With all of the buzz questioning the continuance of standardized testing during a pandemic, I was really surprised this week to read that Lakewood Elementary is cautioning parents about students missing the end of year STAAR and MAP testing. Missing the tests according to the principal's newsletter could "negatively impact a student's future opportunities." It's well known that standardized tests such as STAAR and MAP tell us more about socioeconomic status than ability, so a

The CEO of the company making the MAP test says MAP is not reliable for high-stakes purposes, such as teacher evaluation.

I always knew the Teacher Excellence Initiative (TEI) would die out. I just didn’t think it would take a global pandemic to make it happen. Covid-19 has wreaked havoc on the world this year. And in DISD one downstream effect is that the district won’t be able to rank teachers with the TEI merit pay system (a value-added model system) this year. The cancellation of TEI isn’t because the six year, $575 million national study titled “Improving Teaching Effectiveness: Final Repor

A 2019 study found that the models measuring teachers’ effects on students’ standardized test scores were only slightly more valid than if t