I want to explain something in the most easy way I possibly can. I want to explain it so anyone can understand it. It is important that everyone who has anything to do with education in New York State understands it.
On Wednesday September 16, 2015 the New York State Board of Regents, under the leadership of board chancellor Merryl Tisch created a process whereby teachers can appeal their effectiveness ratings. The formula for the ratings recently changed, with test scores moving from making up 20% of a teacher’s rating to student test scores now making up to 50% of a teacher’s rating.
New York State has been using a “student growth” formula for their calculations of how much “value” an individual teacher has added to the “achievement” of a class of students. Because I am trying to keep this post as simple as possible I will not go into a long explanation of the problems with Value Added Measures in general, or the Growth Percentile Scores in particular. (Read the linked articles for explanations of what the mathematical models can measure and what they cannot measure.)
What is extremely important for all New York State educators and families to understand is that the Chancellor of the Board of Regents does not understand a very basic aspect of a policy she has foisted upon us. Quoting from Geoff Decker’s piece on Chalkbeat:
“In the interview, Tisch said she sympathized with Long Island teacher Sheri Lederman, who is suing the State Education Department over her 2014 evaluation. Lederman’s students scored well on state tests and her superintendent gave her glowing reviews, earning her an ‘effective’ overall rating. But the “’ineffective’ rating she received on the portion based on her students’ test scores prompted her to file a lawsuit, which is now making its way through the State Supreme Court.
‘It disturbs me greatly,’ Tisch said of Lederman’s case. ‘One of the reasons we’re putting in place this appeals process is to deal with those kinds of aberrations.'”
“Those kinds of aberrations”. Let that sink in. Chancellor Tisch, in charge of guiding educational policy for the entire state of New York, understands the fluctuation of Value Added and Student Growth Scores as “aberrations” rather than as a function of how the formulas actually work. Sheri Lederman’s lawsuit in New York State does not rely on an argument that her rating was based on a mistake or aberration.
Tisch’s misconception that Lederman’s growth score ratings are an “aberration” could be easily corrected if she read the New York State Department of Education’s Court filings and oral argument in the Lederman case. Indeed, it is the official position of New York State that Lederman’s rating was not an aberration, but actually a consequence of how the model is supposed to work.
How can we help Chancellor Tisch (and the 10 Regents who voted with her and Governor Cuomo) understand the very basic idea here? Value Added Measures/Models or Growth Scores are not stable enough to rate individual teachers from year to year. Period. Full stop. There is nothing more to know here. Pass it on.
Outrage on the Page 
Great post Celia. I will share it far and wide.
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What few outsiders like really understand is that governor Cuomo has decided to wage a war against the public school teachers of New York State using Common Core tests scores as his weapon of choice. Tisch is on board with this, but she simply doesn’t understand that his weapon does not target incompetent teachers, of which, like in any profession, there are very few. His weapon (test scores) will target teachers at random: the excellent, the good, those who could improve with proper supports, and maybe even a small percentage of the incompetents who are simply in the wrong line of work.
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You’ve directly exposed what is seldom recognized — the horrific “randomness” of VAM evaluations. Yet another reason why teachers can no longer hope to find an inherent reward in simply doing the hard work of teaching.
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Celia: Your analysis of the discussion about Sheri as an aberration and outlier is dead on. Sheri and I were furious when the attorney general kept describing Sheri as an outlier as our point, like yours, was that the Growth Model does not work and does not comply with the law in the first place. Your colleague Aaron Pallas was very helpful in articulating the flaws in the model.
Also, you should look at the appeals process the Regents are proposing. They are only proposing it for the most egregious cases like Sheri. Not everyone is entitled to an appeal, which is wrong in my view.
Feel free to email me if you want to discuss.
Bruce H. Lederman, Esq.
blederman@aol.com
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Here is a link to what I believe are the regulations that the regents voted upon. The appeals process is on page 18. Not everyone is entitle to an appeal. Seems to me designed to preempt embarrassing cases like Sheri’s case, but not allow appeals in all cases.
Click to access 915p12hea1revised.pdf
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Thanks for this, Bruce. And thanks much more for taking on the issue of misuse of VAMs in the courts. Watching how crazy formulas used in economics are being used to mis-evaluate teacher quality has made me incredibly angry. Your lawsuit is one very powerful way to fight this madness and wrongness. I thank you and Sheri and every teacher I know thanks you and Sheri. I will take on this bogus appeal issue.
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Just read this, Celia.
You couldn’t be any more concise or any clearer in your denunciation of VAM, etc. And Tisch couldn’t be any foggier in her knee-jerk support.
The fault dear teachers is not in ourselves, but in our czars.
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THANKS to posts like this one, with growing recognition across the nation that teacher upon teacher has been facing this sort of VAM evaluation abuse, maybe we can be optimistic that more teachers will (1) file VAM suits and (2) feel enough support from other teachers to stick out their district’s “delay” tactics and not quietly settle. Front page publicity is our most powerful ally!
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