Value - added approaches hold great promise, but there is a need to develop better tests (and other thoughtful
measures of student learning) and better
measures of teacher practice to use along with test scores, so they are not the
sole factor used to evaluate
teacher effectiveness.
As a result
of the limited applicability
of teacher value - added
measures to the full population
of teachers as well as concerns about potential mis - measurement
of effectiveness associated with using value - added
measures even when available, neither seniority nor
measures of value - added to student achievement should be the
sole criterion determining layoffs.