Chapter 10: Value-Added Measures and the Rise of AntiPublic Scholing: The Political, Economic, and Ideological Origins of Test-Based Teacher Evaluation

Through its Race to the Top competitive grant programs, the Obama administration has pressured states to adopt new teacher evaluation systems, the centerpiece of which is the use of K–12 student test scores to “measure” teacher “effectiveness.” In order to win federal grants, many states, which face dramatic education-funding crises, have re-written their laws in accordance with U.S. Department of Education (ED) policy objectives. These mandates include adopting “value-added models” (VAMs), or the less sophisticated but increasingly common variant known as “student growth percentiles” (SPG). These methods are used to infer a teacher’s effect on his or her student’s measured academic performance. These policies mandate, primarily on the basis of such calculations, that teachers be placed into “effectiveness” rankings, with consequences, including termination of tenured teachers, for being placed in the lower ranks (Baker, Oluwole, & Green, 2013).