Houston School Board Rejects Continuation of Faulty Evaluation System

HOUSTON—The Houston Independent School District will not be renewing the district’s seriously flawed teacher evaluation model; this is good news for students and teachers and follows other recent decisions to dump the unfair, punitive system, the American Federation of Teachers and the Houston Federation of Teachers said today.

Because of a 3-3 tie, the Houston school board on Thursday rejected an effort to continue with EVAAS (Education Value-Added Assessment System), which has been roundly criticized as unreliable. The statistical formula—which is secret—is used to project how well students should perform on standardized tests based on each child’s past scores. Teachers are given scores that supposedly value their effect on student learning; results determine their evaluations, bonuses and even terminations. Numerous prestigious national groups, including the American Statistical Association and the Economic Policy Institute, have slammed value-added systems, finding they do not accurately evaluate a teacher’s performance. Seven Houston teachers filed a federal lawsuit in 2014 against EVAAS; a decision is pending.

“It would have been unconscionable for Houston to waste $680,000 on a seriously flawed system that does not help teachers or students. Instead of investing in a repudiated test-driven system, we need to start investing in programs that have positive track records and will actually help improve teaching and learning,” Houston Federation of Teachers President Zeph Capo said.

The decision echoes recent court decisions in New York and New Mexico, which have rejected value-added evaluation systems. On June 7, the Supreme Court of New York sided with a Long Island fourth-grade teacher, saying the value-added model is biased against teachers at both ends of the performance spectrum. Last year, a judge in New Mexico ordered a preliminary injunction to prevent the state from using its VAM-based evaluations for high-stakes purposes until it can prove that the system is fair.

“Teaching and learning are about engaging and connecting with children, unleashing their creativity and passion, helping them think critically and being resilient. This can't be reduced to a test score or an algorithm,” said American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. “Using a formula to determine student achievement and the contributions educators make is inaccurate, unreliable and counterproductive and grossly misunderstands the learning process.”

Houston’s Capo said a new teacher evaluation system is just one of many critically important decisions that an incoming superintendent in Houston needs to make to advance the best interests of schools and kids.

“We need policymakers who can be trusted to make smart decisions that will help, not harm, the education of our kids. Once again, we are calling on the board to allow a community advisory committee to help select a superintendent. This is the only way to be confident that a diverse group of community voices are heard in the selection process,” Capo said.

Weingarten said the new federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act, is creating the leeway for educators, parents and state legislators to work together to create evaluation systems designed to support education, not to punish educators.