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No gold stars for LA teachers

August 30, 2010 By

Los Angeles doesn’t reward, recognize or try to learn from its most effective teachers, reports the LA Times in a follow-up to its value-added analysis of third- through fifth-grade teachers’ effects on their students’ test scores.

The Times found that the 100 most effective teachers were scattered across the city, from Pacoima to Gardena, Woodland Hills to Bell. They varied widely in race, age, years of experience and education level. They taught students who were wealthy and poor, gifted and struggling.

In visits to several of their classrooms, reporters found their teaching styles and personalities to differ significantly. They were quiet and animated, smiling and stern. Some stuck to the basics, while others veered far from the district’s often-rigid curriculum. Those interviewed said repeatedly that being effective at raising students’ performance does not mean simply “teaching to the test,” as critics of value-added analysis say they fear.

On average, these teachers’ students improved by 12 percentile points on tests of English, from the 58th to the 70th, and 17 percentile points in math, from 58th to 75th, in a year.

Thomas Kane, a Harvard education researcher, tested the reliability of the value-added approach in Los Angeles, the Times reports.  Kane predicted the student gains for  156 teachers who volunteered for the experiment.

Value-added analysis was a strong predictor of how much a teacher would help students improve on standardized tests. The approach also controlled well for differences among students, the study found.

With $45 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Kane and other researchers are now following 3,000 teachers in six school districts to see if other types of evaluation — including sophisticated classroom observations, surveys of teachers and reviews of student work — are also good measures of teacher performance.

In the meantime, Kane said that, although it is not perfect, “there is currently not a better measure of teacher effectiveness than the value-added approach.”

Teachers on the Times’ most effective list said they’d never been recognized for excellence.  Aldo Pinto, a 32-year-old teacher at Gridley Street Elementary School in San Fernando, said, ”The culture of the union is: Everyone is the same. You can’t single out anyone for doing badly. So as a result, we don’t point out the good either.”

Value-added is the worst form of teacher evaluation, but it’s better than everything else, writes Chad Aldeman on The Quick and the Ed.

Los Angeles Unified now plans to share value-added data with teachers privately and hopes to negotiate its use in teacher evaluations with the teachers’ union.  Tennessee did just the opposite, Aldeman notes. “Every year since the  mid-1990’s every single eligible teacher has received a report on their (value-added) results.”

When these results were first introduced, teachers were explicitly told their results would never be published in newspapers and that the data may be used in evaluations. In reality, they had never really been used in evaluations until the state passed a law last January requiring the data to make up 35 percent of a teacher’s evaluation. This bill, and 100% teacher support for the state’s Race to the Top application that included it, was a key reason the state won a $500 million grant in the first round.

While LA teachers are angry and confused, Tennessee teachers have had time to understand how value-added analysis works and  prepare to accept it.

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: , , , , ,

LA Times lists ‘effective’ teachers, schools

August 29, 2010 By

The Los Angeles has posted its list of the most and least effective third-, fourth- and fifth-grade teachers and schools with teachers’ comments. A few teachers are challenging the data, saying that they’re listed as teaching in years when they were on leave. The value-added analysis of schools is interesting.

On City Journal, dducation researcher Marcus Winters looks at the pros and cons of value-added analysis and comes out against release individual teachers’ scores. 

 Test-score analysis is “correct” on average—it can tell us a great deal about aggregate teacher quality. It can also help to evaluate individual teachers. But given its messiness—especially when tied to stakes as high as people’s jobs—it cannot be used in isolation.

Critics go too far, however, when they claim that these limitations justify abandoning the value-added approach altogether. The real lesson is that test scores are best used to raise red flags about a teacher’s objective performance; rigorous subjective assessment should follow, to ensure that the teacher is truly performing poorly. If both analyses show that a teacher is ineffective, then action should be taken, including removal from the classroom.

Economic Policy Institute also sees Problems with the Use of Student Test Scores to Evaluate Teachers.

Filed Under: Education, Testing Tagged With: , , ,

Locke lessons

August 21, 2010 By

Two years after Green Dot Public Schools took over low-performing Locke High School, test scores rose modestly from 13.7% to 14.9% proficient or advanced in English, and from 4% to 6.7% proficient or better in math, reports the LA Times.

Enrollment and attendance rates surged, even as enrollment has declined elsewhere.

Locke began last year with about 250 more students than in its final year under L.A. Unified. And Green Dot asserts that 95% remain enrolled; independent state figures are unavailable.

More Locke students are taking exams in courses required for admission to state four-year colleges. Last year, 785 more students took math tests, 894 more took science tests and 603 more took history tests. Also, Locke’s passing rate is up for the mandatory high school exit exam.

In Lessons from Locke, the Times gives Green Dot credit for admitting all students in the attendance area.

