It takes a comedian or a cartoonist to explain the nutty world of education reform.
Check out this great cartoon by Dilbert, giving a fast explanation of the idiocy of VAM.
Enjoy!
PS: Thanks for KrazyTA for sending me the cartoon and also giving the correct link!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Since I brought this to the attention of the owner of this blog, and gave her the general URL for DILBERT, let me point folks in the direction of the specific strip she is referencing.
It was/is the one for Saturday, October 8, 2016, “Problem With The System” accessed by—
Link: http://dilbert.com/strip/2016-10-08
See also the strips for the preceding two days, i.e., October 6 and 7.
😎
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Thank you, KrrazyTA, for the link and the suggestion.
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Love the title of the cartoon, too: “Problem With the System.” So true.
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Wow… “Dilbert” must have been at a staff meeting at my school about a month ago. 5 staff from an office appointed to assess instruction and data came to my school (even though only one rolled through the powerpoint). At one point in addressing how we show student growth, we were warned that not all of our students selected on our rosters could show growth because if all teachers did this it would bring all teachers scores down at our school. So in essence I am being asked to prove through data how I enable my students to grow, but if all grow I am penalized. We were also cautioned to choose our students carefully. If you choose too many strong students, they might not show enough growth and that could bring you down. Wow, that really makes sense – NOT! I have to make sure not all students show growth. That in itself is nonsensical. Then I have to choose students for my data collection who are not starting very strong because they might not show enough growth. So in addition to all this hooey gifted students cannot grow enough? Ughhh!!!!!
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Consider transferring to my district. All teachers will be rated “effective” if 75% of our regular ed students reach the target of 60 on their composite (5 required) Regents scores. Speds and ELLS target at 50.
Yes, a failing score is our district target for successful growth!
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Sophistry
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VAM has been “slammed” — quoting The Washington Post — by the very people who know the most about data measurement: The American Statistical Association (ASA). The findings of the ASA provide a firm basis by which every teacher who is unfavorably evaluated on students’ standardized test scores to vigorously oppose the evaluation, citing the ASA’s authoritative, detailed, seven-page VAM-slam “Statement on Using Value-Added Models for Educational Assessment”.
Even the anti-public school, anti-union Washington Post newspaper said this about the ASA Statement: “You can be certain that members of the American Statistical Association, the largest organization in the United States representing statisticians and related professionals, know a thing or two about data and measurement. The ASA just slammed the high-stakes ‘value-added method’ (VAM) of evaluating teachers that has been increasingly embraced in states as part of school-reform efforts. VAM purports to be able to take student standardized test scores and measure the ‘value’ a teacher adds to student learning through complicated formulas that can supposedly factor out all of the other influences and emerge with a valid assessment of how effective a particular teacher has been. THESE FORMULAS CAN’T ACTUALLY DO THIS (emphasis added) with sufficient reliability and validity, but school reformers have pushed this approach and now most states use VAM as part of teacher evaluations.”
The ASA Statement points out the following and many other failings of testing-based VAM:
“System-level conditions” include everything from overcrowded and underfunded classrooms to district-and site-level management of the schools and to student poverty.
A copy of the VAM-slamming ASA Statement should be posted on the union bulletin board at every school site throughout our nation and should be explained to every teacher by their union at individual site faculty meetings so that teachers are aware of what it says about how invalid it is to use standardized test results to evaluate teachers.
Fight back! Never, never, never give up!
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I have a wall of Dilbert cartoons that exemplify my workplace. Dilbert’s boss is my boss and has little regard for anyone who knows more than he does about public schools and teacher education. Instead we are bullied and given incentives to compete against each other. He has complete disregard for everything that is good about what we do and the time it takes to do it. Instead we have been in “reform mode” for 5 years with the target, incentives, punishment changing every year. I LOVE DILBERT. He explains our lives in a neo-liberal reform environment where NOTHING makes sense. Ugh. At least I get one laugh and one affirmation a day.
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Margaret,
I won’t give you many laughs, but I hope you get more than one affirmation a day here.
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Indeed I do. Thank you for your blog and the life-changing transformation your writings have given me in the waning days of my professional life. I receive constant affirmation with your site and the people who write with and for you. I will be leaving 36 years of public service to children and graduate students because the tone of our state and particularly our college has dealt us in the name of “re-form”. I have kittens that chase their tails. I do not have to do it anymore. Love all that you do!
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How telling that the world of Dilbert’s corporate insanity now over and over and over again mirrors that of public education.
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