The District of Columbia and many other school systems say it's how well students' test scores in reading and math compare to the scores predicted by a computer algorithm. The DC schools base half of a teacher's evaluation on an algorithm. That's a lot of faith to place in a computer program written by human beings; by its very nature a computer program is never 100% error-free. Yet DC has the faith. Furthermore, the test results are affected by non-classroom influences, such as poverty, learning disabilities and random testing day incidents such as illness, crime or a family emergency.
The Washington Post interviewed a teacher who was recently fired because her students did not measure up to the predicted scores. The teacher claims that the basis of the prediction was faulty; predictions were based on the previous year's tests, which are being investigated for cheating. Some of these students had difficulty reading although their reading test scores for the previous year were quite high.
The teacher was fired despite an evaluation which read, “It is a pleasure to visit a classroom in which the elements of sound teaching, motivated students and a positive learning environment are so effectively combined."
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