Tennessee Tied Teachers’ Jobs to Standardized Test Scores. Here’s How They Pushed Back—and Won

http://www.nationofchange.org/tennessee-tied-teachers-jobs-standardized-test-scores-here-s-how-they-pushed-back-and-won-1401509408

Their campaign ended successfully on April 24, when Governor Bill Haslam signed a bill rolling back the use of a statistical instrument known as TVAAS in teacher licensing decisions—and hitting the pause button on an important facet of the testing trend in Tennessee, at least for the moment. Last year, public school teachers in Tennessee faced precisely that situation, but they didn’t take it lying down. Instead, they started a year of creative actions that led to a decisive change in policy—despite a governor determined to keep an unreliable statistical formula as a key method of evaluating teachers.

Education experts are divided as to what this development will mean for America’s schoolkids. But many believe that it could spark similar campaigns nationwide.

“The change in Tennessee sends a message about politics,” said Dan Goldhaber, director of the Center for Education Data and Research at the University of Washington. “It will embolden people in other states who think that tests ought not to be used for teacher evaluations to continue the pushback.”

According to Bob Peterson, president of the Milwaukee teachers’ union, the development in Tennessee is just one piece of the puzzle. “The success of the pushback in Tennessee is one part of the larger growing movement for testing reform, against the use of standardized tests to pigeonhole and sort our students, and to scapegoat our public schools and teachers,” Peterson said. “New York, California, Oregon—there’s growing grassroots activity.”