DOE’s “value-added” pilot project resolution (2-08)

Feb 6, 2008 10:27 AM

WHEREAS, the New York City public school teachers are evaluated annually pursuant to an extensive collectively bargained evaluation process; and

WHEREAS, that contract was negotiated in October 2007, and runs through October 2009, or until such time as the next agreement is negotiated and ratified; and

WHEREAS, the New York City Department of Education has undertaken a pilot project to collect and analyze student scores on standardized exams for the ostensible purpose of conducting a “value added” study of the performance of teachers – without informing the teachers in question that they are being studied; and

WHEREAS, DOE officials have been quoted in the news media saying that they are considering using data collected from this study to evaluate teachers and to make decisions on teacher tenure, in violation of our collective bargaining agreement and New York State tenure law; and

WHEREAS, putting ideology before education, the DOE has insisted upon proceeding with this project despite fundamental flaws in its design – most importantly, the data and analysis used in this project do not distinguish the contributions of individual teachers to a student’s academic progress, and thus can not be an accurate or fair measure of individual teacher performance; and

WHEREAS, in opposition to the Code of Fair Testing of the American Education al Research Association, the American Psychological Association, and the National Council on Measurement in Education , this project misuses standardized exams in ways that make the conclusions invalid and unreliable; and

WHEREAS, accepted codes of research ethics in academia require that the subjects of a study be informed that they are part of that study, and that the methodology of a study be public and transparent; and

WHEREAS, in suggesting that yet another set of high stakes decisions be based on the results of student scores on standardized exams, this project exacerbates the excessive focus on testing in NYC public schools, turning classrooms into perpetual test taking and test preparation factories and making the scores from the tests less and less valid as a demonstration of real learning; and

WHEREAS, this project follows on DOE attempts to adopt a system of individual merit pay based on the standardized exam scores of a teacher’s students and to base tenure decisions on the same scores, both of which were defeated by the UFT; and

WHEREAS, New York City public school educators welcome fair, accurate and transparent evaluations which employ multiple measures of teacher effectiveness and are based on expert observation of actual teaching; be it therefore

RESOLVED, that  the United Federation of Teachers condemns the Department of Education ’s ideological pursuit of this particular “value added” pilot project with its fundamental design flaws including but not limited to the fact that it cannot be universally applied to all public school educators; be it further

RESOLVED, that  the UFT rejects outright the use of flawed data and analysis to evaluate schools, teachers and other educators, and to make tenure decisions in violation of our collective bargaining agreement and New York State tenure law; be it further

  RESOLVED, that  the UFT calls upon the DOE to immediately cease and desist in the misuse of standardized exams for high stakes decisions for which they were not designed or intended; be it further

  RESOLVED, that  the UFT employ all contractual, legal and other means available to us to ensure that neither NYC public school teachers nor their students are subjected to the DOE’s “value added” pilot project and the misuse of standardized exams; be it further

  RESOLVED, that  the UFT calls upon the DOE to disclose the schools participating in the pilot project, and to inform the teachers who were the subject of the study that they have been studied; be it further

  RESOLVED, that the UFT calls upon the DOE to disclose the metrics and methodology used in this pilot project, so that independent experts can review this secretive project.

  Passed at the Feb. 6, 2008 Delegate Assembly.