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This is a great (although unfortunate) YouTube video capturing Indian River County, Florida teacher Luke Flint’s “Story” about the VAM scores he just received from the state as based on the state’s value-added formula.
This is a must watch, and a must share, as his “Story” has potential to “add value” in the best of ways, that is, in terms of further informing debates about how these VAMs actually “work” in practice.
Great presentation of why Florida’s VAM scores are unethical. It seems to me that this argument is a winnable lawsuit.
I have high scoring students, but we are DONE. Too much, too often, disrupted instruction, access to computers, media centers, and more.
So, now, my children are no longer participating in anything that is tied to VAM. MY children aren’t in school to evaluate their teachers, and VAM is crap crap crap! I hate what they are doing for our teachers.
This has left me in shock. I had no idea of this program but there is obviously a major issue here that needs to be addressed in Tallahassee. This gentleman is obviously someone who cares about teaching and the effect a teacher has on his students. Someone missed the boat on this one and I hope that whoever gets voted in this election year takes this to the legislature for immediate review and take the appropriate action to correct a grievous wrong.
This is amazing. How did he get his scores? We need to know all the scores, and the questions and the answers.
Would love to know how to find scores as well
Clear voice, excellent choice of points, greater restraint than many could muster given the total absurdity of metrics marketed as if these speak “objectively” about values…
This is amazing. How did he get his scores. We need to know all the scores, the test questions and the test answers.
reposted at http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Help-Florida-Teacher-Luke-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Florida-Politics_Insanity_Madness_Story-150329-446.html#comment539147
Great job!
As a retired public school teacher, I am so impressed by this young man’s plea to his school board. It is clear, concise, and packs a powerful punch. No question was left unanswered. If the school board chooses to ignore him, they are either stupid or taking money from the plutocrats. This guy must be a terrific teacher. He should run for office.If things go the way of charter schools, big testing and state controlled school districts, teachers like Luke Flint will disappear. If that happens we will all be the worse for it.
Mr. Flint speaks clearly and powerfully about the negative affects of VAM. He represents all of us whose careers rest on the capriciousness of VAM. I will share this story, because next year in Ohio, it may be my story.
VAM in FL is voodoo. My previous Kindergarten scores (which were Below Expectations) were derived from my school’s Grade 3-5 scores. This year I moved to PreK. My VAM will be based upon showing growth using the cognitive assessment of the Battelle Developmental Inventory. My students are all Special Needs. Give me a break.
Good for Luke Flint! Excellent speaker. I hope this hits home to the school board and makes its way to the legislature in FL. Let the teachers teach!!
As both a mom and public school teacher, this is all so true! It honestly just makes me want to pull my kids out of public school and run away to a brand new career. We need to stop the insanity and start speaking out as this teacher just did!
Read another Florida teacher’s story. http://timmonstimes.blogspot.com/2015/03/pay-for-performance.html
Thank you Mr. Flint, for speaking out so eloquently on behalf of all of our public school children and our instructional colleagues. It is beyond maddening what our present reality is! We cannot remain silent and idle, as an American institution is systematically destroyed before our very eyes. I hope your story IS passed on high and wide, and that it ignites the passion needed “to stop the madness”.
With much gratitude and in solidarity,
Mrs. Monica Aleman – A Fellow Public School Teacher
I refuse to believe that this grossly inaccurate way of calculating
a teacher’s effectiveness is just a mathematical error. This is
clearly a way of dismantling tenure, firing teachers, and closing
public schools, in order for charter schools to take over and
hedge funds to make billions of dollars off the backs of
the uneducated masses and impoverished children. This is
now happening across the country and it is time to take a
stand!!!
He wouldn’t have seen scores beyond the highest achievable score if a parametric model was used. It truly is a problem of employing the wrong statistical model.