It rightly made reducing the dropout rate its first priority, and some of its lack of progress on test scores might in fact be the result of its success in keeping more troubled students in school.

But Green Dot needs to bring more Locke students to proficiency in the next few years to be considered a success, The Times editorializes.

Green Dot Public Schools billed the standardized test results as a dramatic improvement compared to years under district control. Looking at the percentage increase makes the numbers more impressive.


Filed Under: Education, Testing Tagged With: , , , ,

Study: People use tests to judge school quality

August 14, 2010 By

People’s evaluation of their local schools correlates with student performance on proficiency tests, concludes Grading Schools, a study by Harvard researchers published in the fall issue of Education Next .

Although citizens also appear to take into account the share of a school’s students who are poor when evaluating its quality, those considerations do not overwhelm judgments based on information about academic achievement.

Respondents evaluate schools based on state tests and look at overall achievement, not students’ progress, the study found. Elementary schools received higher grades than middle schools.

Low-income and minority citizens are just as informed about school quality as other citizens, writes researcher Martin West in a summary.

Filed Under: Education, Testing Tagged With: , ,

Four-day school week fails the test

July 27, 2010 By

Four-day school weeks are popular with students and teachers in Caldwell Parish, Louisiana, but test scores are declining, reports AP.  The district adopted the four-day week two years ago and plans to continue for the upcoming school year.

A comparison of Caldwell Parish fourth-grade LEAP scores from 2007 before the shortened week to those of the 2010 spring scores shows that the percentage of students scoring basic and above dropped in three out of four subject areas.

The number of students scoring basic and above in English language arts increased 5 percent, but fell 4 percent in math, 7 percent in science and 8 percent in social studies.

Eighth-grade scores also were down in three out of four subject areas. The percentage of students in eighth grade scoring basic or above was down 2 percent in English language arts, down 9 percent in math, down 9 percent in science and up 1 percent in social studies.

Students qualifying for promotion from grade four to five has remained the same as in 2007, but students meeting promotional standards in eighth grade are down four points.

Superintendent John Sartin said the district’s performance score, which reflect test scores, attendance, dropout rates and graduation outcomes, increased  from 92.8 in 2007 to 96 in 2009.

Filed Under: Education, Testing Tagged With: ,

But can they read?

July 22, 2010 By

To qualify for federal school improvement funds, a high-poverty Vermont school had to replace its hard-working principal, reports Michael Winerip in the New York Times. The story blames African refugee students who speak little English for the school’s low scores. Winerip writes that 37 of 39 fifth graders are refugees or disabled, although only 22 percent of students are black.

Alyson Klein of Politics K-12 summarizes the reaction of the education blogosphere — negative — and focuses a critical element:  The school’s scores are very low for all students, not just English Learners or special education students.

Winerip implies newly arrived immigrants’ scores count for No Child Left Behind purposes. That’s not true, points out This Week in Education, who adds that the principal was transferred to a job in the district office. Test scores fell during Irvine’s tenure, notes Eduwonk.  Klein adds:

The story includes all of these anecdotes about the great strides Wheeler Elementary School is making in the six years since (Joyce) Irvine became principal, from offering a dental clinic to teaching kids to play the violin to offering field trips for the school’s staff to the Kennedy Center in Washington to learn more about the arts.

But can these kids read?

Klein links to the school’s scores for 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010.

In 2006, 31 percent of Wheeler’s kids scored in the lowest achievement tier on reading tests. In 2010, 52 percent were in the group at the bottom. (2010 wasn’t a blip either, as the group of kids scoring at the bottom has gradually grown.) If you take out English-language learners, who have more challenges to overcome in learning to read and then taking a test, 23 percent scored at the bottom in reading in 2006, 44 percent did so in 2010. The same trend is seen for non-disabled students.

The district’s turnaround plan was to convert the school to an arts magnet, thereby attracting more middle-income students, reports the Burlington Free Press. Changing the demographics may raise overall test scores, Klein writes, but it does nothing to improve the reading, writing and math abilities of the school’s low-income students.

Will these Integrated Arts Academy students be able to read?

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Delaware cuts 'read alouds' on reading test

July 22, 2010 By

In response to a decline in reading scores, Delaware officials say they’ve cut down on  “read alouds” for special education students taking reading tests, reports The News Journal.

In 2009, 6,321 students had portions of the reading test read aloud to them. In 2010, 1,435 got that assistance during the test.

Accommodations on tests are supposed to measure disabled students’ abilities fairly, not inflate their scores, points out Christina Samuels of On Special Education.  A report by the National Center on Educational Outcomes report finds conflicting research on whether “read-aloud” accommodations raise scores for disabled students. “It also seems particularly challenging to assess students’ reading skills without actually asking them to read,” Samuels writes.

