Study backs 'value-added' analysis of teacher effectiveness

[n2doc]

By Jason Felch, Los Angeles Times
December 10, 2010, 1:42 p.m.

Teachers' effectiveness can be reliably estimated by gauging their students' progress on standardized tests, according to the preliminary findings of a large-scale study released Friday by leading education researchers.

The study, funded by the the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, provides some of the strongest evidence to date of the validity of "value-added" analysis, whose accuracy has been hotly contested by teachers unions and some education experts who question the use of test scores to evaluate teachers.

The approach estimates a teacher's impact by comparing his or her students' performance on standardized tests to that in previous years. It has been adopted around the country in districts including New York City, Washington, Houston and soon, if local officials have their way, in Los Angeles.

The $45-million Measures of Effective Teaching study is a groundbreaking effort to identify reliable gauges of teacher performance through an intensive look at 3,000 teachers in cities throughout the country. Ultimately, it will examine multiple approaches, including using sophisticated observation tools and teachers' assessments of their own performance.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-gates-study-20101211,0,3135322.story

I'm shocked, I'll tell you, just shocked that a Gates funded study would show this! :sarcasm:

[Alenne]

1. Give me a break

The Gates foundation has a clear agenda when it comes to teachers. I'd need some other organization to come up with the same findings before I could take this study seriously.

[Starry Messenger]

2. Geeze, it's like a study on head-bumps from the Phrenology Association.

"Everything we thought was true was true, we've studied the matter thoroughly!".

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Same question I've been asking for decades:

What about the kindergarten teacher? Art teacher? Music teacher? Counselor? Nurse?

I wouldn't want to work in any school without the above named teachers. But since their students aren't tested (and aren't likely to be anytime soon; the expense alone prohibits that plan), how do we judge their effectiveness?

And once again, as a special ed teacher, my students will never earn me a raise. Yet I work just as hard (and see great success) as any other teacher in my school.

Does Bill Gates have a plan for the rest of us teachers who can't be judged based on test scores?

[Reader Rabbit]

4. Another article by Jason Felch?

He's probably just trying to justify himself so he can ignore the blood he already has on his hands. RIP Rigoberto Ruelas.