Working through further misconceptions about value-added measures
In previous posts, I’ve taken issue with many of the criticisms leveled by Diane Ravitch and Valerie Strauss, who disputed the findings from the recent study by Harvard and Columbia economists. That study found students who had teachers with high value-added scores were more successful later in life than students who had teachers with lower value-added [...] |
More misconceptions about value-added measures
Yesterday I responded to some common criticisms of value-added measures to evaluate teachers. As I mentioned yesterday, these criticisms have been used by critics such as Diane Ravitch and Valerie Strauss to dispute the findings from the recent study by Harvard and Columbia economists. That study found students who had teachers with high value-added scores [...] |
Answering the critics: Misconceptions about value-added measures
Neither education historian Diane Ravitch or Washington Post blogger Valerie Strauss are fans of using value-added measures to evaluate teachers. [Note: value-added is a statistical term describing the measure of a teacher’s impact on their student’s academic growth – see our report for a further explanation.] Both Ravitch and Strauss are particularly upset with the [...] |
Evaluating teachers: look at the data, please
A new report by the Measures of Effective Teaching project and supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation looks into the accuracy of classroom observations, as compared to and combined with other things such as value-added measures. The results are too long to discuss in a blog post, but one point caught my eye. [...] |
More States Improved Their Standards
This morning, Education Week (EdWeek) released its annual special report Quality Counts 2012, which included its annual State of the States report card. For the fourth year running, Maryland earned top honors with a B plus while the nation as a whole once again received a C. The report card shows that states have been [...] |