Constructions of Value-Added Measurement and Teacher Effectiveness in the Los Angeles Times: A Discourse Analysis of the Talk Surrounding Measures of Teacher Effectiveness

• In Event: Policy Issues Related to Teacher Evaluation

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the ways in which media discourse functioned to
politicize and (over)simplify issues related to educational policy and teacher evaluation. We
conducted a discourse analysis of 40 articles on value-added measurement published in the Los
Angeles Times in 2010. We sought to understand the ways in which the discourse worked to
construct a certain version of policy issues related to teacher quality, positioning individuals on
one side of a presumably polarized debate. Ongoing efforts call for using research in ways that
serves all children well, making it important to examine the ways in which the tools and findings
of educational research are represented to the public by the public (e.g., via newspaper outlets).

Author

• Rachael Gabriel, University of Connecticut