tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025948832913694345.post4789213744641605709..comments2024-03-22T02:15:56.280-07:00Comments on Jersey Jazzman: Why Can't We Have a Better News Media in NJ? (Part 4,356)Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16535645107179796099noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025948832913694345.post-4010686390903590872010-05-31T09:59:54.493-07:002010-05-31T09:59:54.493-07:00I find it particularly amusing when pundits argue ...I find it particularly amusing when pundits argue that putting in place a system where teachers can be dismissed for poor student test results (based on some arbitrary percentage) is somehow part of a solution to the costs associated with due process litigation in teacher dismissal. Do these people have any idea of the flood of due process litigation that will occur when/if we start trying to dismiss teachers for students having bad value added test scores? Legislating that testing data be used as a fixed percent, or implementing it as a regulation does not simply make it a valid cause for dismissal. Add in the likelihood that dismissals will fall in racially disparate patterns associated with distribution of students and teachers by race, and you've got a whole additional layer of litigation to throw into the mix. Given the problems with estimating "teacher effects" using student test score data, I'm not sure that a court would simply accept that its just part of teachers job to make the kids get better test scores (regardless of the disparate effect). <br /><br />Test noise alone could lead to a dismissal, along with a multitude of other factors not controllable by the teacher. <br /><br />As an expert witness, it would certainly be easy enough to just take the stand and read through the National Academy of Sciences report explaining that value-added test scores are not ready for such use. And then provide a multitude of simulations with data to show the number of times a teacher would be falsely fired for low performance and the much higher likelihood that it would happen to a minority teacher in a poor minority school & district. <br /><br />Lawyers should be salivating over the possibilities.schoolfinance101.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com