Dr. Homeslice Value Added Model-- For Free!

Since the beginning of the school year, I’ve implemented my own value-added model in my classroom. For the uninitiated, value-added is basically a statistical, (most often proprietary) mathematical model that shows the “value” a teacher is able to “add” to student learning and proficiency based on a series of standardized tests. My model is called the DHVAM (Dr. Homeslice Value Added Model) and does not claim any patents (pending or otherwise) and is free for all to use.

To wit:

In my school district, I am given pre-packaged curriculum for my content area. It is not direct instruction (i.e. teaching without thinking, just reading from a script) but is somewhat flexible and opportunistic, so long as you “hit” the state standards.

We are given test questions (written by my district) that correspond to a unit that aligns to our state standards. I take all of the questions, pare them down to the best ones (there are some utterly crappy ones included) and then throw them at my students at the beginning of a unit.

What, you say? Why should you test them at the beginning of the unit? They don’t know the material, they’ve never seen it, never been taught it, you’ve never covered it. Why would you possibly test them over something they don’t know? You know they don’t know it, so why do you need to know they don’t know it, you know?

Reasonable question. Simply put, I want to know what they don’t know, and I want to know how little they don’t know what they don’t know.

So I give them a pre-test, with those district-provided questions. I tell them, this is a pre-test, it won’t hurt your grade, but I want you to take it.

“Why Dr. Homeslice?” asks a student. “Why would you give us a test that doesn’t count towards our grade?”

“Simple,” I answer. “When you go to the doctor because there’s something wrong with you, if the doctor doesn’t know what’s wrong, what do they do?”

“Well, they run some kind of test or something,” comes the customary reply.

“Precisely. That is what I’m doing with you, I want to figure out what’s wrong with you. Or in this case, I want to know what you don’t know.”

This usually elicits giggles from the student’s classmates.

Back to my methodology. I have them take the pre-test, and I tell them that when they take it, and they come to a question that they have no freakin’ clue on (sometimes I use those very words) to leave it blank. If they think they know, I tell them then they can guess. But if they have no idea, leave it blank.

Why no guessing, you ask? I don’t want them guessing and skewing my results. I want to know if they don’t know.

Once they take the test, I grade their answers. (They have an answer form that they fill in, and I don’t use scantron—I grade their responses by hand.) Once I’ve graded them all, I print out my chart and fill in for each question (for each section of students I teach) how many students got each question right. I also turn that number into a percentage of the total number of students who got that particular question right. There’s a lot of hand-work and number crunching, but it’s become somewhat interesting and I daresay comforting to me over the past few months.

Now I look at the numbers and figure out what my students know and what they don’t know. I look at the questions they were asked on the test. I think about prior knowledge, vocabulary, content and so forth. Then I plan for my next lesson, breaking down by each standard, how I’m going to raise those percentages of correct answers on each question. (You know I’m going to use the same freakin’ questions again, don’t you?)

Then I teach my lesson that’s specifically targeted to the areas where my students failed miserably and horribly. I ask for questions and assign homework that is targeted directly to the state standards that showed poor accomplishment on the pre-test.

The very next day (yes, the very next day) I give them a quiz of the same questions (not all of the original pretest, just the relevant ones) that they had for the pre-test. It’s been at least two days since they’ve taken the test, so hopefully they’ve forgotten about the questions, and not stayed up at night thinking about what they should have answered.

I give them the quiz (which this time counts for points) which is based on the lesson in class from the previous day and the homework from the night before. This way I will be able to assess the effectiveness of my in-class and out of class activities.

Those of you statistical wankers, er, I mean wonks will be wondering how I keep my results “pure” and reliable to show growth or no growth on the repeated pre-test items relative to the original pre-test. For me, it was actually very simple to do.

I only allow students who were present the day prior to take the quiz (that is, those who were there when I taught the lesson to overcome the shortcomings on the pre-test). If a student was absent on lesson day but present during quiz day, they don’t take the quiz. I either give them a zero on the quiz or exempt the grade based on whether or not they are able to come up with an excused absence for the day they were out.

I then go back and re-average the multiple choice items to see if there’s been any growth. You’re probably thinking, ‘You know Dr. Homeslice that the students who are taking the quiz aren’t the exact same students who took the pre-test and therefore your results are skewed’. To those folks, I say skew you. I use the pre-test as a baseline to establish a minimum competency assessment for my students.

So how’s it working, you ask?

I just “crunched the numbers” today from a pre-test and the resulting lesson and quiz. On average, students improved the number of correct answers on each item 20% or more.

I gotta tell ya, I’m feeling pretty damn good.

'Tis The Season For Working To The Rule, Grievances and School Closings.

Wicasset teachers in Maine are working to the rule.

These teachers in Minnesota are working to the rule.

Collier County Florida teachers are also working to the rule.

An interesting grievance from the other side of the pond.

From PA, the teacher-strikeyist state of the union, Hampton Township School District teachers (PSEA members) have authorized a strike.

From the international side of things, Dutch 16 year olds organized and went on strike because Parliment wanted to extend their time in school.

The classified staff union in this school district is scheduled to go on strike on Friday. Not the teachers, the classified staff (paras and such). Will the teachers in the district respect the picket lines if they do go on strike?

DC teachers are bracing for the bloodbath that will ensue with the potential closing of over 20 under-enrolled schools.

Random Post Title Generator-- Does one exist?

