The LA Times has begun the publication of a report on a very large research study they have undertaken on teachers' effectiveness. Read about it here:
http://www.latimes.com/...
In response, the LA Teachers's Union president has announced that he will call for a mass boycott of the LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/...
All of their research is based on data that has been available within the district for quite a few years. Using previous years' test scores as a baseline, they calculate whether subsequent years' scores move up or down as a function of a number of variables. By combining all of the students in each classroom, and by averaging over several years, their method effectively cancels out oddball factors such as illness, parents losing jobs or moving, and so on. They found that the variable with the largest effect was the teacher, that is, some teachers have high effectiveness and some have low effectiveness. The effect is much larger than the effects of things like the economic level of the neighborhood.
However, at least some “low effectiveness” teachers, when told of their ranking, wonder why they weren't given that kind of feedback years ago. For example, one “ineffective” teacher said
"For better or worse," she said, "testing and teacher effectiveness are going to be linked.… If my student test scores show I'm an ineffective teacher, I'd like to know what contributes to it. What do I need to do to bring my average up?"
The article talks about giving low-performing teachers additional support and training, but of course it is easy to imagine mass firings of teachers as the result of the publication of this information.
The most common criticism is that all this is based on standardized tests, and that therefore it will encourage “teaching to the test”. That is a fair criticism.
I am impressed by the research. I personally think that the information should come out, at least to the teachers themselves and to school administrators. If I were a teacher, I'd want to know if I was putting my students further and further behind.
What do you think?