Wrong way to judge teachers
Wednesday, Nov. 07, 2012 | 12:00 A
If the Fresno and Central Unified Race
To The Top applications are accepted, their teachers will be subject to a
significant miscarriage of justice. When you attempt to evaluate teachers on
student test scores, something is terribly awry. These tests are not designed
to judge teachers, so they fail the most important criteria for validity. At
least 85% of test score variability is due to factors outside of the classroom,
experiences with which the teacher has no control.
Teachers would be judged on such things
as students' family ethnicity, income, language and parent education. Also, the
essay-writing a student may learn through his history teacher might be credited
to his English teacher. The math he learns in his math class perhaps should be
credited to his physics teacher.
The RAND Corporation concluded that the
research base is insufficient to support the use of test scores for high-stakes
decisions about individual teachers or schools. Our own National Research
Council, Board on Testing and Assessment has spoken out against judging
teachers on test scores.
The most highly respected education
systems in the world like Finland and Singapore do not use test scores in
evaluating their teachers. So, why do we persist?
Rog Lucido
Fresno
posted by EPATA Educators and Parents Against Testing Abuse @ 4:29 PM
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