Shaping the Debate Over Value Added

Published Jan. 26th, 2011 in Ed Week

After our discussion in grad sem class last month, I was very interested in reading more about the controversial value-added topic. This article in Ed Week was written by an economist to educators in an attempt to find common ground on the subject. I do agree that there are points that individuals on both sides of the debate can agree on.

1) There are good reasons for concern about the current system of teacher evaluations where 90% of teachers are currently ranked as highly effective. If this were an accurate portrayal, more students should be passing state tests and less students becoming drop outs. Everyone can conceed there is room for growth here and at the very least, evaluations need to be more honest.

2) If goal of evaluation is to improve the art of teaching with the hope of increasing learning opportunities for students- then who can argue with working toward improving the evaluation system?

The conflict seems to arise when we look at what the best form of evaluation may be. From an economist's perspective, "if we get rid of ineffective teachers and provide financial incentives to the remainder to improve, then students will have higher test scores, yielding more productive workers and a more competitive US economy." One estimate mentioned that just cutting low performing teachers alone could generate $100 trillion dollars in national income.

However, as the author of the article keenly pointed out, the logic of such economists makes most educators cringe. They fail to see that constant drilling and testing will lead to killing a student's motivation in school. Inquiry based learning will be replaced teaching to a test. Not to mention the numerous influences on a child's life beyond their homeroom teacher that can contribute to the way a student performs on a test.

There needs to be a middle ground between this outcry for better teacher evaluation methods and the teacher's desire to to do what is best for students while also feeling safe and appreciated in their place of employment. The concept of value added testing may be the wave of the future, but I think in time the supporters of this movement will see how ineffective and inaccurate this formula will be. It is seriously disheartening to read in this article that a New York City judge has allowed the local schools to publish performance ratings of teachers. I am a HUGE supporter of changing the current evaluation system of teachers, but I will never support this current concept of value added testing as a means of evaluation.