The Answer Sheet: how to evaluate teachers


Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 01/18/2011

Videotaping teachers the right way (not the Gates way)
By Valerie Strauss
A teacher describes what he says is the right way to videotape teachers to help them improve and explains why he thinks a Gates-funded videotaping project is taking the wrong approach.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 01/18/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  evaluating teachers, gates foundation, gates funded project, gates project and teachers, how to evaluate teachers, larry ferlazzo, teacher assessment, teachers, teachers and gates foundation, videotaping teaches

Posted at 11:01 AM ET, 01/13/2011

New analysis challenges Gates study on value-added measures
By Valerie Strauss
A new analysis challenges a Gates Foundation study said to support the validity of value-added measures to evaluate teachers by using students' standardized test scores.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:01 AM ET, 01/13/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Research, Research | Tags:  bill gates, gates foundation, gates foundation study, gates-funded research, how to evaluate teachers, teacher assessment, value-added, value-added measures

Posted at 11:46 AM ET, 09/02/2010

How much power should we give to ed data?
By Valerie Strauss
A veteran teacher writes about what gets left out in today's education world where reformers are obsessed with "data" and test scores.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:46 AM ET, 09/02/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  evaluating teachers, how to evaluate teachers, power of data, teacher assessment, value added, value added and teachers

Posted at 11:00 AM ET, 08/23/2010

Willingham: 3 key factors in teacher evaluation (beyond the hype of value-added)
By Valerie Strauss
Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham looks beyond the hype of "value added" models for teacher evaluation and pinpoints three key factors that should be considered.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:00 AM ET, 08/23/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham | Tags:  daniel willingham, factors in teacher evaluation, how to evaluate teachers, no child left behind, teacher evaluation, teacher evaluation systems, teachers and value added, value added systems

Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 08/05/2010

Accountability in DCPS: Details from teacher's IMPACT report
By Valerie Strauss
Aaron Pallas, an education and sociology professor and a statistician who critiqued DCPS's IMPACT teacher evaluation system last week, responds to critics of that post and looks at new data from a teacher's report as he argues that DCPS continues to publicly misrepresent IMPACT's evaluation methods.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:00 AM ET, 08/05/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  D.C. Schools, D.C. Schools, D.C. Schools, D.C. Schools, D.C. Schools | Tags:  IMPACT and d.c., d.c. teacher evaluations, d.c. teachers, dc schools and teachers, how to evaluate teachers, value added evaluations

Posted at 09:00 AM ET, 04/28/2010

How to measure student growth
By Valerie Strauss
By Lisa Guisbond. Growth models are pitched as a thoroughly modern, scientific way to .answer the age-old parental question: “What did you learn in school this year, my dear?” It seems reasonable enough: Test students at the beginning and the end of the year and measure the “growth” in test scores to see if student achievement is improving. Given the narrow and limited nature of the data used to measure this growth, however, there’s often less than meets the eye in the results. Fortunately, there are better, if little known or understood, ways of both measuring and stimulating real growth in learning.

By Valerie Strauss  |  09:00 AM ET, 04/28/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Teachers, Teachers, Teachers, Teachers, Teachers, Teachers | Tags:  Race to the Top, growth models, how to evaluate teachers, nclb, no child left behind, schools and growth models, standardized tests, teacher assessment, teacher evaluation, teachers