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Why Put All Our Eggs Into One Basket?

vonzastrowc's picture
By Claus von Zastrow on April 21, 2010

I find reactions to Florida Gov Christ's veto of SB 6, which would tie the bulk of teacher pay and evaluation to test scores, curious. We're hearing more about political tactics than about the wisdom of the bill itself. What's more, some people are portraying supporters of this bill as the only standard-bearers for school reform. That's just not a good idea.

Let's please not forget that testing experts have questioned the bill's fundamental mechanism. Experts at the National Academies of Science warned policy makers that they should not yet place too much weight on test scores in teacher evaluation systems. Sorry to keep bringing this up, but I'm truly surprised that such an important statement has received almost no attention in all the articles and blog postings devoted to SB 6 and Crist's veto. Isn't the whole point of the National Academies to ensure that policy makers are guided by science?

So many pundits are making support for the bill--and other bills like it--into the litmus test for reform. Why? Does it really make sense to put all our reform eggs into one awfully flimsy basket? We should be careful not to put political gamesmanship before serious discussion of school reform.

Sherman Dorn frames the issue well. We're not going to make real progress on school reform, he suggests, unless we are "willing to work on problems rather than positions."

Image: Deutsches Bundesarchiv

Link to this story: http://www.learningfirst.org/why-put-all-our-eggs-one-basket

3 Comments Digg this article Del.icio.us

Claus, Why do you think that

Submitted by Erin Johnson on Wed, 04/21/2010 - 14:05

Claus,

Why do you think that the unions have not picked up on the flaws of value added assessments as an issue to push back on ed reform?

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Claus, Thank you for

Submitted by John Simmons on Thu, 04/22/2010 - 05:19

Claus,
Thank you for reminding all of us of the important role that the National Academies play in looking at the science and communicating their findings. Could they do a better job in communicating to the education journalists?
John Simmons, Strategic Learning Initiatives, Chicago.

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Erin--I do think the unions

Submitted by vonzastrowc on Thu, 04/22/2010 - 05:53

Erin--I do think the unions have pushed back hard on the flaws of SB 6. I'm just not sure the media have done much with the debate over the current fitness of VAM for big personnel decisions.

John--I worry that I'd be presumptuous if I told the National Academies  how to communicate their work. Perhaps journalists--who are really overtaxed these days--could be given more opportunities to review the many perspectives and data points out there. I found the Natainal Academies piece in October, because I read a brief clip about it somewhere and then saw the press release--can't remember where. If I saw it, I figured some journalists would have seen it, too. It struck me as a significant statement to take into account in the growing number of stories on VAM and teacher evaluation.

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