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Is The Teaching Profession so Black & White?
Teacher Assessments?
| “ I thought I was a good teacher and could not understand what was happening ” |
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Teacher Assessment - 7:
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“What value-added models are doing,” Smiley argues, “is trying to give a very simple answer to one of the most complex questions that there is. What they are really trying to do is define teaching as a science. It’s not, it’s an art.”
Data limitations
Attempting to offer a genuinely objective assessment is no mean feat. Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham in the UK, says that he is “uneasy” about teachers being evaluated publicly, not least because of the limitations of the data.
“If you are looking at pupils’ test results,” he says, “they depend on the pupils’ abilities, motivations and aspirations to study. Whether or not a child learns is ultimately down to them. (The pupils’ attainment) reflects a whole range of teachers they have had before, not just who they had at a particular age.
“I don’t think it will lead to good teaching. This approach will encourage teachers to develop a box-ticking mentality - teachers will play it safe. This approach would be absolutely terrifying for them, even if it were totally accurate. If you use the data in that way, it will have a massive impact on staff.”
On this issue, the LAUSD agrees. Despite further requests from the Los Angeles Times for the data that would allow it to update its teacher ratings once more, the district has steadfastly refused to release any details that would allow teachers to be identified by name. In December, the Los Angeles Times submitted a lawsuit to try to force the district to comply. The case has not yet been decided.
What has been decided, however, is a new approach to teacher evaluation in LA. Controversial moves to use teachers’ individual AGT scores in their formal evaluations have been watered down. In January, the LA teachers’ union, United Teachers Los Angeles, voted to go along with an agreement to base teacher evaluations on three factors: combination of raw test data, school performance and “robust classroom observation”. Although AGT scores won’t be directly used in evaluations, they can be referred to to provide “context” to a teacher’s performance.
This serves to illustrate the limitations of relying solely on test data. As the Los Angeles Times has already admitted, its scores “do not capture everything about a (teacher’s) performance”.
But the most poignant reminder of the limitations of teacher ratings comes from their most well-known victim, Rigoberto Ruelas. On the day of his funeral, LAUSD revealed that, in his final evaluation, he had scored the highest grade possible.
But more than two years after his tragic death, Ruelas’ name still appears on the Los Angeles Times’ website. Irrespective of the views of his colleagues and pupils, he remains one of Los Angeles’ “least effective” maths teachers.
Data limitations
Attempting to offer a genuinely objective assessment is no mean feat. Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham in the UK, says that he is “uneasy” about teachers being evaluated publicly, not least because of the limitations of the data.
“If you are looking at pupils’ test results,” he says, “they depend on the pupils’ abilities, motivations and aspirations to study. Whether or not a child learns is ultimately down to them. (The pupils’ attainment) reflects a whole range of teachers they have had before, not just who they had at a particular age.
“I don’t think it will lead to good teaching. This approach will encourage teachers to develop a box-ticking mentality - teachers will play it safe. This approach would be absolutely terrifying for them, even if it were totally accurate. If you use the data in that way, it will have a massive impact on staff.”
On this issue, the LAUSD agrees. Despite further requests from the Los Angeles Times for the data that would allow it to update its teacher ratings once more, the district has steadfastly refused to release any details that would allow teachers to be identified by name. In December, the Los Angeles Times submitted a lawsuit to try to force the district to comply. The case has not yet been decided.
What has been decided, however, is a new approach to teacher evaluation in LA. Controversial moves to use teachers’ individual AGT scores in their formal evaluations have been watered down. In January, the LA teachers’ union, United Teachers Los Angeles, voted to go along with an agreement to base teacher evaluations on three factors: combination of raw test data, school performance and “robust classroom observation”. Although AGT scores won’t be directly used in evaluations, they can be referred to to provide “context” to a teacher’s performance.
This serves to illustrate the limitations of relying solely on test data. As the Los Angeles Times has already admitted, its scores “do not capture everything about a (teacher’s) performance”.
But the most poignant reminder of the limitations of teacher ratings comes from their most well-known victim, Rigoberto Ruelas. On the day of his funeral, LAUSD revealed that, in his final evaluation, he had scored the highest grade possible.
But more than two years after his tragic death, Ruelas’ name still appears on the Los Angeles Times’ website. Irrespective of the views of his colleagues and pupils, he remains one of Los Angeles’ “least effective” maths teachers.