to their score on the pre‐assessment will equal effective.
D
49‐66% of students showed growth of at least 30 percentage points and have received at least a 65% on the summative assessment as
compared to their score on the pre‐assessment will equal developing.
I
0‐45% of students showed growth of at least 30 percentage points and have received at least a 65% on the summative assessment as
compared to their score on the pre‐assessment will equal ineffective.
NYS Regents tests, including CC Algebra, Geometry, and ELA – and 4th and 8th grade science must use this SLO template.
In so-called, “low performing” schools achieving an “Effective” or Highly Effective” rating can be nearly impossible.
ALL other NYS teachers are using LOCAL exams and a similar growth plan.
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Teachers and School Administrators do NOT have a problem with accountability when it is accomplished in a logical useful reasonable manner. VAM is NOT a logical useful or reasonable method for evaluating Teachers. Works great for cattle. A very big part of the problem with all the current education accountability systems is that not everyone is held accountable — Governors, Secretaries of Education, US Secretary of Education, and Legislators. I wonder if any of his high rollers would be willing to submit themselves to the same form of evaluation forced up on our schools. Doubt it.
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It’s about time. VAM is just another tool of the corporatized educational industrial complex to commodify teachers and students.
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VAM is awful and so unfair. I’m sitting here at my desk and just read this article. Awesome article and great responses! On the last Ohio Achievement Assessment for my grade level (before it was replaced by PARCC), my students and I earned a point for the school district grade card with a passing rate of 95%. My students and I were so proud.
To my shock and devastation, these same wonderful results somehow lowered my overall teacher rating. My principal said that the VAM used some prediction formula which lowered my overall VAM score and teacher rating. It was at that time I totally gave up on my profession. My principal had given me a wonderful evaluation, but my 95% OAA VAM results lowered my overall rating. My principal was as shocked and felt as badly as I did.
I continue to do a daily great job with my students in our classroom, but I am beyond relieved that I retire next year. As everything stands now, our battered profession does not deserve the wonderful young teachers entering into it. I presently work with four brand new teachers (first year.) They are OUTSTANDING at what they do, but they are so discouraged with their new day to day reality. My heart breaks for them.
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My VAM results have ranged from lowest (1) to highest (5) for evaluation periods, even back to back. Now that’s a heck of a variance. There is a weak to non-existent correlation between my teaching methods and VAM scores. The last one I just pitched in the trash without reading. It is simple-minded silliness on the part of our state’s reformers. Yet our legislators continue to fumble and bumble with education policy. At some point, they may actually listen to teachers.
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