Time to Shelve VAM Permanently!

The Act 240 subcommittee is scheduled to meet again on January 5. This is the special subcommittee of the Accountability Commission that was formed to review and make recommendations for improvements to the Louisiana teacher evaluation system.

Although it is now suspended, the Value Added Model (VAM) was supposed to make up 50% of a teacher’s evaluation. So, for teachers of state tested grades and subjects the complex formula that predicted the composite academic growth of each classroom of students had a huge impact on such teachers’ annual evaluations. The impact of VAM on about a third of the teachers statewide was magnified by the override rule, which was a provision in BESE policy that allowed an ineffective rating on either VAM or the principal’s evaluation to override the other component and declare a teacher “ineffective”. 

The override rule, which was never part of the original Act 54 law, when combined with VAM could be deadly to many good teachers’ careers. The VAM formula it turns out, was so erratic and capricious in its rating of some teachers that it became obvious that it should not be used to override a principal’s evaluation.  

Some members of the Act 240 subcommittee including Representative Hoffman who originally sponsored the Act 54 legislation have indicated that they would like to do away with the override rule.

In addition to removing the override rule, some members of the subcommittee have suggested that the VAM component should be reduced in its impact on the final evaluation from 50% to some lesser percentage. But if the VAM is so inaccurate, so unstable, and so potentially destructive of a good teacher’s career, then it should be done away with altogether!  Several members of the Act 240 subcommittee including teacher union leaders Debbie Meaux and Steve Monaghan have suggested that VAM should be totally removed from the teacher evaluation system.

VAM has been used as part of the evaluation system for only one year (the 2012-13 school year). According to LDOE policy, 20% of the teachers evaluated by VAM received a highly effective rating on that part of their evaluation and some received a highly effective overall because of the VAM. But if you think VAM was unstable when applied using the old LEAP and iLEAP tests, wait until you see the results with the new Common Core/PARCC aligned testing! Just because a teacher got a "highly effective" VAM in the old system is no guarantee that it will happen again under the new system. In fact it is quite possible for a teacher who received a highly effective on VAM in one year to get an ineffective on VAM the next year. That one ineffective punishes the teacher by canceling his/her tenure and placing him/her on a remediation plan. This is harsh treatment and it may be completely inappropriate.

This is no way to run a railroad and no way to make decisions relative to teacher’s careers.

I am suggesting that teachers and principals consider sending an email to Act 240 Committee chair, Mr Bret Duncan at brett.duncan@tangischools.org,  and requesting that the subcommittee recommend doing away with the override provision but also with VAM altogether until a formula or system can be found that is fair and reliable.

A Terrific Video About Privatization

Click here to view an excellent video that exposes how the charter and voucher industry is misusing our tax dollars. I think this will make you smile as well as alert you to the tactics of privatization.

Letter to Editor by Dr Lottie Beebe

Dear Readers: The following is a letter to the editor by Dr. Lottie Beebe, one of our truly pro-teacher members of BESE. If you appreciate what Dr Beebe is saying here please send her a "thank you" note or include a thank you as a comment to this blog. We often forget to thank the brave education leaders who support the teaching profession every single day even though the popular fad recently is to blame teachers for issues over which they have little or no control.

Dear Editor:
At its December meeting, BESE received a report on teacher attrition. The report was issued amid concerns from parents, teachers, and school administrators that the new Common Core standards and flawed teacher evaluation systems are driving effective, experienced teachers from the classroom.  State Superintendent of Education John White was quick to note that the report concludes that teacher attrition has remained steady for the past five years, and that the new standards and evaluation systems have had a minimal impact on teacher attrition.  However, the LDOE’s report proves that the concerns of parents and education leaders are correct – effective teachers are leaving the classroom. 

Although the LDOE report concludes that overall teacher attrition rates have remained steady over a five-year period, it also notes that, from 2012-2014, 16% of the teachers who left the profession were rated “highly effective”, while 12% of the teachers who left the profession were rated “least effective”.  The report is clear that over the past two years a higher percentage of “highly effective” teachers left the classroom than the percentage of ineffective teachers, which is contrary to the stated goals of education reformers. 

The report examines the reasons teachers have left the profession, but not the challenges of finding excellent teachers to replace them.  School administrators across the state are vocal in expressing how challenging it is to hire excellent, qualified teachers while untested standards are implemented and questionable new teacher evaluations are being used to measure teacher success.

The current trend of Louisiana’s schools losing many of its highly effective teachers is alarming considering the research indicating that quality teachers are crucial to positive student outcomes. After spending millions of taxpayer dollars on new curricula and evaluation systems, there is little evidence that this money was wisely invested, particularly with teacher evaluations yielding similar outcomes to those prior to COMPASS (the current teacher evaluation program). 

It appears many of the 2012 reform initiatives are having the opposite effect, driving a high percentage of quality teachers out of the classroom, and making it very difficult to hire quality teachers to replace them.  

It is time for Louisiana's policy makers to heed the data, stop the policies and practices that cost Louisiana its quality teachers, and support the effective teachers that are educating our children. 

Lottie P. Beebe,  Ed. D., lottie_beebe@saintmartinschools.org 

            BESE Representative, District 3

            Breaux Bridge, LA

            Phone:  337.316.8579

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