The value of gauging teacher effectiveness by measuring student progress

A New buzzword in education is value-added analysis, an unwieldy term masking a startlingly simple concept of measuring student progress and using it as one way to gauge teacher effectiveness.

The model was at the heart of the Seattle Public Schools' contract negotiations with its teachers union. A diminutive version is now part of a new three-year deal allowing the district very limited use of student growth, as measured by test scores, to help rate teachers.

The downsides are that the method will not be used for all evaluations. It will only be used for teachers who volunteer for it. Nor will the district be able to use money as a carrot to attract volunteers. The district agreed not to limit raises to just those teachers who volunteer for the system. One good thing: the teacher-evaluation system moves from good-versus-bad to more-telling information under the rubrics innovative, proficient, basic or unsatisfactory.

Still, low student-growth scores will count for something. They can trigger a closer look at teachers.

That is not as toothless as it appears. Sounding the alarm on consistently low test scores should result in more attention paid to struggling students. Contrary to what wary teachers unions believe, the issue is less about getting rid of teachers and more about catching flailing students before they drown.

The Los Angeles Times used value-added analysis to rate more than 6,000 third-through-fifth-grade teachers. The resulting firestorm notwithstanding, the debate is not going away.

Retrograde union leaders must quit downplaying the value of looking at the impact a teacher has on a student's growth. In one academic year, a lot can happen, or fail to happen. A holistic approach rightly casts an eye at principal leadership and the role of parents. But there is no getting around the critical role of teachers.

Tough questions are being asked not just about what children are learning, but how much they are learning. A questioning lens rightly includes a close look at teachers.