Remembering A Mathematician Who Invented A Divisive Way To Track Tennessee Teachers

[TexasTowelie]

The mathematician known for inventing a controversial way to measure teacher effectiveness has died at age 74. Even Bill Sanders' obituary tries to explain how TVAAS works.

Sanders boiled it down when WPLN visited him at his home in Columbia for a 2014 interview.

"The analogy is, you measure the effectiveness of teaching on the progress that students make, as opposed to some characteristic directly of the teacher," he said.

Sanders' statistic specialty was cattle — after all, he grew up on a dairy farm in Shelbyville. But he applied his predictive breeding formulas to classrooms to help show how much a teacher was helping a student, rather than relying on outright scores on a test.

Read more: http://nashvillepublicradio.org/post/remembering-mathematician-who-invented-divisive-way-track-tennessee-teachers

[lapucelle]

1. I'm a teacher, so I've heard lots of discussion about this.

There are many factors (including teacher efficacy) that impact student progress. Public schools are funded through property taxes. Some districts are richer than others, and those districts have better facilities and more resources. And of course, some kids are more privileged than others and can focus more on schoolwork and less on simply surviving the day. They have broadband internet, multiple devices, parents who have more time to help them, and money for tutors when high stakes tests are coming up.

The mathematician's formula is reductive and facile at best, and it does a disservice to children.