Tying Teacher Tenure to Student Scores Doesn’t Fly

[LuckyLib]

Excellent article on the fallacy of such schemes, from Education Week
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/02/10/21snider.h29.html?tkn=WULFenQGhor36vh6Ik%2FtDmx33IFioR338KJ1&cmp=clp-edweek

<snip> First, when a student fails to flourish, it is rarely the result of one party. Rather, it tends to be a confluence of confounding factors, often involving parents, teachers, administrators, politicians, neighborhoods, and even the student himself. If we could collect data that allowed us to parse out these influences accurately, then we might be able to hold not just teachers but all parties responsible. At present, however, we are light-years away from even understanding how to collect such data.

Second, learning is not always, or easily, captured by high-stakes tests. A student’s performance on a given day reflects a whole lot more than what his teacher has or hasn’t taught him.


<snip> The short answer to both questions is because our current data systems are a complete mess. We tend to collect the wrong kinds of data, partly to save money and partly because we’re not all that good at statistical analysis.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Someone needs to explain that to President Obama and Arne Duncan!!!

[sandnsea]

2. Good thing Duncan isn't suggesting that n/t

[theoldman]

3. A friend once told me that it was not important as to how high you had

gone. What was important was where you started. When you apply this to students you have to measure them from where they started. You cannot give the same test to a poor inner city school and to a rich school in the suburbs. Sometimes a 5% improvement is more difficult than a 10% improvement.