Audrey Amrein-Beardsley reports here on new research by Steven Klees of the University of Maryland, which concludes that the contribution of individual teachers to student learning cannot be isolated or quantified as "value-added modeling" claims to do. To isolate the contributions of teachers to student learning is not only “very difficult,” but “it is impossible—even if all the technical requirements in the [AERA] Statement [see here] are met.” says Steven Klees, a Professor at the University of Maryland. Misclassification is not simply a ‘significant risk’— major misclassification is rampant and inherent in the use of VAM. He concludes “The bottom line is that regardless of technical sophistication, the use of VAM is never [and, perhaps never will be] ‘accurate, reliable, and valid’ and will never yield ‘rigorously supported inferences” as expected and desired"
At vamboozled.com
