Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Get the L.A. Times value-added team on the horn!

If you are a journalist with burning—or even smoldering—questions about the Los Angeles Times’ value-added project, join EWA for an audioconference tomorrow (Thursday, Sept. 2) at 1 p.m. eastern with reporters Jason Song and Jason Felch and editor Beth Shuster. We will be talking process, ethics and whatever else you want to ask about. If you want to participate, please e-mail publications@ewa.org for dial-in instructions. Working journalists only, please.
at 1:32 PM

4 comments:

  1. David B. CohenSeptember 1, 2010 at 1:53 PM

    Please ask if they would make their own broad pronouncements and endorsements regarding the effectiveness of medicines or medical procedures, if the FDA and AMA held that the data and the evaluation methodology could not support such conclusions. The L.A. Times has done the equivalent by ignoring the expert opinions of the National Academies, the National Council for Measurement in Education, the American Psychology Association, and the American Education Research Association. Please don't let them off the hook. They've used false equivocations in the past: the fact that some politicians and some superintendents, bowing to political pressure, want to misuse value-added measures is hardly evidence that the NA/NCME/APA/AERA position is wrong. Jason, Jason, and Beth, please complete this sentence: "Those professional organizations for education research and measurement are wrong about VAM because..."

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  2. CarolineSFSeptember 2, 2010 at 11:13 AM

    1. Is it within the scope of journalists to define the criteria for judging members of a profession? (The fact that so many voices who ARE far more qualified to define those criteria in fact discredit their criteria adds force to this question.) If so, can they explain how it is within their scope?

    2. The Times' fine print in fact states that value-added measures are not a sufficient means for evaluating teachers. Then don't they contradict themselves by packaging the report to convey to the reader that value-added measures WERE the defining means for evaluating the specific teachers named?

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  3. David B. CohenSeptember 3, 2010 at 1:04 PM

    So how did it go? Any links to any reporting on the reporters?

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  4. AnonymousSeptember 3, 2010 at 5:00 PM

    I'd love to see a transcript. Life makes it hard to sit and listen for an entire hour.

    ReplyDelete

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