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
New study: How L.A. Times teachers data is flawed
- 02-08-2011
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Blog by Valerie Strauss/Washington Post
Nobody should be surprised about a new study that finds big flaws with last year’s Los Angeles Times project in which it used “value added” methods to rate the effectiveness of more than 6,000 teachers. But feel free to be annoyed: not at the results of the study’s findings, but rather that the people making important policy decisions – our education secretary, legislators, governors – keep ignoring experts who warn that such evaluation methods are invalid and unreliable. The Times, for those who don’t know, published a statistical analysis of student test data last August to rate teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District elementary schools. Its analysis, conducted by Rand Corp. senior economist Richard Buddin, used a form of measurement that uses student test data and other factors about teachers to evaluate how effective they are it. They are called “value-added” methods, and they are all the rage in education reform. When The Times published its report, experts who oppose using standardized test scores as a sole measure for evaluation attacked it. Teachers cried foul (one committed suicide.) The Times stood by its database then. It still is. In fact, the headline of its Sunday story said, "Separate study confirms many Los Angeles Times findings on teacher effectiveness." It's hard to know how they came up with that assessment of the new critical report. (more...)
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