Accountability News in Brief

N.Y.C. Officials Release ‘Value Added’ Reports

By Stephen Sawchuk — February 28, 2012 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

New York City officials last week released “value added” reports that purport to estimate a teacher’s impact on his or her students’ standardized test scores to news outlets, several of which plan to make the data publicly available.

The move is expected to spark controversy among educators similar to that from a project by the Los Angeles Times, which published teachers’ names and value-added scores online in 2010.

The United Federation of Teachers has tried to prevent the release, but the union’s last legal defense failed earlier this month when a state court declined to hear an appeal to a ruling requiring the release under open-records laws.

Though generally supportive of using value-added as one part of evaluation systems, philanthropist Bill Gates argued a day before the release in The New York Times that making the reports available amounted to a “public shaming” of teachers that could threaten teacher-evaluation reform.

The Times has asked teachers in the relevant grades and subjects to submit additional context, which will be published with the reports. The online news site, gothamschools.org, has decided not to publish the ratings. The UFT plans to run ads protesting the release.

A version of this article appeared in the February 29, 2012 edition of Education Week as N.Y.C. Officials Release ‘Value Added’ Reports

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Accountability Opinion What’s Wrong With Online Credit Recovery? This Teacher Will Tell You
The “whatever it takes” approach to increasing graduation rates ends up deflating the value of a diploma.
5 min read
Image shows a multi-tailed arrow hitting the bullseye of a target.
DigitalVision Vectors/Getty
Accountability Why a Judge Stopped Texas from Issuing A-F School Ratings
Districts argued the new metric would make it appear as if schools have worsened—even though outcomes have actually improved in many cases.
2 min read
Laura BakerEducation Week via Canva  (1)
Canva
Accountability Why These Districts Are Suing to Stop Release of A-F School Ratings
A change in how schools will be graded has prompted legal action from about a dozen school districts in Texas.
4 min read
Handwritten red letter grades cover a blue illustration of a classic brick school building.
Laura Baker, Canva
Accountability What the Research Says What Should Schools Do to Build on 20 Years of NCLB Data?
The education law yielded a cornucopia of student information, but not scalable turnaround for schools, an analysis finds.
3 min read
Photo of magnifying glass and charts.
iStock / Getty Images Plus