Value-added Model Term Analysis

The value-added model in Washington, D.C., schools […] evaluates teachers largely on the basis of students’ test scores, while ignoring how much the teachers engage the students, work on specific skills, deal with classroom management, or help students with personal and family problems. It’s overly simple, sacrificing accuracy and insight for efficiency. Yet from the administrators’ perspective it provides an effective tool to ferret out hundreds of apparently underperforming teachers, even at the risk of misreading some of them.

While its scores are meaningless, the impact of value-added modeling is pervasive and nefarious. “I’ve seen some great teachers convince themselves that they were mediocre at best based on those scores,” Clifford said. “It moved them away from the great lessons they used to teach, toward increasing test prep. To a young teacher, a poor value-added score is punishing, and a good one may lead to a false sense of accomplishment that has not been earned.”