Report: evaluate teachers on test scores

Linking public school teacher job evaluations to student achievement, which Louisiana is starting this year, is a solid indicator of how effective teachers will be in the future, according to a report issued Wednesday.

The study was done by Marcus Winters, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, which is an education research group.

Winters studied the merits of judging teachers’ performance by how they contribute to improvements in student test scores during the course of the school year, which is called value added.

The report says value added “can be a useful piece of a comprehensive evaluation system.”

“Claims that it is unreliable should be rejected,” according to the report.

Linking gains in student test scores with other teacher reviews “can and should be part of a reformed system that improves teacher quality and thus gives America’s public school pupils a better start in life,” the study says.

Louisiana’s 60,000 public school teachers are about to face their first job evaluations under a new review system that the Legislature, prodded by Gov. Bobby Jindal, approved in 2010.

Teacher unions opposed the change and remain critical of the new reviews.

Union leaders contend the new evaluations are flawed and likely to unfairly penalize accomplished teachers.

Under the plan, half of the annual review will be connected to the growth of student test scores. The other half will be tied to classroom observations by principals and others, which have been used for years.

Teachers who get bad reviews in back-to-back school years face dismissal proceedings.

Winters, who is an assistant professor at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs, said value added and other steps are superior to evaluations used in many states, and until recently in Louisiana.

He said that, even in low-performing public schools, 98 percent of teachers reviewed receive high ratings under the review system that operates in most states.

“That is just inconsistent with what we know and what we see in empirical research,” Winters told reporters during a conference call.

Winters drew his conclusions after studying the data of fourth- and fifth-grade students in Florida.

He said that looking at test scores for a teacher’s first two years in the classroom provided solid insights in how he or she fared in the fifth year, which is generally well after teachers get a form of job protection called tenure.

How students fare in the classroom is also a better indicator of future teacher performance than a master’s degree, Winters said.

Once a teacher gets tenure, the report says, he or she is “famously difficult to dismiss” even though students can suffer.

Winters said the difference between a teacher more skilled than 75 percent of his or her colleagues compared with 25 percent can be a year’s worth of learning for a student.

The annual teacher reviews in Louisiana will be linked to tenure starting in the 2013-14 school year.

Comments

1) Comment by teacherguy - 06/09/2012

Excerpt from the article Noel Hammatt suggested in the post below: A primary (and problematic) presumption of a value- added model is that a teacher’s effectiveness can be identified independently through students’ standardized test scores. This evaluation system makes teachers solely responsible for student success when, in reality, quite the opposite is true. Teachers do not work in isolation because schools are learning communities where all parts contribute to student development. An evaluation system that even partially bases an individual teacher’s evaluation on his or her students’ scores ignores the reality that student success is often predicated on the work of many in a school, including reading teachers, resource teachers, reading and English Language Learner specialists, guidance counselors, social workers, psychologists, and other personnel. Most importantly, out-of-school factors are actually more responsible for student success [9]. Non-classroom- teacher factors, including parents’ income level and level of education, account for roughly 85-90% of the statistical variation in students’ test scores [10]. How could we possibly begin to disaggregate each individual’s effect? And why would we want to? Schools operate best when there is cooperation among all caretakers, faculty, and staff members [11] and when all are accountable for each student’s learning [12].

2) Comment by Noel Hammatt - 06/09/2012

@MildredCitizen: You raise some excellent questions, and I thought I would share a letter that raises, and answers, some of the concerns people have with the use of student accountability exams for the purpose of teacher assessments. There are excellent reasons why this is NOT good policy, but the professors signing off on this letter do a better job that I can of outlining many of these reasons! http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/georgia- professors-blast-teacher-evaluation- system/2012/07/09/gJQAFhSbZW_blog.html Thanks!

3) Comment by iluvbtr - 06/09/2012

Words can't express how disappointed I am in Will Sentell and The Advocate editors for publishing this article without any consideration of the numerous research based studies that identify the fallacies of the Value Added Model. In the past I was willing to give Will the benefit of the doubt. When The Advocate and Will Sentell were consistently "scooped" by the JOURNALISTS at the state's Gannett papers on educational issues, I just assumed he wasn't provided with adequate time or resources for investigative journalism. Now I have to assume he is either lazy or he (or his editor) has made a choice to only publish articles that are closely aligned with his personal opinions.

