In a reversal of roles of sorts many teachers are not solely evaluating their students’ test scores, but rather teachers are now being ‘graded’ based on their students’ performance in an effort to tie teacher performance to student test scores. However, in an Economic Policy Institute (EPI) study recently released, leading educational testing experts caution against the heavy use of test results in teacher evaluations.
The use of test scores to evaluate teacher performance comes as a response to the administration’s recommendation that teacher effectiveness be evaluated by students’ standardized test scores. Schools vie to meet requirements for Federal Race to the Top Grants, awarded to states which demonstrate commitments to educational reform in four key areas.
The EPI study looks at the effectiveness of other test-based accountability programs such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which imposes sanctions on schools whose students fail to meet academic performance standards.
The federally administered National Assessment of Educational Progress test data shows slight improvements in African American student test scores post implementation of NCLB, but shows decreases in white students’ test scores. Fourth grade African American student reading scores improved by .5 score points per year before NCLB from 1990 to 2003. Post NCLB, 2003-2009, scores increased by 1.1 score points per year. For fourth grade white students pre NCLB reading scores improved by .5 score points per year and .3 score points per year post NCLB.
The EPI study asserts that a number of factors have a strong influence on student learning gains. These factors are outside of the teacher’s control. They include: previous teachers; current teachers of other subjects; school conditions (such as the quality of curriculum material); specialist or tutoring support; class size; school attendance; out-of-school learning experiences in museums, libraries, online, etc.; parental support; socio-economic background; student health; and peer influence.
Value added modeling (VAM) student evaluation methods are cited as more effective than previous student evaluation methods, yet have been proven through research to be unstable indicators of teacher effectiveness. The EPI report states that VAM evaluation methods run the risk of de-incentivizing teachers to work in economically disadvantaged areas where students have records of performing more poorly on standardized tests and it unintentionally encourages teachers to “teach to the test.”
Pressures to produce high test scores may have motivated as a many as 100 employees at 12 Atlanta public schools to violate testing protocol in June 2010. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that the scandal investigation cited an unusual amount of erasures on tests where incorrect answers were replaced with correct answers.
A 2003 Rand study asserts that VAM “is likely to misjudge the effectiveness of teachers and schools and could produce incorrect generalizations about their characteristics, thus hampering the systematic efforts to improve education.”
George Parker of the Washington Teachers Union described the VAM evaluation system implemented in the D.C. public schools as punitive in an article in the Washington Post. “It takes the art of teaching and turns it into bean counting,” said Parker.
The use of test scores to evaluate teacher performance comes as a response to the administration’s recommendation that teacher effectiveness be evaluated by students’ standardized test scores. Schools vie to meet requirements for Federal Race to the Top Grants, awarded to states which demonstrate commitments to educational reform in four key areas.
The EPI study looks at the effectiveness of other test-based accountability programs such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which imposes sanctions on schools whose students fail to meet academic performance standards.
The federally administered National Assessment of Educational Progress test data shows slight improvements in African American student test scores post implementation of NCLB, but shows decreases in white students’ test scores. Fourth grade African American student reading scores improved by .5 score points per year before NCLB from 1990 to 2003. Post NCLB, 2003-2009, scores increased by 1.1 score points per year. For fourth grade white students pre NCLB reading scores improved by .5 score points per year and .3 score points per year post NCLB.
The EPI study asserts that a number of factors have a strong influence on student learning gains. These factors are outside of the teacher’s control. They include: previous teachers; current teachers of other subjects; school conditions (such as the quality of curriculum material); specialist or tutoring support; class size; school attendance; out-of-school learning experiences in museums, libraries, online, etc.; parental support; socio-economic background; student health; and peer influence.
Value added modeling (VAM) student evaluation methods are cited as more effective than previous student evaluation methods, yet have been proven through research to be unstable indicators of teacher effectiveness. The EPI report states that VAM evaluation methods run the risk of de-incentivizing teachers to work in economically disadvantaged areas where students have records of performing more poorly on standardized tests and it unintentionally encourages teachers to “teach to the test.”
Pressures to produce high test scores may have motivated as a many as 100 employees at 12 Atlanta public schools to violate testing protocol in June 2010. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that the scandal investigation cited an unusual amount of erasures on tests where incorrect answers were replaced with correct answers.
A 2003 Rand study asserts that VAM “is likely to misjudge the effectiveness of teachers and schools and could produce incorrect generalizations about their characteristics, thus hampering the systematic efforts to improve education.”
George Parker of the Washington Teachers Union described the VAM evaluation system implemented in the D.C. public schools as punitive in an article in the Washington Post. “It takes the art of teaching and turns it into bean counting,” said Parker.
Friends Read Free