A Look at the Fuss Over Value-Added Teacher Data

By Barbara Stewart, The Hechinger Report

Good teachers matter and—as in every other profession—some are better than others. Researchers have even found that the very best teachers can help students overcome many of the effects of poverty and catch up to or surpass their more privileged peers.

That’s why there is intense interest now in finding better ways to judge the relative effectiveness of teachers. But how should that be done? Most teacher evaluations not only fail to single out successful teachers—they also don’t help principals determine which teachers need help to improve and which ones are failing their students altogether. Instead, all teachers end up being judged the same, which is to say, satisfactory.

“It’s universally acknowledged—teacher evaluations are broken,” said Timothy Daly, president of The New Teacher Project , a group that helps school districts...