4) Comment by Noel Hammatt - 06/09/2012

An admittedly cursory reading of the so-called "research" by Marcus Winters makes it perfectly reasonable that he would want to release this through a group that heavily invests in "market- based" reforms, and not try to have it published in a serious peer- reviewed journal. Give the paucity of information provided about the research itself, there is no way to critique it adequately, other than to point out that it would not meet the quality standards of a passing grade for a Master's level research paper. I do want to make a couple of points. First, the data set he used, one provided by the state department of education in Florida, is the type of data that researchers in Louisiana need to evaluate the reforms and the quality of teaching and learning in Louisiana. There has been a total clamping down on the availability of such data for researchers in the last few years. There is NO WAY to effectively evaluate claims made by the Recovery School District, since they control their data, and the state will not allow independent analysis of the data. In addition, it is not without some serious concern that the actual formula used to determine Value-Added- Measurement that is going to be used to determine teacher firings and pay raises (BY LAW NOW IN LOUISIANA) has NEVER BEEN MADE PUBLIC OR SUBMITTED FOR PEER REVIEW! Why are the reformers so afraid of letting the data out? And please, no excuses about student confidentiality. There are standard ways of protecting individual student's from identification, and they were used in the "research" reported on here. NO EXCUSES. RELEASE THE DATA SETS!

5) Comment by Traveler - 06/09/2012

Mildred Citizen, there are so many fallacies inherent in the standardized testing situation that one hardly knows where to begin in listing them. For example, we know that grade-school students typically have an attention span of about 20 minutes for one task, before their minds drift and their performance begins to lag. Yet standardized test sections are timed to last as long as 60 minutes per component! We know that many students are so stressed by the implications of the scores on standardized tests that they experience sufficient test anxiety to negatively impact their ability to respond----I've seen students completely fall apart during these testing situations. Yet we continue to emphasize those scores as the objective that the students must keep in mind all year! We know that different students manifest different learning styles----some demonstrate their mastery of a given concept orally or in writing; some demonstrate their comprehension through creating a project. Yet standardized testing demands that students conform to one learning style! The fact: designing, publishing, selling, and scoring these tests is big business. It's in the best financial interests of those testing companies to promote their product to legislators----and they do. Mildred, as the concerned and involved parent that your comment indicates you to be, do you really need a "snapshot" (one-time) score on one test taken on one day of the school year to tell you whether your child is making academic progress? If you do, you may not be paying as close attention as you say you are.

6) Comment by lovemykids - 06/09/2012

The Manhattan Institute is a conservative think tank. It believes that education should be run like a business. Children are not products to be bought and sold. If it were up to them they would educate children in a factory.

7) Comment by Noel Hammatt - 06/09/2012

Will Sentell, "The study was done by Marcus Winters, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, which is an education research group." Are you kidding me? The Manhattan Institute is now an "education research group?" Really? When did this happen? Nothing could be further from the truth. But then, why should we expect you to know the truth. Parroting the press releases does not lead to a trail of truth. Not once have you published any of the research from scholarly groups evaluating Value Added Measurement (VAM), and perhaps this is because their research indicated that VAM is rife with difficulties, and that it should constitute, if any, a small part of teacher evaluations. NONE of the major research groups support the use of VAM as 50% of a teacher's evaluation or more, as we have in this state! Not one. But then, how would any of the reader's of The Advocate know this, since you have never reported on ANY OF THEM! More on the actual research after I catch my breath from laughing (and crying) at your attempt to label a group focused on "Market- driven" reforms ala the Chicago School of Economics as an "Education Research Group." And funny, even your tepid attempts in the past to give the appearance of neutrality by showing "non-human" responses or opposing positions as "opponents say" or "critics suggest" without ever really allowing any real person with opposing viewpoints to actually make a point, pale in light of this current piece of puffery. Shame on you. Shame on The Advocate. Perhaps you don't think the public is actually capable of dealing with the truth. So Sad.

8) Comment by Traveler - 06/09/2012

SPQR, you are absolutely correct!

9) Comment by Traveler - 06/09/2012

Mildred Citizen, your assertion that "practically no teachers are ever fired for poor performance" is not correct. Teachers with poor performance issues are terminated just about every week. When remediation is not feasible, those employees with performance problems are offered the opportunity to resign "for personal reasons" rather than having a termination on their employment records. For local evidence of this, just check the "Personnel Changes" reported by the EBRP School Board at the monthly meeting----you will see that the largest number of changes are not listed as people who are "Deceased," or "Retired" or on "Sick Leave." A fair number of those employees who are listed as having resigned "For Personal Reasons" each month were simply moved out of the profession.

