70% of FL teachers got graded on students they did not teach. Results to be published anyway.

[madfloridian]

This just outrages me. It is making a mockery of education. It's a joke, and it's going on around the country.

From the WP

The most meaningless teacher evaluation exercise ever?

The Florida Times-Union newspaper sued the state Education Department to get access to what are called “value-added” scores of teachers that are used to make high-stakes decisions about their jobs. These scores come from student standardized test scores, which are then plugged into a complicated formula that supposedly can calculate the “value” a teacher adds to a student’s achievement. In Florida, half of a teacher’s evaluation comes from these scores and the other half from administrative observation; the ratios are different in different states.

The First District Court of Appeals granted the newspaper’s request, forcing the department to turn over the scores.

Here’s the thing: These formulas can’t determine a teacher’s value with any constant validity or reliability, and testing experts have urged policy makers not to use it for any high-stakes decisions about students, teachers, principals or anybody else. Unfortunately, Florida and many other states, encouraged by the Obama administration, have ignored this advice and now use this “value-added method” (VAM) of evaluation.

There are numerous problems with using VAM scores for high-stakes decisions, but in this particular release of data, the most obvious and perhaps the most egregious one is this: Some 70 percent of the Florida teachers received VAM scores based on test results from students they didn’t teach and/or in subjects they don’t teach.

Here's more about the formula used. Since several here applauded the wisdom of such a formula to judge the depth of learning and true teacher ability...despite all outside factors....then you will find it quite fitting. You will think that finally teachers got what is coming to them...the prevailing attitude now. The propaganda against public schools has gone on so long and been so intense that it seems to have stuck.

Formulas for value added evaluation of teachers



To the 70% of those Florida teachers whose grades are meaningless because they did not teach those subjects....I empathize. I wonder if good teachers looking for jobs will realize that hey...Florida teachers have NO tenure anymore...and they are having their scores posted to the public. They will think quite hard before coming here to teach.

[femmocrat]

1. PA is doing that now too.

I would have to look it up... but a percentage of my evaluation score is based on the school's standardized test scores. I am the ART teacher. I do not teach math, reading, or language arts. Ridiculous. Plus.... I only spend about six partial days per month in the building in which I'm being evaluated. So what percentage do I get? I travel to four freakin' buildings!!! This is what happens when republicans get elected.

[madfloridian]

2. Merit pay is much supported by both parties.

The evaluations are supposed to determine that. I am so so so glad I am retired. I would love to wave a magic wand so others could retire as well.

These tactics of humiliation toward teachers have broken my heart.

[femmocrat]

3. I am retiring in June, thanks in part to Charlotte Danielson.

Going through her evaluation process is about to put me into an early grave. I am getting out while I still have a pension to support me! The repukes are trying to take our pensions, too.

They have their slimy tentacles in every aspect of education now.

[madfloridian]

4. Her process is enough to make a person feel sick.

So discouraging. In all the years I taught they went from one system to another without giving any of them time to work. We would be doing things one way, then a year or so later the opposite way. Ridiculous.

[madfloridian]

6. There's a new push on FL pensions now.

I hope they don't succeed. They have already taken away all teacher rights including union protections. Glad you can retire, sorry you have to do it.

[madfloridian]

5. Getting grades published for things one didn't do....

Not good planning. Could be harmful to good teachers.

No excuse for such lack of planning.

[madfloridian]

7. Last kick because it does matter.

[Starry Messenger]

8. k&r

[Enthusiast]

9. Kicked and recommended a whole bunch.....nt

[msanthrope]

10. Um, Florida outlawed this practice last year--why didn't your OP reflect that?

From your OP source today---

Then in the summer, the state legislature passed a bill making it illegal to evaluate teachers on standardized test scores of students they never taught. But, Ford said, the bill still allows teachers to be evaluated on students they may have in one class, but in a different subject. That means a social studies teacher can be graded on the reading test scores of his/her students. If you are trying to find the sense in that, quit trying.

The same author wrote an extensive article on this last summer, when it passed:

New Florida law: Teachers can’t be evaluated on students they don’t have
By Valerie Strauss
June 16, 2013 at 12:47 pm

In the you-can’t-make-up-this-stuff category: Florida just passed a law making it illegal to evaluate teachers on standardized test scores of students they never taught. If you are wondering why such a law would be necessary, here’s why:

For two years, many teachers were actually being evaluated by the test scores of students they had never even seen much less taught, under a school reform law that included a requirement that Florida teachers be evaluated on student test scores.

In April, seven teachers, along with the National Education Association and the Florida Education Association, filed a lawsuit challenging the system, arguing that it was unfair and violated the Equal Protection and Due Process Clause of the Constitution.

SNIP

After a public outcry over the issue, the legislature passed a new law and Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed it, though it only partial remedies the problems with the original school reform law. Still unclear, though, is how teachers whose students do not take state standardized tests will be evaluated as well as other issues. The lawsuit will not be withdrawn in part because the new law does nothing to alter the flawed evaluations of the past two years.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/06/16/new-florida-law-teachers-cant-be-evaluated-on-students-they-dont-have/

The problem I have with your OP is that it uses a very misleading sentence to describe the issue:

Some 70 percent of the Florida teachers received VAM scores based on test results from students they didn’t teach and/or in subjects they don’t teach.

