Should teacher scores be made public?  This Tennessean article poses just that question.  Have you ever heard of the term “value added”?  If you are a teacher, then hopefully you have.  Many teachers I’ve spoken with over the years have expressed their frustration over Value Added, noting that it’s not a clear concept.  This Tennessean article also points out that many administrators over the years statewide have failed to train their teaching staff on what Value Added even means, and how to interpret the test results.

So, why should we even have this discussion or a news story over Value Added and teacher evaluations and scores?  The answer is simple: in order for the State of Tennessee to gain access to $500 Million worth of federal money, we had to agree and make laws linking teacher scores/evaluations to teacher pay and possible tenure.  The name of this new program is of course First to the Top.

This news story by the Tennessean should be interesting just for the comments made on the article alone.  The creator of Value Added, Bill Sanders, is also highlighted and interviewed in this article.