I'm always in favor of better standardized tests -- who isn't? -- but one handy thing about value-added modeling is that if you use the same flawed tests, you should get similar outcomes: if a kid is in the 10th percentile of his class when he starts his sophomore year and the 20th when he ends, as measured by similar tests, then he's progressed.

Objection. The kid may have improved specifically in his ability to score well on a specific standardized test, and in no other way. And meanwhile, the process that delivered that superficial improvement could have immeasurably harmed other students who might have otherwise genuinely excelled.

If your point is that standardized tests have problems, then I agree. But I don't see any other way of gathering some kind of data, and, as far as I know, no proponents of using standardized tests -- including Gates -- want to use them solely to evaluate teachers.

But if you had a kid, and you had two teachers, both of whom regularly got classes in the 50th percentile, and one teacher regularly had kids leave in the 40th percentile, the other in the 60th, which would you want? In fact, L.A. is already now in effect conducting the experiment: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-teachers-value-20100... and parents are responding accordingly -- for good reason.

Your concerns are valid, but they are mostly misguided if the alternative to them is "doing what we're doing now." See here: http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/08... for more; "We cannot simultaneously claim, however, that teachers are vitally important for the future of our children and also that their effectiveness should not be measured." Also see the list of education-related articles I compiled here: http://jseliger.com/2009/11/12/susan-engel-doesnt-get

If your argument is that we should purse some kind of standardized metric for teaching effectiveness, and that it might take the form of a standardized test, I'm with you.

If your argument is "nothing could be worse than the way it is today", I strongly disagree. More than 70% of Americans are satisfied (or better) with their own local school. High-stakes testing can easily make schools worse by disrupting curricula and damaging incentives for teachers. If we're going to focus our efforts on the school systems that are in crisis, there are probably better interventions.

Measuring teacher effectiveness is a real problem that needs real work, but in the interim, primum non nocere.

Is there a study that shows that scoring well on standardized tests does NOT reflect real learning? Perhaps there is, but... There is a lot rhetoric to the effect that "scoring well on tests just means you are good at taking tests", but (1) there is nothing wrong with getting good at taking tests, and (2) are we sure?

Also, the process MAY or MAY not have harmed other students -- there is no reason to believe it would, that I can tell -- again, please respond if there is.

Yes. Numerous ones. In particular, "high-stakes" middle school standardized tests (of the NCLB variety) appear to correlate negatively with ACT/SAT performance (a test that actually matters).

Actually, percentiles are not such a great way to measure progress, it's just relative. What we should measure is something more like earned value- did he progress more or less than one year of material forward? That way, kids who are two years behind and two years ahead all get measured on how fast they are moving, not where they started.