'Dumb and Dumber' photo (c) 2007, Insomnia Cured Here - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

Thanks to Valerie Strauss, I just learned that the Cleveland Plain Dealer has published the Value Added Measurement (VAM) ratings of local teachers (connected to their names), even though the Plain Dealer itself says:

Reporting by The Plain Dealer and StateImpact Ohio strongly suggests that value-added scoring favors affluent districts where students already perform well, undercutting the original premise that it could track student achievement no matter the income level.

Nor can value-added measure a dedicated teacher who turns a troublemaker into a scholar or a mousy kid into a confident debater. And value-added scores may not paint a clear picture of the work of teachers in urban school districts where children often have unique learning challenges, although the reasons for this apparent deficiency in the rating system remains unclear.

It’s worth reading Valerie’s entire post.

In addition, you might want to check out these two “The Best…” lists describing what happened in other cities where papers did the same:

The Best Posts About The LA Times Article On “Value-Added” Teacher Ratings

The Best Posts & Articles About The New York Court Decision Releasing Teacher Ratings

And here’s a list on VAM itself:

The Best Resources For Learning About The “Value-Added” Approach Towards Teacher Evaluation