The President of AFT Michigan speaks eloquently in this Detroit editorial on the topic of why unions are important. Perhaps he should be the next AFT President, eh?

So this charter school is doing home visits. No offense, but big whoop. I've done 'em before, and I think many of us in the true public sector have done 'em and continue to do 'em. But no one's writing an article about us. Why?

If I read one more article about how KIPP is the best thing since sliced bread when it comes to schooling, I think I'm going to hurl. You know I'll blog about it, too.

By the way, the whole point of the post title was simply this-- I'm really getting tired of trying to come up with post titles. Any of you folks out there who are good with programming, you should come up with a web-based random blog post title generator engine. That would be cool. Note: I found this link, where you can random generate a story title. Neat, but not the same.

Come On People: The Review

When I got an email from the nice folks at Team Cosby asking if I’d like to review “Come On People”, Bill Cosby’s latest book, I jumped at the chance. Only a few days before I had been watching Bill Cosby and Alvin Poussaint on NBC’s Meet The Press, and was intrigued by what was said. A few days after responding to the email, a little package came in the mail. I unwrapped it, and promptly put it in the “really must absolutely do” pile. It gathered some dust. Then it gathered some more dust. Then Thanksgiving came, and I read it. Henceforth commences my review.

In the introduction of the book, Cosby says “The trials of black people are at the core of Come On, People. But the problems they face are similar to those of all poor and alienated groups, regardless of race.”

He’s right. This book is a starting point for discussions of a variety of topics that is not exclusive to any group of people in the United States today. Any individual of any race can read this book and come away with a greater understanding of the issues and forces that are charting the paths of untold numbers of young men and women throughout America.

Central to the book are the inclusion of the voices of many people who attended Cosby’s community call-outs held in the years prior to writing the book. They are at times inspirational, often thought-provoking and always pointed. The disparate voices allow for another perspective of the topic that is being addressed, thus adding to the richness of the book.

This book is a starting point—where will people go from here as a result of what is written?

Outta leftovers, fearing going back to work.

Did ya know that NEA at one point advocated getting rid of high school history? Sure, it was back when Woodrow Wilson was President, and I think that was when the administrators were in charge of NEA. Yeah, that must have been it.



Teachers get assaulted in ritzy private French schools, too.



There's a "secret" 61 page document that NYC administrators have recently been given on how to get rid of teachers. NYC Educator should get it and post it on his site. I would looooove to read it. Perhaps there's a section on how not to be like Jolonta Roloff. Heh. New York = Gotham, NYC Public School District = Gotcha Squad. Oh, the humanity!



I don't know what to say about this guy except that perhaps if you're going to blog about Education type stuff there should be some basic kind of competency test you have to pass before you get your username and password. How about it Blogger?

Cranberry Dressing...

Skewed contract vote? Perhaps someone at the ballot table was telling teachers to vote no? Hmm. An investigation is underway.

Lake Lehman. Complaining. Something about the calendar. Strike. Huh?

10,000 striking teachers in Australia.

Things are a mess in Patterson, NJ. Supe and the union aren't getting along at all.

Turkey Day Leftovers...

Baltimore got a 2 year contract, so I guess they can stop working to the rule now. Interestingly enough, the issue of planning time (which is more or less why they started working to the rule) is still completely unresolved.

Change strikes a school district and the teachers' union struggles to make sure its voice is heard in the process.

Elwood Classroom Teachers' Association is working to the rule.

Seneca Valley got Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, but not much else thanks to the strike. If the school board had actually bargained in good faith, that wouldn't be an issue right now, would it?

Gobble gobble!

This is really interesting. A private school closes, and both teachers (yes, teachers) and students are absorbed by San Diego Unified School District into one under-enrolled elementary school. Parents of the elementary school kids who were there originally are crying foul, because the private school assimilates are getting better treatment than their kids. A must read.

The teachers in Israel are on strike. (Thanks NYC)

It's rare that elections of a union's executive board makes the news, but this one did.

Edison Local Education Association voted to go back in after five days on the line and reaching a TA with their BOE.

What happens when you're a student teacher and your class goes on strike? (Scroll down for the English version.)

Dale Vigil, the Superintedent during the Hayward Education Association strike in California last year has had his contract extended. I don't think HEA got to vote on that one.

This guy pulls no punches. According to him, charter schools and vouchers are the wave of the future. The idea(s) of sensitivity and diversity have no place in education. And those dang teacher unions-- they run the schools! Go back to your cable access show, buddy.

Teachers' personnell files should be an open book, easy to get to and easy to read, says this editorial.

In Florida, they're working to the rule.

This teacher refuses to work to the rule and blogs about it.

On a side note, I'm in "feast or famine" mode. I don't think I'm going to have a lot of time to keep up with "Strikewatch" so those of you folks out there that see something, email me an'
I'll put it up.

Two weeks?

Wow, it doesn't seem that long...but that's how long it's been since I've last posted. Everything's fine with me in case you were wondering. Things have gotten really busy as of late, I've become very involved with my local (I though it couldn't get more intense, but yet it seems that there's something more and more to be done) and the end of the first quarter came and went, and we had parent-teacher conferences, and I've been sick, and somewhere inbetween all of that stuff I had to eat, sleep, shower, teach and find some time to not go nuts. So there ya go.

I will dip my toe back into the blogosphere soon, probably within the next week.

In solidarity,

Doc