"Evaluating Teacher Evaluations," published in Phi Delta Kappan is a great tool for understanding value-added rating models and how they fail to account for the vast number of factors that influence a student's test scores from one year to the next. Since value-added models can't control for factors like class size, home and community challenges, summer learning loss (which disproportionately affects low-income students), then there is no way they can provide an accurate picture of how effective a teacher is in raising student test scores. 

The Coalition for Teaching Quality, representing a broad cross-section of 90 civil rights, disability, parent, student, community and education groups are voicing their deep concern with the proposed extension of the highly qualified teacher federal amendment (HQT amendment) until 2015, allowing teachers in training to be “highly qualified” under federal law. The HQT amendment enacted in December 2010 allows participants in alternative teacher preparation programs to be classified as “highly qualified” even though they are still in training. Research shows that such teachers are disproportionately concentrated in schools and classrooms filled with our most vulnerable students. Under the current provision, teachers-in-training can continue to teach for as long as three years even if they never complete their preparation program, pass certification tests, or meet other state certification standards. And worse yet, parents are never notified that their children’s teachers are still in training and therefore not actually “highly qualified” according to the original definition of the term. Join advocates from across the country to tell Congress and President Obama to allow the current HQT amendment to sunset after the 2012-2013 school year. An Opportunity to Learn requires all students to have a well-prepared teacher on day one.