Neither Fair nor Accurate: Research-Based Reasons Why High-Stakes Tests Should Not Be Used to Evaluate Teachers

Autor/in	Au, Wayne
Titel	Neither Fair nor Accurate: Research-Based Reasons Why High-Stakes Tests Should Not Be Used to Evaluate Teachers
Quelle	In: Rethinking Schools, 25 (2011) 2, S.34-38 (5 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0895-6855
Schlagwörter	Urban Schools; Teacher Effectiveness; Educational Research; Free Enterprise System; Standardized Tests; Academic Achievement; High Stakes Tests; Unions; Accountability; Public Education; Teacher Evaluation; Federal Legislation; Elementary Secondary Education; District of Columbia; Louisiana + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Urban area; Urban areas; School; Schools; Stadtregion; Stadt; Schule; Effectiveness of teaching; Instructional effectiveness; Lehrerleistung; Unterrichtserfolg; Bildungsforschung; Pädagogische Forschung; Freie Wirtschaft; Standadised tests; Standardisierter Test; Schulleistung; Verantwortung; Öffentliche Erziehung; Teacher appraisal; Lehrerbeurteilung; Bundesrecht
Abstract	Current and former leaders of many major urban school districts, including Washington, D.C.'s Michelle Rhee and New Orleans' Paul Vallas, have sought to use tests to evaluate teachers. In fact, the use of high-stakes standardized tests to evaluate teacher performance in the manner of value-added measurement (VAM) has become one of the cornerstones of current efforts to reshape public education along the lines of the free market. On the surface, the logic of VAM and using student scores to evaluate teachers seems like common sense: The more effective a teacher, the better his or her students should do on standardized tests. However, although research shows that teacher quality has an effect on test scores, this does not mean that a specific teacher is responsible for how a specific student performs on a standardized test. Nor does it mean teachers can equate effective teaching (or actual learning) with higher test scores. Given the current attacks on teachers, teachers' unions, and public education through the use of educational accountability schemes based wholly or partly on high-stakes standardized test scores and VAM, it is important that educators, students, and parents understand why, based on educational research, such tests should not be used to evaluate teachers. The author offers six clear explanations why "value-added measurements" do not make sense for teacher assessment. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Rethinking Schools, Ltd. 1001 East Keefe Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53212. Tel: 414-964-9646; Fax: 414-964-7220; e-mail: office@rethinkingschools.org; Web site: http://www.rethinkingschools.org
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10