OK. Obama/Duncan/Gates School "Reform" Model: The results Are IN !!! Today's NYT: P. A1

[LWolf]

86. Did you know that,

at this time, there are only 2 very small groups of mathematicians creating VAM formulas for the entire nation?

I met with one of those groups; the one contracted to create a VAM formula for my district.

This is what they said about VAM:

1. Different formulas applied to the same data achieves different results. You can write the formula to get the results you want.

2. Their formulas cannot control for all factors that affect student learning; the factors they CAN write into the VAM are limited.

The fact that SES is the greatest predictor of standardized test results tells us that SES is a greater factor than anything that a teacher does. If this nation really wanted to affect that achievement gap, we'd be eliminating poverty, providing security and continuous adult and parent education. Instead, during my lifetime, the gap has grown wider and wider in response to neoliberal economic policies. Not coincidentally, the current reforms, including the various uses of high-stakes tests, are neoliberal reforms.

Do you really need statistical analysis to understand that teachers working together for the benefit of all benefits more students than teachers threatened by the success of others, forced into competing with, rather than collaborating with, other teachers? What is going to benefit the most students? Teachers gathering to work together, to talk about successes and challenges, to share ideas and strategies, or teachers keeping their strategies and methods to themselves so they can "beat" other teachers' students? You don't get this? Really? Education is not a business, and does not thrive in a business model. Education is a public service. Public service is, or should be, collaborative, not competitive.

The key word in your final paragraph is "objective." There is nothing "objective" about the current use of high-stakes testing.

For the rest, I need to say this: there are so many things that go into a successful lesson, a successful classroom, that cannot be measured objectively. When you are depending upon a "statistical evaluation of their techniques," you are supporting a one-size-fits all evaluation. Students and teachers are people. They are individuals, and not able to be standardized. What works for one teacher doesn't necessarily work for another; what works for some students doesn't work for all. Let me explain:

Student test scores are not a measurement of a teacher's work, but of a student's. As long as there are factors teachers don't control, those scores are not valid measures of teacher performance.

Come up with a fair, accurate way to evaluate us, and we're not hostile. It sounds simple, but it's not. We're not a business, we're not a factory, and we aren't turning out a product. We, and our students, and their families, are people, not products.

We have all kinds of ideas about how to continually create, and recreate, the best, most vibrant, richest system of public education possible. All the nation needs to do is invite us to do so.

Edited to add: The best system of evaluation, the best strategies and practices, can be misused and abused. It's not just the evaluation system, or the teaching methodologies; it's how they are used.