Finally. At long last. A group of serious analysts, commissioned by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, has concluded that NBPTS needs to include student learning gains in its evaluation of teacher quality! What's more, that conclusion is based not on ideology but on some very sophisticated analysis of which teachers do and do not actually turn out to be more effective in the classroom. I didn't have Tom Kane's study to lean on but have been making that argument for approximately twenty years. So have numerous Fordham studies, reports, and manifestos. (See, for example, ??pp. 213-215 of Troublemaker; Better Teachers for Better Schools, and this and this Gadfly item.) Find the study by Kane et al at http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~pfpie/pdf/National_Board_Certification.pdf.
But will NBPTS take this sound advice? Education Week reporter Debra Viadero is far from confident. Read her excellent piece over at edweek.org (subscription required).
