Monday, May 09, 2011

Keep an Eye Out for This One

Dana Goldstein:

To address this shortcoming, economists who study education have created a complex statistical tool called value-added measurement, which attempts to quantify the impact teachers have on their students' academic growth while controlling for factors such as poverty, race, class size, and even how many years the teacher has been on the job (emphasis mine).

If you don't control for inexperience, layoffs, etc. based on value added will still fall predominantly on teachers in their first couple years, thus defeating the political goal of the policy.

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