Breaking: the Lederman decision and Gallup poll: the beginning of the end of high-stakes testing?

Today, the court decision in the Sheri Lederman case was issued.  Judge Roger McDonough of the NY State Supreme Court concluded that rating teachers via their students' growth scores on the state exams is "arbitrary and capricious."  He cited a wealth of evidence from affidavits of academic experts such as Linda Darling-Hammond, Sean Corcoran, Aaron Pallas, Carol Burris, Audrey Amrein-Beardsley, Jesse Rothstein  and others, showing that the system of evaluating teachers by means of test scores is unreliable, invalid, unfair and makes no sense.  The full court decision is below.

Here is the message from her attorney (and husband) Bruce Lederman:

"I am very pleased to attach a 13 page decision by J
udge Roger McDonough which concludes that Sheri has “met her high burden and established that Petitioner’s growth score and rating for the school year 2013-2014 are arbitrary and capricious.” The Court declined to make an overall ruling on the rating system in general because of new regulations in effect. However, decision makes (at page 11) important observations that VAM is biased against teachers at both ends of the spectrum, disproportionate effects of small class size, wholly unexplained swings in growths scores, strict use of curve.

The decision should qualify as persuasive authority for other teachers challenging growth scores throughout the County. Court carefully recites all our expert affidavits, and discusses at some length affidavits from Professors Darling-Hammond, Pallas, Amrein-Beardsley, Sean Corcoran and Jesse Rothstein as well as Drs. Burris and Lindell . It is clear that the evidence all of these amazing experts presented was a key factor in winning this case since the Judge repeatedly said both in Court and in the decision that we have a “high burden” to meet in this case. The Court wrote that the court “does not lightly enter into a critical analysis of this matter … [and] is constrained on this record, to conclude that petitioner has met her high burden” ...To my knowledge, this is the first time a judge has set aside an individual teacher’s VAM rating based upon a presentation like we made.

THANKS to all who helped in this endeavor."

At the same time, a national poll was released by the Gallup organization showing how most parents, teachers, students and administrators do not believe state exams are useful:

 Most teachers find their quality of the state exams are only "fair" or "poor":

And most families, whatever their income level, do not believe that these exams improve learning:

Let's hope that together these poll results, along with the Lederman decision, sound the death knell for the obsession with high-stakes testing that has overtaken our schools.

NY Judge finds rating teachers through growth (test) scores "arbitrary and capricious" by Leonie Haimson