On January 7, 2011, Southwest TURN became the first regional network of the Teacher Union Reform Network to hold an official meeting by webinar - hosted by APA Consulting, the firm that has been assisting SW TURN in developing a message with regard to the appropriate use of student performance measures in assessing teacher effectiveness.

The SW TURN Leadership Team opted to use the webinar approach because of the great distances (and travel costs) involved in the seven-state region. The webinar agenda was designed to address questions raised at the face-to-face meeting that was held in conjunction with the national TURN meeting, last October.  Co-Director Bruce Dickinson, who facilitated the online session, distributed a background paper and discussion questions in advance of the webinar:

• How is student growth measured? 
• What are Value Added Measures and how are they calculated?  
• What is the difference between growth and value-added?
• Are multiple measures better and what would they be?

And the key questions… What is our message and how can it best be used with policy-makers?

The questions were addressed in the presentation by two consultants from APA Consulting. Jen Kramer-Wine provided an overview of the policy context and definitions, followed by John Myers who talked about approaching policy-makers, setting up a conversation about the message itself. [You may download the presentation, or view/hear the recording of the session.] 

The local and state leader participants shared stories of experiences with legislators and the things they need to know.  First, that the federal legislation (RTTT, SIG, etc.) does not require that 50% of teacher evaluation be based on student achievement. It calls for applicants to "design and implement fair and rigorous evaluation that differentiates effectiveness using multiple measures." Legislators generally to now know that growth models based on standardized tests are inadequate, inaccurate, and unreliable - and that tests miss about 60% of classrooms. Legistators may appear to be in agreement, yet end up introducing or supporting very different legislation.

The conversation netted two areas of continuing focus:

Sharing presentations - Ellen Bernstein initiated the idea of sharing presentations, and got the ball rolling with a presentation she made to a joint education committee of the New Mexico Legislature.  

Identifying Multiple Measures - Building the list of measures of student performance that would be acceptable in a system of mulitple measures. 

Dickinson summarized the focus of the continuing work. "We are building a message for legislators that communicates in clear and simple terms a better way of doing teacher evaluation - to give them something they can use to replace what they currently think is 'the best way’."