John Cronin, Ph.D.John Cronin, Ph.D.DirectorDirector

The Kingsbury Center @ NWEAThe Kingsbury Center @ NWEA

Using tests for high stakes evaluation, what administrators need to know

TASA Midwinter Conference – January 29, 2013 Austin, Texas

Presenter - John Cronin, Ph.D.

Contacting us:Rebecca Moore: 503-548-5129E-mail: rebecca.moore@nwea.org

This PowerPoint presentation and recommended resources are available at our SlideShare website: http://www.slideshare.net/NWEA/tag/kingsbury-center

Using tests for high stakes evaluation, what educators need to know.

Much of the nation has moved from a model of education reform that focused on fixing schools to a model that is focused on fixing the teaching profession. Texas has not yet joined this bandwagon, but administrators need to understand the issues to contribute to the public dialogue.

NWEA’s position on the use of tests for teacher evaluation

• The principal or designated evaluator should control the evaluation of teachers.

• Multiple sources of data should inform this evaluation including:– Classroom observation– Evidence of student achievement– Professional participation

• Tests may inform the evaluation process but should be a controlling factor

Does NWEA participate in the use of tests for teacher evaluation?

• We serve 5200 school systems throughout the United States.• In many states, the use of local assessments is required as

part of the teacher evaluation.• In these states we:

– Advise our partners on the issues associated with this issue.– Work with partners to implement common solutions that are in

compliance with state mandates, fair to all stakeholders, and legally defensible.

– Form state advisory groups of school systems to provide input to this process, implement a common solution, and establish a network for schools to get support from colleagues.

Primary sources of teacher dismissal

• Top source – Economic layoff • Second source – non-renewal of probationary

teachers• Third source – dismissal for misconduct• Fourth source – dismissal for incompetence.

What are the primary issues in using tests for teacher evaluation

• Alignment between tests and curriculum expectations

Issues in the use of tests for teacher evaluation – curriculum alignment

1. Assessment of high school subjects

2. Assessment of subjects without assessments

Issues in the use of tests for teacher evaluation – curriculum alignment

Assessment of subjects without assessments

Music, art, PE, and many other courses lack appropriate assessments to measure student learning and gains.

Issues in the use of tests for teacher evaluation – curriculum alignment

Common Solutions that are problematic

Solution - Hold all teachers accountable for basic skills

Problem – This distracts specialized teachers from their core responsibilities and is not a fair assessment of their job performance

Issues in the use of tests for teacher evaluation – curriculum alignment

Common Solutions that are problematic

Solution – Evaluate by having teachers develop SLO’s or Student Learning Objectives

Problem – This creates a huge evaluation load on administrators and SLO’s are often not rigorous or targeted to all students

Issues in the use of tests for teacher evaluation – curriculum alignment

Assessment of high school subjects

We are aware of one district in the United States that assesses all courses. They manage 2600 tests.

State and standardized math and reading tests do not always closely align to the expectations of math and English courses

How the teacher’s contribution to learning is commonly measured by tests

Is the progress produced by this teacher dramatically greater or

less than teaching peers that deliver instruction to comparable

students?

Moving from Proficiency to Growth

All students count when accountability is measured

through growth.

One district’s change in 5th grade math performance relative to Kentucky cut scores

One district’s change in 5th grade math performance relative to Kentucky cut scores

proficiency college readiness

Number of 5th grade students meeting math growth target in the same district

Number of 5th grade students meeting math growth target in the same district

Issues in the use of growth and value-added measures

Measurement design of the instrument

Many assessments are not designed to measure growth. Others do not measure growth equally well for all students.

Tests are not equally accurate for all students

California STAR NWEA MAP

Tests are not equally accurate for all students

Grade 6 New York Mathematics

Item Pool Depth

Issues in the use of growth and value-added measures

“Among those who ranked in the top category on the TAKS reading test, more than 17% ranked among the lowest two categories on the Stanford. Similarly more than 15% of the lowest value-added teachers on the TAKS were in the highest two categories on the Stanford.”

Corcoran, S., Jennings, J., & Beveridge, A., Teacher Effectiveness on High and Low Stakes Tests, Paper presented at the Institute for Research on Poverty summer workshop, Madison, WI (2010).

Issues in the use of growth and value-added measures

Instability of results

A variety of factors can cause value-added results to lack stability.

Results are more likely to be stable at the extremes. The use of multiple-years of data is highly recommended.

Issues in the use of growth and value-added measures

Instability of results

Los Angeles Times Study

Teachers with growth scores in lowest and highest quintile over two years using NWEA’s Measures of Academic Progress

Bottom quintile Y1&Y2

Top quintile Y1&Y2

Number 59/493 63/493

Percent 12% 13%

r .64 r2 .41

Typical r values for measures of teaching effectiveness range between .30 and .60 (Brown Center on Education Policy, 2010)

Reliability of teacher value-added estimates

Issues in the use of growth and value-added measures

Control for statistical error

All models attempt to address this issue. Nevertheless, many teachers value-added scores will fall within the range of statistical error.

Issues in the use of growth and value-added measures

Control for statistical error

New York City

Range of teacher value-added estimates

Issues in the use of growth and value-added measures

Lack of random assignment

The use of a value-added model assumes that the school doesn’t add a source of variation that isn’t controlled for in the model.

e.g. Young teachers are assigned disproportionate numbers of students with poor discipline records.

Potential Litigation Issues

The use of value-added data for high stakes personnel decisions does not yet have a strong, coherent, body of case law.

Expect litigation if value-added results are the lynchpin evidence for a teacher-dismissal case until a body of case law is established.

Possible legal issues

• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – Disparate impact of sanctions on a protected group.

• State statutes that provide tenure and other related protections to teachers.

• Challenges to a finding of “incompetence” stemming from the growth or value-added data.

Other issues

Security and Cheating

When measuring growth, one teacher who cheats disadvantages the next teacher.

Cheating

Atlanta Public SchoolsCrescendo Charter SchoolsPhiladelphia Public SchoolsWashington DC Public SchoolsHouston Independent School DistrictMichigan Public Schools

Cheating

Atlanta Journal Constitution Database

Mean spring and fall test duration in minutes by school

Mean value-added growth by school

Security considerations

• Teachers should not be allowed to view the contents of the item bank or record items.

• Districts should have policies for accomodation that are based on student IEPs.

• Districts should consider having both the teacher and a proctor in the test room.

• Districts should consider whether other security measures are needed for both the protection of the teacher and administrators.

Recommendations

• Embrace the formative advantages of growth measurement as well as the summative.

• Create comprehensive evaluation systems with multiple measures of teacher effectiveness (Rand, 2010)

• Select measures as carefully as value-added models.• Use multiple years of student achievement data.• Understand the issues and the tradeoffs.

Presenter - John Cronin, Ph.D.

Contacting us:NWEA Main Number: 503-624-1951 E-mail: rebecca.moore@nwea.org

The presentation and recommended resources are available at our SlideShare site: http://www.slideshare.net/NWEA/tag/kingsbury-center

Thank you for attending