DATA AND RESEARCH IMPORTANT, EXCEPT WHEN IT COMES TO FIRING TEACHERS

Last week I testified before the HISD School Boardprotesting the use of EVAAS scores as a measure by which teachers would lose their jobs. My reasoning is not because I don't think teachers need to be accountable for student learning, but because I find it hard to be a hypocrite. We talk about the need for research-based solutions that are quantifiable, replicable and valid. The EVAAS model meets none of the above stated measures.

Here is a reprint of my remarks--

Ross, Stringfield, Sanders, and Wright argue that summative uses of EVAAS data in isolation from other indicators of effectiveness would be negligent, especially if high stakes are attached to the results. Well, you don’t get any higher stakes than holding student’s back or firing teachers based on a snap-shot test score.

As stated by Professor Beardsley of Arizona State University, “there is no evidence that research reports conducted internally, and especially externally, have validated the claims made by the developers of the EVAAS system. Several specific concerns with the EVAAS system cited in multiple research findings have yet to be addressed.

Randi Weingarten stated in her speech “A New Path Forward” stated that test scores should only be part of a comprehensive system for evaluation that includes, observations, self-evaluation, portfolio reviews, appraisal of lesson plans, review’s of student work and other projects. Using snapshot test scores for employment evaluations is flawed and unproductive. Teacher evaluation needs to be a continuous process throughout a teacher’s career.

Our position on the use of value-added data in Houston has always been to begin using value-added data as a tool to improve instruction. Two years ago I was here to ask for time to ensure that a critical mass of teachers and their instructional leaders were well versed in understanding and utilizing the value-added reports to help them improve practice. Instead of allocating adequate resources and providing accountability to guarantee that sufficient understanding levels were in place you chose to take the politically expedient path of layering high-stakes compensation into the equation. The ASPIRE program has yet to quantifiably deliver on the outcomes it was intended to produce. Adding the even higher stakes of teacher termination based on this flawed system will only exacerbate the problem and eventually dig you into a deeper hole.

The real travesty in all of this is that because the board and certain members of the community have bought into these simplistic approaches to improving urban education we have neglected the real problems of poverty and generational inequity within our society. We have misused scare resources waging a war on teachers and principals that could have been used to heal scars created in the past and to right the wrongs created by greed and indifference.

As long as all kids don’t come to school on par with their peers we will never end the achievement gap. It is politically

correct to talk about serving ALL children, but the rubber meets the road when it comes to making those hard decisions of providing the additional inputs necessary to close the gap or to more equitably distribute the available inputs district-wide. Several of you serve on this board to represent kids and communities with the most need yet you buy into the propaganda advocated by the same people that’s only answer to your kids is to….just work harder.

Stop failing your kids and your teachers with this divisive political manuvering and get back to focusing the big-picture needs of our students.