The Answer Sheet - Willingham: Big questions about the LA Times teachers project

The Answer Sheet - Willingham: Big questions about the LA Times teachers project

I am glad Willingham called the LA Times on the status of the science on value-added models. The National Academies of Science, in their report on use of VA models said they should not be used to make high stakes decisions, and publicly posting teachers' results seems about as high a stake as you can get in this day and age, short of actually firing folks. So, I think it is important to improve the science.

But he makes a second, more important in my mind, point. Teachers and teachers unions need to begin to adopt some of the recommendations and practices of monitoring and evaluating teachers that work, such as the AFT-affiliated unions in Toledo and other districts in Ohio that do peer evaluations that lead to more terminations, and more importantly improvements, than do most district administrator-based evaluation systems. Until teachers allow their profession to remain professional and put in place stronger protections for the profession, others will do it for them. And probably not well.