PLACE PHOTO HERE,

OTHERWISE DELETE BOX

Methods:
I chose to conduct a series of
semi-structured interviews from
professionals working within the
field, and stakeholders outside
of the field of education. I chose
this mixed group in order to
gain the best overall balanced
perspective from a wide range
of stakeholders. Additionally, I
chose the semi-structured format
to leave room for additional
questions, free responses, and a
conversational tone between the
interviewee and myself. Its
important to note that this study
was limited to a relatively small
pool of interviewees, and
therefore was not able to control
for such factors as
socioeconomic status, personal
biases, etc.




Inferences About Teachers Based on Student
Test Scores

Last year a lower court decision ordered Los Angeles Unified School District
teachers names and ratings to be released to the Los Angeles Times Newspaper
(as part of the California Public Records Act), to help ensure transparency, learn
from good practices, and strengthen inefficient ones (Rachel Wilcox, Attorney for
L.A. Times). Thursday, April 24
th
2014 a three-judge state appellate court
overturned this ruling stating: "The disclosure of the names of teachers tied to
their scores adds little, if anything, to illuminate how the district itself is
performing its duty," (L.A. Times, 2014). Drawing from current research and
connecting to a pool of semi-structured interviews and surveys from a wide-range
of stakeholders inside and out of education, this research brief seeks to contribute
to a public discussion on what role teacher evaluation serves, and the validity of
the current methods being used.





Abstract:

Interviews:
In the following section, 3 of the 8 interviews conducted are highlighted that
represent what I believe to be a wide range of opinions and input on teacher
evaluation and the current approaches being used. Additionally, written survey
questionnaires were given to each of the 8 interviewees, which are summarized
below in chart A. The interview portion of this brief posed the same 2 questions to
each interviewee: (1) What role should teacher evaluation play in education? (2)
Should publicly available student test scores be connected to their teachers name?

Interview 1: Diane Deem (4
th
grade teacher, Temple Heights Elementary)
In my interview with Diane she stated that she did believe that teacher evaluation
does play an important and necessary role in education, but that the evaluation
should not solely be based on test scores. She stated: If youre a high performing
teacher, what exactly does that mean? Are you just teaching to a test? Diane
expressed her concern with such approaches as those that had previously been
taken in LAUSD. I remember when it used to be a competition to see who could
raise student test scores the most over the years, but when they (State, and local
school districts) discussed rewarding or punishing a teacher based on their test
scores (known as the value-added approach), things became very stressful. Diane
noted that she wasnt doing the kind of teaching she came into the profession
hoping to do, instead she cramming as much content into as little time as possible
in hopes of bringing up test scores and ensuring that she still had a job the
following year. This type of teacher evaluation that Diane mentioned is known as
value-added teacher evaluation, and will be discussed further in the research
portion of this paper. She concluded by noting that if a district such as LAUSD is
going to publish public data about a teacher and their test scores, then it should be
made voluntary and the focus should be evaluating the approaches to teaching that
the teacher demonstrates and their effectiveness, not to punish the teacher.

(http://www.connecticutseed.org/)
Lance Billingsley
Interview 2: Charles Bradford (Engineer)
For my second interview I chose to talk to Charles, a stakeholder who has never worked inside the field of
education, but has had children in the system. I chose to highlight this interview because he offered a
contrasting perspective to Diane from outside of the field of education. In Charles response to the interview
questions he too agreed that teacher evaluation plays an important and necessary role in education, and that this
can be accomplished by linking students test scores to teachers names. He noted: Mid-year teachers should be
evaluated based on these scores. They should be given support/ intervention and if they are not able to bring up
levels of performance within one year they should be replaced. He went on to note however, that he does not
agree with the approach that LAUSD had originally taken in publishing these test scores connected with
teachers names, rather these scores should be used exclusively by the district to provide support and
intervention to teachers whom are struggling to raise test scores.

Interview 3: Summer Conover (Student teacher, Artist, Mother of 2)
In a final contrasting interview I had the privilege of speaking with Summer Conover who reiterated several
important commonalities among these interviews as well as offered some thought provoking alternatives to the
current evaluation methods being used. Like Charles and Diane, Summer agreed that teachers should be
evaluated and the information made public, but it should reach beyond student test scores. As a parent, Summer
noted her concern with placing her students in a school that would provide her children with what she feels is
the most beneficial education. However, she believes this evaluation shouldnt be made based on student test
scores alone, rather it should include a comprehensive, in depth series of observations and evaluations from
multiple sources. When evaluating teachers there needs to be something more than just test scores, which are
limited in scope. More specifically, Summer suggested that teachers should have to make available to the
public an online biography with work and video samples which showcase their strengths and approaches to
teaching. The more information we can get, the better.














