Today, in the middle of a staff development session that I was leading, we got the email that we dreaded and feared: the EVAAS numbers were out. What the hell does that mean, you may ask? It means that teachers across North Carolina got to see their "value-added summary"--the measure of how we affected our students over the course of the last school year. Supposedly, what a teachers give to their students can be figured mathematically. If you've ever had a good teacher--or a bad one, for that matter--you know ridiculous that is.
According to EVAAS, my students met expected growth. This pretty much means that, on the whole, they did exactly what the mathematical formulas said that they would do. I didn't actively harm them, but I didn't help them to do better than they were predicted to do, either. Based on these results, I am an average, middle-of-the-road, mediocre teacher. The results, of course, are based on test scores, which in my opinion are the least interesting thing about any of my students. Fortunately, I don't take these things too seriously. I care deeply about how I affect my students, but I just can't put that much stock in one test.
