The value-add of value-added data

Value-added data isn't new to Tennessee, but it has only been recently added as a part of a teacher's evaluation. As promised, I'll continue taking big ed reform ideas and discussing how they affect my life as a teacher. 

Chris Low, a teacher from KIPP Philly, tells a story that illustrates why value-added data is so important. He writes about a challenge faced by all of us who teach children who enter our classrooms several years behind grade level (Thanks to Matt Rubinstein for sending this my way):

There is a delicate balance at play in many Philadelphia schools. At the heart of the issue is the idea of expectations. How can teachers keep the bar high without giving in to the constant disillusionment of failed endeavors and unrealized goals? This past summer, during my training as a teaching fellow, my eyes were opened to the limitless potential of students unhindered by the boundaries of low expectations. For many Philadelphia students, the biggest barrier to success lies in the belief that great accomplishments are beyond their grasp. The goal of the teacher is to be a figure that pushes students past the limits of what they think they can do. 

But it’s never that simple. 

(Emphasis mine)

When I was a reporter in Vicksburg, MS, I visited classrooms to get a sense of the day-to-day life of a teacher. The most common refrain from them was, "My kids come to me unprepared." I first heard this from a high school teacher, so I went to talk to a middle school teacher. She told me the same thing, so I talked to a 4th grade teacher.

I got all the way to a kindergarten teacher who said, "You wouldn't believe how far behind the kids are when the start school." I had never considered that a child could be behind before they even started school, but it's true. I thought about how my parents had taught me how to read to before I started formal schooling. My friends who teach elementary school now tell me that most of their kids come in not knowing how to read.

That needs to change. At the same time, we have to help the kids who are already in the system and below grade level. If kids are behind, they need schools and teachers that will help them catch up as much as humanly possible. 

The trick is, in this era of accountability in education, we also have to be fair to the teachers who teach those kids. 

This is why value-added scores are so important. Measuring the rate of progress a student makes in a year, no matter where they started from, is vital information. It's not the only way to measure achievement, to be sure, but it's an important piece of information. Kids should be recognized for making progress, not just hitting an absolute goal.  I remember asking a friend who does marathons how he keeps going when he hits mile 16, is tired and frustrated, and still has 10 more miles to go. "Every step forward is a positive one," he replied. Even if some of our students aren't as far along as others, we still must have a way of showing them that they're taking positive steps.

Low has similar thoughts:

When kids feel successful, they try harder. Like when I learned how to ride a bike. The bike I learned on happened to be a girl’s bike that was embarrassingly small. I felt ridiculous, but my dad celebrated my small achievement anyway. That feeling of success helped me find the courage to try on something a little more impressive, a bigger bike. My dad had lowered the handlebar, but as soon as I proved myself capable, he quietly slid that bar a little higher, and I was back to reaching again. I’m learning how to do that for my students.

Apart from being used to build a student's confidence, value-added data is critical information for teachers to have about their classes as a whole. We in Tennessee are lucky to have a value-added system (TVAAS) in place. It's doesn't offer a complete picture of a student, mainly because the tests themselves are blunt instruments, but it's miles ahead of what was available when I taught in Philadelphia's public schools. 

Among other things, I use value-added data to adjust my lessons to the needs of the class as a whole and target specific students' learning needs. It also saves me weeks of time in diagnosing students, as well as providing a baseline I can use to chart progress throughout the year.  

Still, though, when I attended the Tennessee Council of Teachers of English conference a few months ago, I heard skepticism about value-added scores being used in evaluations. My fellow English teachers wondered about the swings in data they saw from year to year. They were also concerned about over-emphasizing the results of a single test. 

I share some of their concerns and think that the system needs tweaking, but that doesn't mean it should be junked entirely, as I've heard advocated by critics.

In many education debates, we set up a false dichotomy between something being perfect or not having it at all. Conversations about education will be a lot more productive when we acknowledge that our systems are much like our students: not yet where we want them to be, but making progress towards getting there. 

The reality is that many students enter a given classroom below grade level. We can and should have many other discussions regarding how to change that. In the meantime, the idea is to accelerate a student's improvement. Value-added data helps us accurately measure that growth.