Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post has an editorial chastising the New York Board of Regents for failing to reactivate the value-added method of evaluating teachers by the test scores of their students.
Whoever wrote the editorial is ignorant of the fact that the American Statistical Association warned against the use of this method or the RAND-AIR report that found zero benefit from the Gates Foundation’s investment in districts that used this method.
This teacher-blogger reminds readers that a New York Judge already labeled this method “junk Science.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I lived in NYC for a lifetime, and taught there, and I can tell you that Fox News has nothing on The Post for running with ideas that have no value, and have –in fact– been disproved.
In NYC, where some of the people are the most brilliant in the nation, the reading level of too many people is similar to that of our president, who cannot read … according to a recent spate of articles https://www.theroot.com/i-told-yall-donald-trump-cant-read-1830949836
and may never have read books https://newrepublic.com/minutes/133566/donald-trump-doesnt-read-books
.. so the model at the TOP, whose attorney says “Truth is NOT truth,” sets the mode,
Lies with impunity and thinks the society can thrive when decisions are based on disininfromation and misinformation an outright mis truths… i.e LIES!
What Susan said. I lived in NYC ’73-’93, got NYT at home & read NYDailyNews on subway for funnies/ columns/ sports. NYPost was a lo-qual rag then; looks like it still is.
I wish I could remember who said it, but somebody famous who has been involved in many political/national/international groups recently said that most members she met no matter where she went were “not that smart” — as in poorly read, poorly informed
Murdoch and company have an opinion on something they clearly do not understand. The courts have determined that VAM is useless in evaluating teachers. If New York continues with this fake evaluation system, it will cost the state millions in lawsuits.
Teachers have been effectively evaluated in NYS long before privatizers invented their useless algorithm. Teachers are locally evaluated by administrators trained in the process of evaluation. As someone that had at least three observations per year in which I was required to meet with an administrator for a pre and post observation conference where I presented my lesson plan in depth, I do not agree that New York cannot evaluate its teachers. There is a local framework in place for most districts in the state that should not be discounted. It is a far more effective and useful process than an algorithm based on test scores.
Here is the same drumbeat from New Jersey, last month, with a quote from Arne Duncan.
https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/18/11/12/op-ed-its-time-to-add-value-to-new-jersey-teacher-evaluations/
At least the author points out that PARCC is unreliable [which undermines his entire argument] – comment thread picks this up (& other flaws)].
From the article:
“Second, assuming that the information is valid and reliable,”
And that assumption, we know, is not warranted. See N. Wilson for details.
Have no fear no one reads the NY Post. They just look at the pictures and the headlines.
The Regents read the Post and take it seriously even when it’s total garbage
FEAR.
Fundamentally punitive measures do not work in education, do not work for admin, teachers or kids, and does not work in the White House either.
Punitive measures should only be used when warranted, as required correction. Not as a way to supervise or govern or teach or even do business.
The article totally ignores the high-profile case of Shari Leaderman, the teachers who challenged VAM in court, and won an overwhelming victory:
https://danielskatz.net/2016/05/11/new-york-evaluations-lose-in-court/
There also was another similar case, and with a similar defeat of VAM in the New Mexico courts, with a judge a temporary suspension on any consequences being visited upon teachers for low VAM scores, pending an upcoming trial. The trial is coming early next year, I believe:
http://vamboozled.com/new-mexico-teacher-evaluation-lawsuit-updates/
There was also a trial of VAM in Houston and the judge threw it out because the formula was so opaque that teachers could not figure out how they were evaluated.
Just incredible. VAM is the thing that simply will not die. Can we perhaps judge a teacher’s effectiveness phrenologically? Have admin feel the bumps on our heads and rate us accordingly? These data-charlatans know nothing about teaching or learning or the corrosive effects of poverty and social dislocation. Just more teacher shaming from bloated bloviators…
My experience with VAM and the people who accept its validity make me want to look into industry and wonder how many systems are in place there that unfairly single out individual workers for criticism or dismissal who are really performing quite capably. Such idiocy could cripple or pervert the very goals of an industry. A good example of the perversion of a goal is the quota system that induced Wells-Fargo employees to open fake accounts and defraud consumers.
This is why punitive systems fail in any setting. Slavery, arguably the most repulsive of human institutions, really failed as a system when compared to other alternatives due to the corrosive effect on society. I refer not simply to slavery in the Americas, but worldwide. Similar institutions, based on punishing those who do not bend to the general will, are doomed from the start. Schools used to be considered good if they flushed out the students who did not measure up. I hope we have repented at least in part from this modus vevendi.
The dying breath of those who wish to create a punitive society to feather their own nests or pad their own egos can often be felt as a hot wind. May we cool it in peace.
Roy,
I urge you to order a copy of Andrea Gabor’s book about Deming, called “The Man Who Invented Quality.”
It will reinforce your views about punishing workers for flaws in the system.
Thanks for this. I found a short web site that described Deming and his Fourteen Points. Seems like a reasonable fellow. I will try to read the Gabor right after Les Miserables, one of two great classics I missed in the days when I had time to read.
Too bad American companies decided to DISS Deming and his work after WWII.
Deming’s TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT works and it even works in schools. I’ve applied Deming’s principles in my work with teachers and school administrators.Even wrote about it.
VAM is still being used across the country.
Most Deformers like Gates have just decided it’s better to keep quiet about it and allow it to quietly persist because they know it is junk and know that defending it is only likely to make them look dishonest.