How can we use bad measures in decisionmaking?
I had about 20 minutes of between-events time this morning and used it to catch up on two interesting papers on value-added assessment and teacher evaluation–the Jesse Rothstein piece using North Carolina data and the Koedel-Betts replication-and-more with San Diego data. Speaking very roughly, Rothstein used a clever falsification test: if the assignment of students […]
Belated kudos to Broader, Bolder and to Fordham
In the whirlwind of my obligations this year, my reading has lagged, and I am late in recommending and praising two reports published in the first half of 2009: The Broader, Bolder Approach’s accountability report, published in late June. This report suggests combining the use of achievement test data and on-site school inspections for school-level […]
Proposed ground rules on teacher evaluation and test discussion
Seeing how too many writers about Race to the Top, tests, and teacher evaluation would have taken actions in the Cuban Missile Crisis that would have led to nuclear war–i.e., seeing the worst in opponents, or maybe seeing posturing as the best path forward for themselves personally or for their positions (sound like the health-care […]
Logjams in time… er, timejams?
For the last few years the pace of my life has been such that I’ve rarely had the chance to look at the ebb and flow of various things at work, largely because there hasn’t been such a thing as an ebb. And while I’m not seeing an ebb right now, I see at least […]
Your personal, homemade commission on tenure and test scores
Sick of finger-pointing in the absence of a New York state commission to study how to use test scores in teacher evaluation (including tenure) decisions? Look no further! In this space, we will be conducting our own homegrown commission over the next three months. No need for the New York Assembly and Senate to act! […]