History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
Gates' evidence versus Gates' spin
- 12-17-2010
-
Blog by John Thompson/Huffington Post
Advocates of test-driven accountability are cheering the new study by the Gates Foundation, "Learning and Teaching." The Gates PR machine seems oblivious, however, to the difference between their report's evidence and the spin that they are attaching. The use of those test-score growth models, in the hands of management, will result in "a flood of litigation like none that has ever been witnessed." So, "reformers" should re-read the Gates report through the eyes of defense attorneys who have just been given even more ammunition for destroying efforts to terminate teachers based on the results of value-added growth models (VAMS). The use of test-score growth models in the hands of peer review committees will continue to withstand judicial scrutiny. Before districts try to use the results of VAMs, as interpreted by administrators alone, they should ask whether firing teachers based on the output of a statistical black box will result in scenes like the following: (more…)
Send this
Print this
