Did anyone ever hear of this?

levirm
Sat, 12 Mar 2011 10:12:38 +0000

My issue with this is that the PSAT, though “coachable” to some extent, is primarily designed as an aptitude test - many might disagree, I realize, but its original intent was to measure aptitude, which supposedly predicted college success. (I agree that Latin knowledge may help; on the other hand, it is possible that there is “selection bias” regarding who takes Latin in the first place.) However, there is some talk about using 10th to 11th grade PSAT improvement in a VAM formula and I am returning to the question of whether anyone had ever heard of this or knows where I could find out.
Sensible people would not use VAM as the only measure of teacher effectiveness - just one measure among several. However, meaningful teacher evaluation is something that is essential for moving education forward, in my opinion. The conundrum becomes exactly how to do it.