Thompson: Treating Value-Added Decisions Like Foreclosures

What would happen if legal challenges forced districts (and district-hired attorneys) to certify that the numbers derived from statistical models are an accurate reflection of an individual educator's practice?  That's what they're doing with home foreclosures now, putting attorneys on the line (NPR). Attorneys are officers of the court, and judges don't like to be lied to.  Hat tip to Eduwonk for a link to a discusion of why "a flood of lawsuits is certain to occur" when test scores are used in evaluations. Unions need to make the top social science and legal expertise available to officers of the court throughout the nation. In doing so, we should remind attorneys and judges that the real issue is the integrity of our legal system.  Then teachers, principals, and "reformers" can sit down as equals at next year's evaluation summit. - JT