Ignoring the evidence on teacher evaluations

[proud2BlibKansan]

Connecticut has joined the national frenzy. A state panel has just approved a teacher evaluation plan that includes using standardized test scores to decide whether or not to fire a teacher. This is one of the requirements of the No Child Left Behind waivers that were the subject of my Jan. 29 column.

Commenting on the use of standardized test scores to judge teachers, the head of the Superintendent's Association, Joseph Cirasuolo, admitted: "the science is not all there ... That doesn't mean we shouldn't try this."

I'm sure the family of Rigoberto Ruelas would have preferred that Los Angeles worked out the science before trying it there. Ruelas was a well-respected teacher in an impoverished section of Los Angeles. In his 14-year career in the same school, he mentored kids, counseling them away from the gang violence that surrounded them, tutored on weekends, visited kids' homes and encouraged them to go to college. Then, a newspaper published a report in 2010 ranking him as a "less effective" teacher based on his students' test scores. Several days later, Ruelas committed suicide.

What did the science reveal about Los Angeles' teacher evaluation system? Scholars who studied the program showed that there was a 40-60 percent misclassification rate in basing teacher evaluations on standardized test scores. This is consistent with similar studies at NYU, Berkeley, the RAND Institute and elsewhere.


Read more: http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Wendy-Lecker-Ignoring-the-evidence-on-teacher-3250689.php#ixzz1m33qhcDF

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Is that how we got thalidomide?

Did some researcher say "the science is not all there ... That doesn't mean we shouldn't try this."

[Smarmie Doofus]

2. I googled "Joseph Cirasuolo" and found this:

http://www.educationnews.org/education-policy-and-politics/conn-superintendent-report-eliminate-tenure-for-teachers/


As the Doobie Bros. sang..... "What a fool believes, he sees."

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. We should start calling them 'Science ignorers'

[eppur_se_muova]

4. Student scores should never be more than one component of any teacher evaluation.

Hasn't anyone in ed deform ever heard of multivariate analysis ? I.e., outcome depends on more than one variable, so look at the relative weighting of each factor. Class sizes are small enough that statistical variation between randomly assigned classes can be comparable in magnitude to variation due to teacher quality. So it's very tough to attribute poor performance by any class of students to just one factor, such as the individual teacher.

[sulphurdunn]

5. The long game

is to eliminate continuing teacher contracts, unions, due process and seniority in preparation for privatizing public K-12 education. Standardized criterion referenced tests will be used to measure student progress and get rid of the most experienced and expensive teachers. These teachers will show the highest scores and hence the least amount of quantifiable progress as they approach 100%. They can then be negatively evaluated and replaced with inexpensive college kids who sign two year contracts to pay off student loans before being replaced themselves by others. Eventually, it may become more profitable to dump the college kids and bring in H1-B teachers from overseas.

[knitter4democracy]

7. Yup. That's it exactly.

Disgusting. All of it.

[Starry Messenger]

6. k&r