9:30 a.m. Educator Effectiveness Committee
Teacher Evaluations Presentation on COMPASS (Item 4.1)
Under the new teacher evaluation system, called COMPASS, half of a teacher's job performance will be based on student value-added scores. Value-added scores use student characteristics and previous performance to determine a target score the student would be expected to earn. Depending on whether the student fails to make that target, makes the target or significantly exceeds the target determines whether their teacher is deemed effective or not.
Many parents of students with disabilities have expressed concerns that scores on standardized tests do not accurately measure their child's progress in other critical areas; and, policies that only use performance on standardized tests to gauge the impact of an educator creates dis-incentives for these educators to focus on critical individualized goals and objectives in the student's Individualized Education Plan (IEP).
The Value-Added Model (VAM) groups students with 'similar' characteristics to determine student target scores. However, some disability categories do not have enough students for the statistics to work well. Therefore the VAM groups students with many types of disabilities into one large category labeled: "other special education disability. So students with autism, deaf-blindness, deafness, developmental delay, hearing impairment, moderate to profound intellectual disability, multiple disability, orthopedic impairment, traumatic brain injury, and visual impairment are all considered the same for purposes of establishing target scores. The creators of the Value-Added Model indicate that grouping students across these vast ranges of disabilities is not ideal. Teachers are already anxious and many have expressed concerns that the VAM is not reliable. The use of these inappropriate student groupings may add to teacher perceptions of the fairness and accurateness in using the VAM to evaluate their job performance rating. Unfortunately, concerns of this nature would be expected to increase the resistance some teachers have to include and teach students with disabilities.