Going forward, the first part of that sentence "test results on students they didn't teach" has been changed by statute.

The second part, however, is where I really take umbrage at the article writer's ignorance of linear algebra, and worse, her assumption that her readers are as inept as she is: "in subjects they don't teach."

Well, yeah. That's kind of the point, and it was explained to you in the thread where Recursion outlined the formula (your second OP link.) I'm not sure how much linear algebra you know, so I am going to try to explain that narrow point it in a narrative fashion:

If I take a cluster of 80 students in the fifth grade, and I want to measure how they are doing, I could pick up their report cards and I could look at their classroom grades.

One thing I would definitely look at is how they are doing overall, and for any standouts from a statistical mean, on a per student, and per cluster basis. For example, if Timmy seems to be a Straight-C student, but has an A in Math, that would pique my interest. Maybe Timmy's really good in Math, and everything else bores him.

If there were 15 other students with the same grade profile, though, I might have to start looking at the teacher. I would pull all 80 students, and compare their math grades to their other grades, and see what that tells me. I could also compare to the rest of the 5th graders in the school, or the district. So, that teacher would be evaluated based on her student's performance in other classes, and compared to other known values.

That's effectively what this VAM is doing, on that narrow point. That's not remotely difficult to understand, or controversial.

The problem I have with Valerie Strauss is that she's just not that intelligent in her critiques, and thus, they tend to be easily overcome. But, she's a WaPo blogger--pretty much par for the course.

[madfloridian]

11. FL law was overturned by Times Union lawsuit.

This was in the OP, but apparently more explanation is needed. The state dept of education realizes the tests are flawed as stand alone scores, but the lawsuit overruled them in November.

Now the scores are being released, though they are only a portion of evaluation.

The state’s handling of the formula has also been controversial. The Department of Education refused to release the data that the formula generated, teacher by teacher—until the Florida Times-Union sued the department, arguing—correctly—that the data are a public record. The state lost the suit in November.

Oliva cautioned, too, that VAM data was calculated only for teachers of students who took FCAT Reading and math in grades 4 through 10. No individualized data was calculated for teachers in other grade levels. “However, we are implementing a multi-measure evaluation system this year that take into account the specific students taught by the teacher in the subject areas taught” as required by state law, Oliva said. He noted that VAM scores account for 50 percent of teacher-evaluation scores, while 50 percent is based on the principal’s observations.

The teachers’ perspective is different. “Seventy percent of our teachers, prior to this school year, have been given VAM scores based on students and subjects they don’t teach,” Katie Hansen, president of the Flagler County Educators Association, the local teachers union, said. “Many teachers who, prior to this school year, were given ‘school score’ (a VAM score based upon the average learning gains on FCAT of every child at the school), are assigned a rating that has little to no correlation to the curriculum they are providing to students. Until the state of Florida can develop a valid and reliable system of evaluating teachers, this information should be treated for what it is – a flawed attempt to hold teachers accountable.”

http://flaglerlive.com/64558/vam-scores-florida/

[msanthrope]

14. I'm glad you addressed the points I made in the post above. I agree that teachers should not

be held accountable for kids they did not teach, but I see no problem in comparing their performance to other teachers via common student performance. I also like the fact that the principal's observations count for 50% of the VAM.

[jsr]

12. Doctoring data to fit their theory is what the corporatists are doing.

[madfloridian]

15. "FCAT Reading and math in grades 4 through 10".. only data used.

I think about the teachers of the arts and music, and how about kindergarten and early primary teachers?? Their scores are based on reading and math in grades 4-10.

[jsr]

17. Yep, anyone who argues that this methodology is statistically sound is a tool with an agenda.

[Coyotl]

13. I left teaching after 5 years because the BS was too deep.

And that was at the University level. I probably can't imagine how bad the lower schools are. There was too much BS without all the student evaluations, testing, etc. Our teaching performance was judged by professional superiors in a hands on manner.

[madfloridian]

16. Yep, K-3, art, music, science, PE...all judged by grades 4-10 reading, math. FCAT discontinued.

It's unbelievably stupid BS.

[madfloridian]

18. Arne Duncan, Bill Gates say scores shouldn't be released publicly. Sorry guys, too late.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/teacherbeat/2014/02/florida_releases_teacher_value.html

"So for 70 percent or more of teachers, the VAM does not even attempt to measure the teacher's actual teaching and yet the VAM data released purports to rank their performance," said the unions' statement. "The Legislature openly recognized this flaw last year in passing SB 1664, which requires future VAM scores to be based upon a teacher's actual students. But most of the data released by the DOE does not take into account the new law, making all of the data meaningless."

Nationally, New York and Ohio have released similar reports on teachers, and a Los Angeles court also recently ruled that a newspaper could access the district's value-added information.

Even proponents of using VAM as a component in teacher reviews, such as philanthropist Bill Gates and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, say that the scores shouldn't be publicly released. Instead, the data should be used to target teachers for additional help, they say.

Just too late. Those who might have stopped the steam roller are late to the game. Seems like they have little impact now.

[madfloridian]

19. This is no way to grade teachers.

So one more kick for importance.

[Mc Mike]

20. Rec, mad.

Are teachers at for-profit charters subject to VAM evaluations, also? I can't tell from the o.p., but think I know the answer already.