Friday, December 14, 2012

And here's why it should be scrapped

Value added 'measurement' simply doesn't measure what it claims, if in fact it measures anything. I'm not personally convinced it does measure anything, not even the growth of a particular student over time. Perhaps you've been fortunate, but I have personally witnessed students deliberately throwing the test for their own reasons. Some because they realized they couldn't possibly pass, so why bother trying? Some because they knew high scores would qualify them for more demanding classes, and they wanted to stay in 'easy' classes. Some have even done it because they are satisfying a grudge against a particular teacher and wanted to screw up the teacher's pass rate. If you think adolescents don't do these things, you must be smoking the kool-aid.

http://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2012/11/17/air-pollution-in-ny-state-comments-on-the-ny-state-teacherprincipal-rating-modelsreport/

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