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CAT Tracks for February 2, 2017
THE VAM SHAM |
Even before the advent of "alternative facts", there was the "value-added teacher evaluation" (VAM).
Despite actual facts (like pictures of inaugural crowds), there are still those who castigate the states using the debunked method because they won't fire teachers based on the fake-news results...
From eSchool News
The teacher evaluation mistake 28 states are making
CAT Tracks Editor's Note:
Above and beyond the usual scientific arguments against VAM...
...there is a simpler reason not to us the value-added method.
It's the students, stupid!
There is a sizable minority of students who don't take state tests seriously and play dot, dot, dot on their answer sheets.
There is no consequence to the students for failing the tests...
...the only consequences, high-stake consequences, rest upon the shoulders of the teachers. In other words, the students have "no skin in the game', while the teachers' livelihood is on the line.
I mean...
...back in the day (at least a decade ago when I was still in the trenches), students were known to tell teachers they didn't like (usually the ones who tried to teach them more than they wanted to know) that they were going to fail the test intentionally so as to reflect poorly on the teacher. In fact, I had one student tell me: "I'm going to have your J-O-B!"
I can't speak for the current state of affairs in classrooms across the United States, but I would dare say that when you compound my final declining years over another decade of "reform" and digital disruption, the ability of teachers to control the achievement of students is a crap shoot.
