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The Legal Consequences of Mandating High Stakes Decisions Based on Low Quality Information: Teacher Evaluation in the Race-to-the-Top Era

Baker, Bruce D ; Oluwole, Joseph O ; Green, Preston C

Education policy analysis archives, 2013-01-28, Vol.21 (5) [Peer Reviewed Journal]

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Title:
The Legal Consequences of Mandating High Stakes Decisions Based on Low Quality Information: Teacher Evaluation in the Race-to-the-Top Era
Author: Baker, Bruce D ; Oluwole, Joseph O ; Green, Preston C
Subjects: Indiana ; Wyoming ; Teacher Evaluation ; Civil Rights ; Utah ; Academic Achievement ; Statistical Analysis ; Achievement Gains ; Arizona ; Testing ; Delaware ; Florida ; Pennsylvania ; Federal Legislation ; Illinois ; Connecticut ; Maryland ; Virginia ; Teacher Effectiveness ; Idaho ; Oregon ; Maine ; Oklahoma ; Tennessee ; Arkansas ; State Legislation ; Washington ; Tenure ; West Virginia ; Colorado ; Massachusetts ; Debra P v Turlington ; Race to the Top ; Wisconsin ; Nevada ; Legal Problems ; District of Columbia ; New York ; Rhode Island ; South Dakota ; Educational Policy ; Minnesota ; New Jersey ; Michigan ; Validity ; Teacher Employment ; Louisiana ; Ohio ; Reliability ; Value Added Models (VAM) ; High Stakes
Is Part Of: Education policy analysis archives, 2013-01-28, Vol.21 (5)
Description: In this article, we explain how overly prescriptive, rigid state statutory and regulatory policy frameworks regarding teacher evaluation, tenure and employment decisions outstrip the statistical reliability and validity of proposed measures of teaching effectiveness. We begin with a discussion of the emergence of highly prescriptive state legislation regarding the use of student testing data within teacher evaluation systems, specifically for purposes of making employment decisions. Next, we explain the most problematic features of those policies, which include a) requirements that test-based measures constitute fixed, non-negotiable weight in final decisions, b) that test-based measures are used to place teachers into categories of effectiveness by applying numerical cutoffs beyond the precision or accuracy of the available data, and c) that professional judgment is removed from personnel decisions by legislating (or regulating) specific actions be taken when teachers fall into certain performance categories. In the subsequent section, we point out that different types of measures are being developed and implemented across states, and we explain that while value-added metrics in particular are, in fact designed to estimate a teacher's effect on student outcomes, descriptive growth percentile measures are not designed for making such inference and thus have no place in making determinations regarding teacher effectiveness. We also explain that, due to the properties of value-added estimates, they have no place in making high-stakes decisions based on rigid policy frameworks like those described herein. We evaluate the legal implications of rigid reliance on measures of teaching effectiveness that a) lack reliability and b) may be entirely invalid. (Contains 32 tables and 13 footnotes.)
Publisher: Colleges of Education at Arizona State University and the University of South Florida
Language: English
Identifier: ISSN: 1068-2341
EISSN: 1068-2341
DOI: 10.14507/epaa.v21n5.2013
Source: Directory of Open Access Journals

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The Legal Consequences of Mandating High Stakes Decisions Based on Low Quality Information: Teacher Evaluation in the Race-to-the-Top Era

Baker, Bruce D ; Oluwole, Joseph O ; Green, Preston C

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