Teacher Training By Dr. Diana Wehrell-Grabowski

How Good Is One Teacher Compared With Another? New York Times reporter Sam Dillon asks this question in his September 1st, 2010 article about the use of value-added modeling. Value-added modeling is being adopted by a number of school districts nationwide. The system calculates the value teachers add to their students’ achievement, based on changes in test scores from year to year and how the students perform compared with others in their grade. There are many individuals who are proponents of value-added modeling, while many are critical of the use of the value-added modeling system as a tool for rating how effective an individual teacher is. The use of value-added modeling system is expected to increase with the Obama administration encouraging states and districts to develop more effective teacher-evaluation systems than traditional classroom observation by administrators. Read the complete New York Times article.