It’s not just a Left Coast thing. The hub-bub caused in Los Angeles when the LA Times disseminated individual teacher ratings is now raging in the Big Apple, as several new organizations have sought similar information on New York City instructors. NYC’s Department of Education says the public has a right to view these value-added ratings for 12,000 of the city’s elementary- and middle-school math and ELA teachers. And people we respect, like Eric Hanushek, agree. The United Federation of Teachers, not surprisingly, sued to block release of such information. A state Supreme Court hearing is scheduled for the week of Thanksgiving. This issue is a tough one, but here’s our bottom line: Such individual information is exceptionally valuable for teachers, principals, and parents, but not much good for anyone else. School and district leaders should see and use value-added rankings when making decisions about staffing. And parents should have the right to know how effective their own children’s teachers are—as well as the teacher down the hall. The public surely deserves aggregate data on teacher effectiveness at the building level and above. But releasing ratings of Ms. Jones and Mr. Smith to the media is inviting unnecessary trouble. We don’t say this often, but the unions are partly right on this one.
“Debate over value-added teacher ratings hits New York City,” by Liz Willen, Hechinger Report, October 22, 2010.