Occasional Paper Series Volume 2012 Number 27 Challenging the Politics of the Article 4 Teacher Accountability Movement May 2012 The Teacher Accountability Debate Diane Ravitch New York University Follow this and additional works at: https://educate.bankstreet.edu/occasional-paper-series Part of the Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, Education Economics Commons, and the Education Policy Commons Recommended Citation Ravitch, D. (2012). The Teacher Accountability Debate. Occasional Paper Series, 2012 (27). Retrieved from https://educate.bankstreet.edu/occasional-paper-series/vol2012/iss27/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Educate. It has been accepted for inclusion in Occasional Paper Series by an authorized editor of Educate. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The Teacher Accountability Debate Diane Ravitch In January 2012, the debate about value-added assessment broke through to the general public with the release of a new study by Chetty-Friedman-Rockoff. Although not yet peer reviewed, the study received page one coverage in the The New York Times, where it was presented as clear evidence that “Students with top teachers are less likely to become pregnant as teenagers, more likely to enroll in college, and more likely to earn more money as adults.” The authors of the paper were quick to draw the policy implications of their work. As one of them said, “The message is to fire people sooner rather than later” (Lowrey, 2012). Bloggers were quick to reply, providing spontaneous, if unauthorized, peer review (Ferlazzo, 2012). The CFR study reinforced the message of the film Waiting for “Superman” and of the corporate-style reformers who have commanded the national media in recent years: Teachers are to blame for the ills of American society.