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[Phys-l] WHY VALUE ADDED TESTING IS A BUST WAS: Re: [PTSOS] Teachers' Test scores to be made public



http://epi.3cdn.net/724cd9a1eb91c40ff0_hwm6iij90.pdf



On 2010, Aug 17, , at 23:11, Bernard Cleyet wrote:

4X cross posted.

"Flow fields address many questions about the educational system. There is a debate over the student variables that should be used to describe effects of teachers and schools. Sanders (8) states that “models should not include socio-economic or ethnic accommodations but should only include measures of previous achievement of individual students.” In this view, prior year scores contain everything one needs to know about the state of the students. However differences between flow directions have great statistical significance. For example, sixth graders not eligible for free and reduced meals and mathematics scores between 90% and 100 % in 2006/2007 drop on average in score by 4.4% the next year, whereas those eligible for free and reduced meals drop in score by 7.0%. (N ∼ 30,000, t = 34, p < 10−9). Similar statistical significance applies to the differences between virtually all the arrows in the upper and lower rows of Fig. 1. Changes in scores depend strongly, reproducibly, and with high statistical significance, upon poverty level even after controlling for previous achievements of students. It is possible that this difference in score changes is entirely due to the lower quality of teachers assigned to the least affluent students. However, it is difficult to reach such a conclusion simply from test data; the conclusion that ineffective teachers are largely to blame for unsatisfactory student performance risks being circular (9) if ineffective teachers are defined to be those whose students’ test scores decrease (10). Drawing conclusions about school effectiveness from test data presents comparable difficulties (11)."

Flow and diffusion of high-stakes test scores — PNAS

I very much recommend reading the discussion in this article on Texas maths. scores. Note the references.

(11)'s link is broken. Here's the result of the Author's search:

Search | Stanford University School of Education


bc prays so



On 2010, Aug 17, , at 17:52, Bill Taylor wrote:


This is not exactly about physics per se, but perhaps some of you may be interested. In LA, they plan to publish students' test scores sorted by teacher name. In theory, this is supposed to make clear (?) which are the best teachers and which are under-performing.

The data in question is called “value added.” In theory, it’s a way to link teachers with the students they taught and the gains those students made. Since it just looks at growth – not overall proficiency – it should minimize many of the external factors that often affect performance, and focus attention on what contribution the teacher made.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2010/0817/Test-score-bomb-How-far-is-too-far-in-teacher-accountability-push

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2010/0817/A-right-way-and-a-wrong-way-to-link-teachers-and-student-test-scores

- Bill

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