The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the constitutionality of Florida’s Value Added Model (VAM) of teacher evaluation. The court came very close to saying that the Florida scheme was unwise and unfair. But it passed muster under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Constitution.
Consider this: teachers who taught science, social studies, art and music were evaluated in large part based on how their students did on math and English tests. Did you get that? These are teachers who don’t teach math or English. But 50% of their evaluation was based on how their students did in subjects these teachers do not teach.
Teachers who taught in grades where there was no state mandated testing were evaluated in large part based on how kids whom they did not teach fared on the state tests. Testing started in third grade. So a second grade teacher is not being evaluated based on how her students fare. She’s evaluated based on all the kids she does not teach.
Hmmm. So we have teachers’ performance being evaluated based on student performance in subjects the teachers do not teach; or based on the performance of students the teachers’ don’t even know. Florida considers this a good scheme.
The 11th Circuit did not endorse the scheme, but it did say that it was rationally related to a legitimate governmental purpose. That’s all that is required to satisfy the Constitution. The case is Cook v. Bennett, decided by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on July 7, 2015. It is cited at 792 F.3d 1294 (11th Cir. 2015).
DAWG BONE: JUST BECAUSE IT’S CONSTITUTIONAL DOES NOT MEAN IT IS FAIR, OR WISE.