Complete Coverage

No Value Added: The Mismeasurement of Teaching Quality

By David B. Cohen

Last summer, the Obama administration announced the Race to the Top competition, and planted the seeds for some serious changes in American public school systems. This spring, those seeds are bearing a bitter fruit, with state legislatures around the country rushing to enact reforms that are aligned with the new federal priorities.

American teachers find themselves battered and weary—already in a reactionary and defensive mode after nearly a decade's worth of No Child Left Behind, we're now in a fight to preserve our profession. The worst part of it, as we see it, is that the dollars our states are chasing will do little to improve teaching or schools.

Why are many teachers so angry? We're tired of being the scapegoats for the failures of an entire system. An echo chamber of major media outlets and pandering politicians have inflated real problems into existential crises, using "shock doctrine" to pave the way for favored, simplistic solutions. Teachers are frustrated that the supposed solutions are reforms selected without a basis in research, touted without proven results, and...