10) Comment by spqr - 06/09/2012

Mildred, teachers are not the problem. A sick US society is where work is scorned, gang life is admired, drugs flow like alcohol in the French Quarter and respect of authority is considered a character defect. Teachers have no control of these influences and students embrace apathy. Just got back from a Parent-Teacher night in a school of 1,200 students. Only 50 parents showed up representing about 25 students. I was told by teachers this was typical. What can teachers do when parents do not care?

11) Comment by timesright - 06/09/2012

You got it, Traveler! Too many people still drinking this kool-aid. Will Sentell is too!

12) Comment by Mildred Citizen - 05/09/2012

One could argue that nothing is more precious to a parent than their child. Not their wealth or health is as important as their progeny. And yet, we expect no evaluation of the teachers who spend as much, if not more, time with our children than we do as parents? And as a society, what is more important than an educated populace in a global economy for making our nation competitive to support sustainable growth and prosperity? Practically no teachers are ever fired for poor performance. A situation at odds with every other profession and certainly not aligned with the results we are being delivered by the current educational establishment. It is time for a change. Thank you, Governor Jindal!

13) Comment by zealer99 - 05/09/2012

I agree that a single standardized is not adequate to measure what a student has learned. I would prefer to see standardized test given for each subject each year by a third party to insure test security but that would probably be cost prohibitive. A student should have acquired some basic level competence dealing with information that is "standard" to our society and a standard test that is given to students throughout the country provides considerable insight that can be used to compare a student to all other students. A single test may not be adequate but it is a place to start until something better is developed. Louisiana's standardized testing preceded "One child left behind"....

14) Comment by cbelse1 - 05/09/2012

@zealer99: None of the comments below say that testing is a bad practice; the previous commenters are pointing out, however, that the current method of testing isn't giving an accurate depiction of student performance. The extreme emphasis on high-stakes standardized testing grew out of No Child Left Behind and the movement that led up to that Act; however, states were allowed to create their own assessments and set a lot of their own standards. Regarding the LEAP test, a score of "Basic" is considered to be a good score, as it is a passing score, but it would actually translate to a letter grade in the C range. The other argument provided below is that the emphasis on standardized testing has deemphasized higher order thinking and learning. In some ways, this is true. I agree with you that we do need measurable methods of assessing student learning, but I firmly disagree with the notion that one single test can determine not only how much a student has learned, but also how well the teacher taught.

15) Comment by zealer99 - 05/09/2012

How do you evaluate what students have learned without some sort of testing? The answer that some of the people in education are advocating seem to be to take their word that the students are learning the content. The demands for standardized testing grew out of the fact that many schools were graduating students who could not read and numerous lawsuits were filed and won by parents of such students. Learning must be measurable and it must be measurable in a way that a third person can evaluate the data.

16) Comment by Bouncer - 05/09/2012

Absolutely, Traveler! I have been teaching for the better part of 3 decades, and you are dead on target with your observations. There's not much to be added to what you have said.

17) Comment by Get Real - 05/09/2012

I agree with Traveler on this one. Teachers are being scapegoated because lazy unconcerned parents aren't doing anything but collecting a check

18) Comment by Traveler - 05/09/2012

I'm not buying this propaganda. I have personally observed schools in other states in which the so-called "value-added" model is already applied. The teachers "teach the test" from August through spring testing (usually in late March or early April). Faculty and students are rewarded for high scores on standardized tests (Kids get pizza parties, movie parties, bowling parties, etc.). As soon as the testing is completed for the year, everybody just relaxes (or maybe it would be more accurate to say, everybody just collapses). The scores make it seem as if the students are getting a first-rate education. What they're actually getting is experience in memorizing facts and enduring lengthy stretches of reading and "bubbling in." Higher-order thinking skills? Forget it! Analyzing, synthesizing, evaluating? Nope! Creative thinking? Not a chance. "Value-added" is a huge sham that has been foisted on a public who do not understand what a REAL education is all about.

19) Comment by Whatnow - 05/09/2012

Why use principal evaluations at all? It didn't work in the past. Too many lazy principals and too much personal discrimination. I've seen it in action.