Education Law

All growth not calculated equally

If you haven?t seen this article on using growth models to measure student progress from Jay Mathews over at the Washington Post BoardBuzz strongly suggests you check it out. BoardBuzz, like many others, is a fan of growth models. NSBA even advocates for growth models in their bill to improve the No Child Left Behind Act (HR 648).

While most educators agree that using a growth model to measure school effectiveness is better than the current one point in time system?as NSBA does-- there is much debate about using such measures to evaluate teachers. This is where the article does such a great job laying out the main points in the debate made by educators, policymakers, and researchers about the pros and cons of using growth models to evaluate individual teachers. For those school board members in districts looking to measure student growth, this is a must read.

After you do, BoardBuzz highly recommends you check out the Center for Public Education's Measuring Student Growth: A guide to informed decision making for a quick guide on the different types of growth models and how they should be use and developed. It also provides a list of questions for school board members and other policymakers should be asking if your district or state is thinking about measuring student growth.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on November 20, 2008 (boomark / email).