Evaluating Teachers by Substituting Invalid Quantitative Metrics for Complex Qualitative Judgments

• In Event: The Role of Assessment and New Metrics in Dealing With Changes in Education in the Digital Age: Findings From the International Academy of Education

Abstract

In the United States almost all recent designs of teacher evaluation systems rely on standardised tests of student achievement as a substantial part of, or all of the teacher evaluation process. These tests have one characteristic that makes them completely inappropriate for this purpose; namely, they are remarkably insensitive to teacher behaviour. Standardised achievement tests instead reflect demographic characteristics of the students who are tested. They more often reflect sociological variables than they do cognitive achievements. Thus every standardized achievement test used to evaluate teacher competency in the USA has serious validity problems. Although their use in the evaluation of students' knowledge and skill is perfectly appropriate, tests designed for that purpose should never be used to make important decisions about the skillfulness of teachers.

Author

• David C. Berliner, Arizona State University