Wanted: Ways To Measure Most Teachers

After our class discussion on this topic I read this article with a little more perspective, which I can appreciate because of all the lack of perspective I feel when looking at these issues. I can say that I still wonder very much about the engine behind this movement and its exact intentions. I doubt or perhaps hope that it is not the trojan horse that I have heard suggested, but it very well could be. We are now looking for a standard, not only to measure students but to evaluate teachers. We need something. I hope that "value added" measures can act in a truly scientific way by adding more data, but not as the sole manner for evaluation. These "snapshots" do not help to "determine what needs to happen next" says one of the principal investigators for teacher quality. What happens next? I hope portfolios, projects and better classroom assessments, as the article suggested. In the article there were some very thoughtful, well planned and executed ideas, and I was impressed that the people involved pointed out the short-comings with some of the ideas, in the hopes of finding a solution.
I do not believe the social sciences are a hard science. This is not a greek drama, where we have to choose between killing our army or our daughter. As a matter of a fact, I do believe that kind of thinking is what gets us in trouble. Less fear, more hope. Take a deep breath and a chance. What are the possibilities? If "value added" measures becomes a fact alone for measuring teachers, then we are going backward and it makes me seriously consider the intentions of the engine running this movement.