Elaine Weiss, National Coordinator, BBA

AASA Legislative Advocacy Conference

Washington, DC

July 12, 2011

ESEA: Getting Accountability and Assessment Right

Problems with Test-Based Accountability Systems

• Can’t reliably evaluate teachers– Unstable– Biased– Unacknowledged assumptions

• Don’t improve student learning– Lead to teaching to the test, narrowing of curriculum– Strong teachers avoid high-needs students– Extensive gaming of system, widespread cheating

Instability• “VAM estimates have proven to be unstable

across statistical models, years and classes… One study found that across five large urban districts, among teachers who were ranked in the top 20 percent of effectiveness in the first year, fewer than a third were in that top group the next year, and another third moved all the way down to the bottom 40 percent.”

Poor Predictive Impact

Bias

• “[A]t least one study [of VAM] has examined the same teachers with different populations of students, showing that these same teachers consistently appeared to be more effective when they taught more academically advanced students, fewer English language learners, and fewer low-income students.”

Lack of Reliability

• One study conservatively estimated an error rate of 36 percent in identifying high-, low- and average-performing teachers using one year of data. The error rate falls to 26 percent with three years of data, and reducing it to 12 percent takes 10 years.

New York Teachers of the Year re test-based evaluations

These changes, while politically popular, will neither improve schools nor increase student learning; rather, they will cause tangible harm to students and teachers alike…

Immigrants, ELLs

Tranh moved to America in January to live with his uncle. He speaks very little English and missed half a year of instruction. Who is accountable for his standardized test scores?”

Students with Learning Disabilities

Andrew has a severe learning disability. He is a hands-on learner who struggles on written exams. His resource teacher, counselor and mother thought he would be best-served taking a challenging science course, even though everyone knew he would fail the Regents exam. When 40 percent of a teacher’s evaluation depends on that test score, will schools still make this sort of humane, pedagogically sound decision?

Washington, DC: Cheating

• National Blue Ribbon School, Chancellor Rhee rewarded with $8,000/teacher bonus and $10,000 for principal

• D.C. public schools under scrutiny for teacher changing test answers in response to high stakes policies– 96 schools in D.C. flagged for abnormal erasures

• Noyes:– 2006: 10% proficient or better in math; 25% in reading– 2008: 58% proficient or better in math; 84% in reading– 80% of classrooms suspected of changing answers (x SDs)

• 23% drop in test scores 2009-2010 after investigations vs. 4% drop at DCPS on average

Broader BOLDER Resources

• Website: www.boldapproach.org

• Email: eweiss@epi.org

• Phone: 202 331-5537