Ohio can't wait to start misusing value add

The Columbus Dispatch ran an article "Ratings start to ID effective teachers", which discusses the recent use of teacher level value add scores, primarily as part of RttT, but which also will feature heavily in teacher evaluations going forward.

The article covers a lot of common ground, but not until the 17th of 27 paragraphs does it even mention how inappropriate value add is for this use

Officials involved in producing the new effectiveness ratings say they should not be used to label a teacher as good or bad. This year’s rating is a statement of a teacher’s effectiveness with his or her students from last school year, and nothing more, said Mary Peters, senior director of research and innovation at Battelle for Kids. The Columbus-based nonprofit organization is helping the Education Department develop the effectiveness system.

“We need to be careful about making judgments about one year of data,” Peters said. “These measures were intended for diagnostic purposes, to provide information to help teachers reflect on their practice and determine with whom they are being successful.”

Despite these constant warnings by academics and researchers alike, policy makers, and some government bureaucrats continue to see teacher level value add as a primary tool for teacher evaluation, and it looks for all the world that Ohio can't wait any longer to begin misusing this tool