El artículo adjunto comenta como distintos estados en EEUU estan
desarrollando formulas para medir el valor agregado de los docentes.
Llama la atención la competencia que existe entre "consultoras de valor
agregado". Agradezco a Paula Darville del Dipres por enviarme el artículo.
Gregory
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Wall Street Journal
* EDUCATION
* SEPTEMBER 13, 2011
By STEPHANIE BANCHERO And DAVID KESMODEL
As millions of teachers head back to school, many will be facing a new
kind of report card that judges them based on how much they help
students improve on standardized tests. Stephanie Banchero has details
on The News Hub.
MADISON, Wis.—Teacher evaluations for years were based on brief
classroom observations by the principal. But now, prodded by President
Barack Obama's $4.35 billion Race to the Top program, at least 26 states
have agreed to judge teachers based, in part, on results from their
students' performance on standardized tests.
So with millions of teachers back in the classroom, many are finding
their careers increasingly hinge on obscure formulas like the one that
fills a whiteboard in an economist's office here.
Rob Meyer, director of the Value-Added Research Center at the University
of Wisconsin, calls his statistical model a 'well-crafted recipe.'
The metric created by Value-Added Research Center, a nonprofit housed at
the University of Wisconsin's education department, is a new kind of
report card that attempts to gauge how much of students' growth on tests
is attributable to the teacher.
For the first time this year, teachers in Rhode Island and Florida will
see their evaluations linked to the complex metric. Louisiana and New
Jersey will pilot the formulas this year and roll them out next school
year. At least a dozen other states and school districts will spend the
year finalizing their teacher-rating formulas.
"We have to deliver quality and speed, because [schools] need the data
now," said Rob Meyer, the bowtie-wearing economist who runs the
Value-Added Research Center, known as VARC, and calls his statistical
model a "well-crafted recipe."
VARC is one of at least eight entities developing such models.
Supporters say the new measuring sticks could improve U.S. educational
performance by holding teachers accountable for students' progress.
Teachers unions and other critics say the tests' measurements are narrow
and that the teachers' scores jump around too much, casting doubt on the
validity of the formulas.
Janice Poda, strategic-initiatives director for the Council of Chief
State School Officers, said education officials are trying to make sense
of the complicated models. "States have to trust the vendor is designing
a system that is fair and, right now, a lot of the state officials
simply don't have the information they need," she said.
Principal Gregory Hodge of New York's Frederick Douglass Academy said
data for teachers generally aligns with his classroom observations.
Bill Sanders, who developed the nation's first model to measure
teachers' effect on student test scores, advises caution. "People smell
the money and there are lots of people rushing out with unsophisticated
formulas," said Mr. Sanders, who works as a senior researcher at
software firm SAS Institute Inc., which competes with VARC for contracts.
In general, the models use a student's score on, say, a fourth-grade
math test to predict how she or he would perform on the fifth-grade
test. Some groups, such as VARC, adjust those raw test scores to control
for students' outside factors, such as income or race. The actual
fifth-grade score is then compared with the expected score, which then
translates into the measure of the teacher's added value.
The teacher's overall effectiveness with every student in the classroom
is boiled down to one number to rate them from least effective to most
effective.
For states and school districts, deciding which vendor to use is
critical. The metrics differ in substantial ways and those distinctions
can have a significant influence on whether a teacher is rated superior
or subpar.
Teaching Moments
1982 Bill Sanders, a professor at the University of Tennessee, begins
building value-added models to measure teachers' impact on student
achievement. By 1992, Tennessee education officials adopt a refined
version of the model to evaluate the state's schools.
2002 President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind law goes into
effect, providing data that can be used to evaluate students' growth.
2005 The University of Wisconsin's Value-Added Research Center, or VARC,
is formed by Rob Meyer.
2006 The federal Teacher Incentive Fund begins issuing grants to school
systems and states to develop programs to award teachers who raise test
scores.
2008 The Houston Independent School District begins issuing bonuses to
teachers with high value-added rankings.
2009-2010 New York City starts including value-added data in decisions
about whether to grant tenure to teachers.
2010 The $4.35 billion Race to the Top grants create incentives for
states to adopt new education policies, including linking test scores to
teacher evaluations.
Summer 2010 The Washington, D.C., school district uses value-added data
to evaluate and fire teachers.
In August, a New York State Supreme Court judge invalidated a vote by
state education officials that would have let districts base 40% of
teacher evaluations on state test scores, after the state teachers
unions sued saying the law allowed for only 20%. The Los Angeles
teachers union has sued to stop the district from launching a pilot
program that would grade some teachers using a VARC formula.
Until this year, only a few districts used value-added data. Washington,
D.C., used it to fire about 60 teachers; New York City employed it to
deny tenure to what it considered underperforming teachers; and Houston
relied on it to award bonuses.
Michelle Rhee, who instituted a tough evaluation system when she was
schools chancellor in Washington, said she took over a district where
many students failed achievement exams, yet virtually every teacher was
rated effective.
"While it's not a perfect measure, it was a much fairer, more
transparent and consistent way to evaluate teachers," said Ms. Rhee, who
now heads StudentsFirst, a nonprofit advocate for education overhauls.
Andy Dewey, an 11th-grade history teacher in Houston, is not a fan. He
saw his score bounce from a positive rating in the 2008-09 school year
to a negative rating the following year, decreasing his bonus by about
$2,300.
"It's a bunch of garbage," said Mr. Dewey, who is executive vice
president of a local teachers union. "These tests are designed to
measure students, and they are being used to measure teachers. It's
absolutely a misuse of the information."
In New York City, value-added data has been used for the last two years
by principals only to make teacher tenure decisions. Last year, 3% of
teachers did not receive tenure protection based, in part, on that data.
A new state law, passed in an effort to compete for Race the Top,
requires the data become an official part of every teacher evaluation.
At Frederick Douglass Academy in Harlem, principal Gregory Hodge uses
the value-added results to alter instruction, move teachers to new
classroom assignments and pair weak students with the highest performing
teachers. Mr. Hodge said the data for teachers generally aligns with his
classroom observations. "It's confirming what an experienced principal
knows," he said.
—Lisa Fleisher contributed to this article.
Write to David Kesmodel at david.kesmodel@wsj.com
-------------------
Gregory Elacqua
--
Director
Instituto de Políticas Publicas
Facultad de Economía y Empresa
Universidad Diego Portales
Ejército 260
Santiago, Chile
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