Indeed.

Filed Under: Testing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Cheat sheet

June 11, 2010 By

When test scores matter, some educators cheat, reports the New York Times.

“Educators feel that their schools’ reputation, their livelihoods, their psychic meaning in life is at stake,” said Robert Schaeffer, public education director for FairTest, a nonprofit group critical of standardized testing. “That ends up pushing more and more of them over the line.”

Experts estimate one to three percent of teachers (and principals) give students an advance look at questions, give test takers the answers, change incorrect answers or otherwise cheat to make their schools look good or to earn performance bonuses.

The rise of performance pay could lead to a rise in cheating.

Update: The Times is making excuses for a small number of cheaters to attack testing, writes Richard Colvin on HechingerEd. “When students cheat, we don’t say that testing is to blame.”

Filed Under: Testing Tagged With: , ,

Racing to the top

July 24, 2009 By

The “Race to the Top” — $4.35 billion in federal funding to push education reform — starts today.

States must let student test scores be used to evaluate teachers and principals,  writes Michele McNeil in Education Week. That would force California and New York to change state law to qualify for funds.

This is Education Reform’s Moon Shot, writes Education Secretary Arne Duncan in a Washington Post op-ed. The department’s never had this much money to hand out before. There are 19 points, but four basic ideas are critical:

– To reverse the pervasive dumbing-down of academic standards and assessments by states, Race to the Top winners need to work toward adopting common, internationally benchmarked K-12 standards that prepare students for success in college and careers.

– To close the data gap — which now handcuffs districts from tracking growth in student learning and improving classroom instruction — states will need to monitor advances in student achievement and identify effective instructional practices.

– To boost the quality of teachers and principals, especially in high-poverty schools and hard-to-staff subjects, states and districts should be able to identify effective teachers and principals — and have strategies for rewarding and retaining more top-notch teachers and improving or replacing ones who aren’t up to the job.

– Finally, to turn around the lowest-performing schools, states and districts must be ready to institute far-reaching reforms, from replacing staff and leadership to changing the school culture.

It’s fair to evaluate teachers based on students’ progress, says President Obama in a Washington Post interview.

So what we can say is that if a kid comes in and they gain two grade levels during the course of that single year, even if they’re still a little behind the national average, that tells us that school is doing a good job.

Linking teacher pay to test scores is a big mistake, argues Robert Pondiscio.  Teachers already focus too much on scores and too little on the big picture.

It’s The Carrot That Feels Like a Stick, writes Mike Petrilli on Flypaper. He likes the reform ideas but dislikes the Washington Knows Best tone. If the states are forced to go along, they’ll implement reforms half-heartedly.

This is a draft, not the final proposal, so it’s possible the administration will bend on some of its 19 points.

Eduwonk hopes the department will hold the line, denying grants to states that aren’t serious about change. He notes NEA president Dennis Van Roekel claims to be “absolutely in sync with where they’re going,” except for performance pay, charter schools and linking student and teacher data.  Eduwonk writes:

It’s akin to saying they’re on board with Duncan’s ”moon shot” except for the parts about rockets, rocket fuel, astronauts, engineers, and mission control.

Michael Umphrey wants students and parents to change — or else.

(Obama) could send the school money directly to the parents in the form of vouchers, threatening to cut it off if the kids grades don’t improve. He could turn off cell phone service for kids whose GPA drops below C. He could give each honor student one of those unsold General Motors cars while revoking drivers licenses for any student who gets an F.

Hmmm. Would a GM car be a sufficient motivator?

It’s difficult to figure out how much a teacher or a principal has contributed to students’ learning.  I think we’re in the early stages of figuring this out, not in the so-obvious-everyone-should-do-it stage.

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Does it have to be about race?

May 3, 2009 By

Categorizing by race and focusing on the racial achievement gap is perilous, writes William Saletan on Slate.

“Lower-performing 9- and 13-year-olds make gains,” says one section of the NAEP report.”No significant change for 17-year-olds at any performance level,” says another. “Reading scores improve for 9-year-old public and private school students over long term,” says a third. “Score increases for 17-year-olds whose parents did not finish high school,” says a fourth. These tables organize the data by factors that can help us target and adjust educational policy: kids with low scores, kids in public school, kids in high school, kids whose parents didn’t graduate. I’d like to see tables for income and spending per pupil, too. But race? Does that category really help? And what message does it send to kids when headlines assert a persistent “racial gap”?

Socioeconomic factors, such as parents’ education and income, don’t explain racial and ethnic differences. For example, middle-class blacks score lower than average, while low-income Asian-American students earn above-average scores. I’d like to see schools work harder at creating a culture of learning within the school and explaining to parents how they can support this culture at home.

Filed Under: Culture, Education, Parenting Tagged With: , , , ,
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