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US Secretary of Education “Arne [Duncan] loves him some VAM sauce, and it is a love that simply refuses to die,” writes Peter Greene in a recent Huffington Post post. Duncan’s (simple-mind) loves it because, indeed, the plan is (too) overly simplistic. All that the plan requires are two simple ingredients: “1) A standardized test that reliably and validly measures how much students know 2) A super-sciency math algorithm that will reliably and validly strip out all influences except that of the teacher.”

Sticking with the cooking metaphor, however, Green writes “VAM is no spring chicken, and perhaps when it was fresh and young some affection for it could be justified. After all, lots of folks, including non-reformy folks, like the idea of recognizing and rewarding teachers for being excellent. But how would we identify these pillars of excellence? That was the puzzler for ages until VAM jumped up to say, “We can do it! With Science!!” We’ll give some tests and then use super-sciency math to filter out every influence that’s Not a Teacher and we’ll know exactly how much learnin’ that teacher poured into that kid.”

“Unfortunately, we don’t have either,” and we likely never will. Why this is the case is also highlighted in this post, with Greene explicitly citing three main sources for support: the recent oppositional statement released by the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the oppositional statement released this past summer by the American Statistical Association, and our mostly-oppositional blog Vamboozled! (by Audrey Amrein-Beardsley). Hopefully getting the research into the hands of educational practitioners, school board members, the general public, and the like is indeed “adding value” in the purest sense of this phrase’s meaning. I sure hope so!

Anyhow, in this post Greene also illustrates and references a nice visual (with a side of sarcasm) explaining the complexity behind VAMs in pretty clear terms. I also paste this illustration here, which Greene references as originally coming from a blog post from Daniel Katz, Ph.D. but I have seen similar versions elsewhere and prior (e.g., a New York Times article here).

Greene ultimately asks why Duncan is still staying so fixated on a policy, disproportionally loaded and ever-increasingly rejected and unsupported?

Greene’s answer: ‘[I]f Duncan were to admit that his beloved VAM is a useless tool…then all his other favorite [reform-based] programs would collapse” around him…Why do we give the Big Test? To measure teacher effectiveness. How do we rank and evaluate our schools? By looking at teacher effectiveness. How do we find the teachers that we are going to move around so that every classroom has a great teacher? With teacher effectiveness ratings. How do we institute merit pay and a career ladder? By looking at teacher effectiveness. How do we evaluate every single program instituted in any school? By checking to see how it affects teacher effectiveness. How do we prove that centralized planning (such as Common Core) is working? By looking at teacher effectiveness. How do we prove that corporate involvement at every stage is a Good Thing? By looking at teacher effectiveness. And by “teacher effectiveness,” we always mean VAM (because we [i.e., far-removed educational reformers] don’t know any other way, at all).”

If Duncan’s “magic VAM sauce, is a sham and a delusion and a big bowl of nothing,” his career would literally fold in.

To read more from Greene, do click here to read his post in full.