PLACE PHOTO HERE,
OTHERWISE DELETE BOX

When evaluating teachers there
needs to be something more
than just test scores, which are
so limited in scope.
(Summer Conover)
The interviews conducted present a wide-range of perspectives and suggestions on teacher evaluation and
their value to the public. In connecting with the survey results (Chart A), it becomes clear that the majority
of this small group agrees that teachers should be subject to evaluation, but that additional measures to
student test scores should be taken. In the following section I will weave the data collected during these
interviews into a peer reviewed research framework. The section will conclude with additional questions to
be researched and recommendations for the field of education in regards to teacher evaluation.

(Chart A)









The value-added evaluation: a controversial
approach:

The value-added assessment is a method of teacher
evaluation that measures the teacher's
contribution in a given year by comparing the
current test scores of their students to the scores of
those same students in previous school years, as
well as to the scores of other students in the same
grade. In this manner, value-added modeling seeks
to isolate the contribution, or value added, that
each teacher provides in a given year, which can be
compared to the performance measures of other
teachers. In connecting to this study it may appear
that the value-added approach is the answer to
needs for effective teacher evaluation, but first a
closer look must be taken.

What Current Research Says:

According to Haertel of the Educational Testing
Services Teachers are troubled by the year to
year fluctuations they see in value added
effectiveness estimates (Haertel, 2013, p. 6).
Additionally, as shown in the graph provided by
the study below (Graph B), much of the
influence on student test scores reaches beyond
the classroom. Unsurprisingly, this type of
evaluation is highly criticized by both teachers
and professionals within the education
community. I do what I do every year. I teach
the way I teach every year. [My] first year got
me pats on the back; [my] second year got me
kicked in the backside. And for year three, my
scores were off the charts. I got a huge bonus,
and now I am in the top quartile of all the
English teachers. What did I do differently? I
have no clue. (Amrein, Beardsley, & Collins,
2012, p.15). Certainly there must be more to
evaluating effective teaching practices than
simply looking at student test scores.



The value-added approach however, does offer some
important information, which may help predict what
students will learn from certain teachers. According
to Glazerman: We do not advocate using value-
added measures alone when making decisions about
hiring, firing, tenure, compensation, placement, or
developing teachers, but surely value-added
information ought to be in the mix given the
empirical evidence that it predicts more about what
students will learn from the teachers to which they
are assigned than any other source of information
(Glazerman et. al., 2010, p.4).Is there any doubt
that teacher policy decisions would be better
informed by teacher evaluation systems that
meaningfully differentiate among
teachers?(Glazerman et. al., 2010, p.9) The question
then becomes, how do we make this meaningful
differentiation?

(Chart B)
Research Conclusions:

Haertel, E.Reliability and validity of inferences about teachers
based on student test scores



Implications:
In drawing from the interviews conducted and connecting to current research in the field of
teacher evaluation, its clear that if we are serious about adequately evaluating teachers, then we
must move beyond standardized student test scores. The more information we can gain about
teachers performances and approaches to teaching, the better informed our decisions can be
when deciding what school to place our students in. (Summer Conover, interviewee) Though
tempting, the value-added approach to teacher evaluation does little to stretch beyond student
test scores when evaluating teachers. In order to know what types of information and
evaluations will prove most valuable to school districts and the general public when evaluating
teachers, some important research questions must first be answered including the following:

What are the most comprehensive tests with which we can evaluate teachers?

Can every teacher be evaluated using just one method/ measure/ approach?

What new venues and approaches can we use to ensure that our teaching
community is filled with reflective practitioners (i.e. video taping and reviewing
instruction from peer teaching groups, audio recordings, etc)?

David, J. L. What Research Says About / Using Value-Added Measures to Evaluate Teachers. , 67, 81-82. Retrieved
July 6, 2014, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/may10/vol67/num08/Using_Value-
Added_Measures_to_Evaluate_Teachers.aspx

Glazerman, S., Goldhaber, D., & Loab, S. Evaluating Teachers: The Important Role of Value-Added, 1, 1-20. Retrieved
July 6, 2014, from http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2010/11/17-evaluating-teachers#_ftn6

Haertel, E. reliability and validity of inferences about teachers based on student test scores, 1, 1-27. Retrieved July 6,
2014, from https://www.ets.org/s/pdf/23497_Angoff%20Report-web.pdf

Watanabe, T. (2014, April 24). L.A. Unified doesn't have to release teachers' names with performance ratings. Los Angeles
Times.

Works Cited: