Fab Four

Today's four miler was a pleasant, easygoing run. The temperature was 65 degrees and the weather was misty. That's the best running weather of all.

It's always great to run in perfect conditions. Teachers deserve perfect conditions in their classrooms.  Students need to pay attention.  Administration needs to be supportive. It's not their job to "fix" teachers while aiding and abetting difficult students.

Speaking as a runner, there's nothing better than a great running environment.  Speaking as a teacher,  there's nothing better than a classroom where students pay attention and learn. When real learning occurs,  there is complete joy for teachers and their students.

Thoughts on the Run: Georgia Teacher Evaluation

Yesterday, in the middle of my six mile easy paced run, I kept thinking about a letter to Governor Nathan Deal written by a consortium of Georgia education professors in 2012. I have recently been reminded of this because President Obama and Secretary Duncan have said that we are testing students too much across the nation.

One of the most telling segments of the letter was its criticism of VAM as a teacher evaluation tool. An excerpt from the letter follows.  

"The state’s new evaluation system, Teacher Keys and Leader Keys, centers on “value-added” measures of student growth. The use of value-added measures in teacher and leader evaluation will likely lead to negative educational, social, and emotional outcomes for Georgia’s children. We believe it is our ethical, moral, and professional obligation to raise awareness about how the proposed evaluation changes not only lack a sound research basis but also, in some instances, have already proven to be detrimental.

Georgia has already used a value-added statistical model to determine which schools were to be put on probation, closed, or turned around under No Child Left Behind (NCLB)and found this model wanting. For the new teacher evaluation system, “student academic growth” will be measured with VAMs or similar models. Myriad researchers have found that value-added models (VAMs) of teacher effectiveness do not produce stable ratings of teachers."