Interesting and important assertions from the Forbes Article on Valued Added:
The National Association of Secondary School Principals has taken a stand against VAM. The American Statistical Association has made its own statement in opposition. Gates bet big on teacher evaluation programs that included VAM, and they have just announced the large-scale failure of that project. Four years ago, when a lawsuit that pushed the state of Florida to publish VAM scores for all teachers, the Gates Foundation opposed because, among other reasons, 70% of Florida’s teacher had a VAM scored based on either subjects they didn’t teach or students they didn’t have in class.
Using VAM methods also targets certain teachers:
Teachers of English Language Learners and “highly mobile” students tend to get low VAAS scores.
From another article: VAM Arbitrary and Capricious Judge Finds a judge deemed a teacher’s VAM evaluation to be
‘arbitrary’ and ‘capricious’
So why is VAM being used at all?
VAM = Junk Science
And from the Iphone app no less!
Some of my poems, short stories, and nonfiction articles are included in books and magazines published in the UK, Greece, New Zealand, and the United States.
Laura Lee 