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Value-Added Measures

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School & District Management William Sanders, Pioneer of the Value-Added Model for Evaluating Teachers, Dies
Sanders believed that teachers had the biggest impact on student learning, more so than family life, socioeconomic status, or ethnicity—a position that has been widely contended.
Madeline Will, March 22, 2017
2 min read
Teaching Profession Teachers Give Evaluation Systems Low Ratings, Survey Finds
A majority of teachers say evaluation systems based on student test scores have deteriorated their relationships with parents, students, administrators and other teachers, according to a new survey.
Madeline Will, April 18, 2016
4 min read
Student Achievement Opinion Your Guide to Effective Teaching. In TIME Magazine.
It's important for educators to read widely, about common issues--with a kind of radar for books and articles written for general audiences that contain important nuggets of wisdom, related to schools and learning. Why? Because general audiences aren't reading your favorite teacher blogs or books on the Common Core. Education takes place in the middle--between research-based expertise and unexamined habit.
Nancy Flanagan, July 21, 2015
3 min read
School & District Management Opinion Releasing Virginia's Teacher Evaluation Data Would Be a Bad Idea
Yesterday, the Washington Post reported on the Virginia lawsuit about releasing individual teacher evaluation data. Let's revisit what I wrote in 2010 about the L.A. Times reporting that data.
Rick Hess, March 17, 2015
4 min read
Teaching Profession Study Suggests Using Poverty as a Factor in Teacher Evaluation
Researchers suggest comparing "similarly circumstanced" schools in order to fairly evaluate teachers.
Jordan Moeny, January 26, 2015
2 min read
Teaching Profession Teacher Pay Starts Low, Grows Slowly, Is Generally Awful, Report Says
D.C. may be one of the best places for career teachers in search of high pay, a new report says, while South Dakota is unquestionably the worst.
Ross Brenneman, July 23, 2014
3 min read
Teaching Profession TNTP Presses for Performance-Pay Systems for Teachers
To bolster teacher quality, schools systems desperately need to institute variable pay structures that reward educators based on performance and challenging assignments, according to a report released this week by TNTP, a prominent nonprofit teacher-recruitment and policy organization.
Anthony Rebora, July 18, 2014
3 min read
Standards & Accountability Opinion John Thompson: Time for a Truce in the Battle Over Education?
I believe we must fight competition-driven, test-driven reform with all our power, but we must also be willing to offer and/or accept an olive branch.
Anthony Cody, June 20, 2014
7 min read
Teaching Profession Opinion Adam Bessie: Retiring the "Bad Teacher" Boogeyman
In essence, the "bad teacher" is a not just a basic strawman, but a hologram, an insubstantial projection of whoever you want him to be, whatever you - or your child - perceives him to be.
Anthony Cody, June 16, 2014
8 min read
Law & Courts Opinion Vergara Decision Feeds Testing and Teacher Turnover
The Vergara decision feeds into our societal obsession with test scores, and propels us towards schools with even less stability, and higher turnover.
Anthony Cody, June 14, 2014
7 min read
Ed-Tech Policy Opinion From Common Core, to Vergara, to VAM, Gates Foundation Fingerprints Everywhere
Someone in the mainstream media finally asked Bill Gates straight out what his role was regarding Common Core. What a concept!
Anthony Cody, June 11, 2014
6 min read
Ed-Tech Policy Opinion John Thompson: Corporate Reformers' "Race to the Moon" Low on Fuel
It is up to the Gates Foundation to decide whether it defends its quest for a better bottle rocket to drive school reform, or to heed the research of independent scholars.
Anthony Cody, June 5, 2014
6 min read
Teacher Preparation Opinion Teacher Education Leaders Speak Out: Tim Slekar: Educators Must Be Advocates For the Needs of Our Students
There might be individual institutions and faculty pushing back but there is a need to organize these institutions and faculty. And this will be the challenge--how to organize the teacher education profession.
Anthony Cody, May 27, 2014
7 min read
Teacher Preparation Opinion Teacher Education Leader Francisco Rios: edTPA Leads Schools to Teach to the Test
The most frustrating aspect of these new faster, easier but not always cheaper approaches to teacher education is that they seem to be freed from many of the regulations that are now being required of traditional teacher education programs in colleges of education.
Anthony Cody, May 26, 2014
6 min read