Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Guest AuthorFebruary 15, 2015

The ironically named Student Success Act of 2011 mandated something called the Valued Added Model, which attempts to quantify each teacher’s influence on each student. The complicated formula purports to predict what a student’s normal gain scores on a standardized test will be from one year to another. If a student gains more or loses […]

Guest AuthorFebruary 1, 2015

Floridians hear a lot about over-testing and high-stakes testing in our public schools. Even if you are sympathetic to the problem, unless you are very plugged into the details, you have only a general idea of what it all means. Let me give you some of those details. Most of my career has been as […]

Guest AuthorJanuary 25, 2015

Jeffrey Hernandez, “whiz kid,” Jeffrey Hernandez, evil genius, Jeffrey Hernandez, testing guru, Jeffrey Hernandez, miracle principal – all contradictory but all attitudes held by different factions in the tumultuous year of his reign as Chief Academic Officer of the Palm Beach County school system in 2009-10. At the distance of 5 years, I wonder if […]

Tag: End of Course exams

Catherine Martinez: 'Value Added Model' of no value to teaching

Catherine Martinez: The nitty gritty of high-stakes tests

Catherine Martinez: Unleash the power of school protests