What are parents doing with the value-added info?
In the debate about public release about teachers’ value-added scores, you see a lot of quotes of the “parents would want to know” variety, but not a lot of quotes from parents themselves. Three months after the Los Angeles Times project blasted into the edusphere, I think we are due for some articles, in California and elsewhere, that really get into the issue of what parents want, or do not want, regarding this information, and what they are doing with it if they indeed have access to it.
posted by Linda Perlstein at
11:42 AM
5 Comments:
I would like to say, as i had mentioned earlier that parents tend to take schools for granted where teachers are the expendables. Only a few dozen from the hundreds actually appreciate the work done by the schools in general. Who, where and what is lacking , is as good as any ones guess as parents are either too opinionated or do not have any opinion at all. I'd like to know from all parents- I'm one too as to are schools not a mean towards the shaping of the children's future? if not what exactly do they want??
Very important question. I'm not hearing much about what they're doing with it, but there are potentially-serious methodological consequences of parents using the information (think non-random assignment).
Sorry for the shameless plug, but this issue may be important and I rarely (if ever) hear it discussed. So, if anyone is interested: http://shankerblog.org/?p=1093
Either way, thanks for bringing it up.
What could parents possibly do with the information when poorer parents have no choice over where their kids go to school and little choice over their kids' teachers?
Given the unlikelihood that most parents are doing anything with the information, and the unlikelihood that anything done with the information would be productive (to improve student learning?), it seems that a major part of the Times' justification for publishing names with VAM scores is looking rather flimsy.
I came upon this website through a Google search because I wondered what others were thinking.
I wrote my dissertation on value-added assessment (the professional development implications for educators) and am scheduled to speak to our district's PTA next week about this topic. This is an issue that parents are very interested in this topic. I see it as my responsibility to help them understand the educational purposes of teacher level VAM and am looking at this as an opportunity to profile the good work that our teachers are doing with student growth data.
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