Fordham Institute’s accountability design competition: A healthier mess
I will be in Washington early next week participating in the Fordham Institute’s design competition for state accountability under the Every Student Succeeds Act. I will be one of ten submitters making (very short!) presentations late afternoon Tuesday, February 2 (3:30-5:30 EST). The complete list of design sketches is available now (whether or not the […]
Another dirty little secret of test-based measures
New York State’s department of education recently reported that approximately 20% of students in testing grades refused to participate in this year’s state assessments, the high-water mark thus far of the opt-out movement. Among the various stories and arguments flowing from that is the argument that 20% refusal is easily over the threshold of non-participation […]
Validity’s likely irrelevance in personnel processes
My colleague Audrey Amrein-Beardsley is starting a series of blog entries glossing the March special issue of Educational Researcher devoted to value-added or growth measures, specifically the technical qualities vis-a-vis teacher evaluations. In her first entry on the issue today, she argues the following: [Quoting Doug Harris and Carolyn Herrington:] “The issue is not whether value-added measures are valid but […]
Deist school reform and teacher evaluations
As my colleague Audrey Amrein-Beardsley pointed out earlier today, there is a battle royale coming up this week in New York, with a hearing on the changes in state teacher evaluation policy mandated by this year’s budget agreement in Albany. Amrein-Beardsley sees the issue focused on value-added measures, in part because that is the obsession […]
Different ways to think about the “Florida package”
My second email Q&A over Florida’s recent reform history is up at Valerie Strauss’s blog. I’m flattered that she calls me an expert on Florida reform. I’m more of a scholar of accountability who was also a local observer for 18 years, and one of those who have written about the state’s education reforms. (See a […]