There is now a push to rate teachers, based predominately on how well their students perform on standardized tests. The numeric value derived from this process is referred to as a "student impact rating." The teachers' unions are vehemently opposed to linking teacher evaluations to standardized testing, taking out a full page ad in the Boston Globe last week to outline why they think it's a bad idea. Now, the future of this program is tied up as a part of the budget negotiations. State education officials are committed to implementing it.
President of the Massachusetts Teacher's Association, Barbara Madeloni (@bmadeloni), and Commissioner of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Mitchell Chesterjoined Adam on Tuesday to debate. Madeloni said that there is no valid or reliable way to evaluate teachers this way. “There is no mechanism, by which we can say, this student’s test score on this day, at this moment is related to the effectiveness of the teacher.” Madeloni argued that there are other "important and meaningful ways to look at student learning."
Chester disagreed, and said that included in the teacher evaluation, they have to look at how well students are doing. Student learning, "that's the core of the work we do in schools," he said. Chester compared teacher evaluations to hospitals evaluating their physicians treating patients. He said, ”we’ve designed a system that’s very expansive [sic], in terms of what the school districts can look at. In fact, we’ve left it to school districts-teachers working with their administrators- to figure out what measures of student learning would be most appropriate, most directly linked to the work that they're doing in the classrooms day to day.” Teachers design their own assessments within their school districts, and teachers, he said, would be required to look at a student's year to year gains in learning.
Madeloni said that while she is not opposed to looking at student work, she is opposed to "pseudo-science." She compared standardized tests to flipping a coin on a student's improvement. "We don't have a measure to determine if the teacher is responsible for that growth," she said. Chester argued that the system requires school districts to look at a variety of assessments.
Adam asked both Madeloni and Chester how they would explain this evaluation system to parents. Madeloni said that parents shouldn't look at scores to determine what is happening in a child's classroom. Chester said that he hears three things from parents: are my kids happy, are they safe, and are they learning? He argued that Madeloni is trying to create a slogan of what the system is about, but teachers have been testing and giving grades for years. Chester said that this system gives agency to the teachers, allowing them to decide what they want to accomplish in the classroom, and how to measure it, creating a feedback loop.
