John Thompson's Book Review: "VAM in Education" -- Who has the Burden of Proof?

John Thompson's Book Review: "VAM in Education" -- Who has the Burden of Proof?

By Anthony Cody on October 1, 2012 12:01 PM

Guest post by John Thompson.

Douglas Harris' Value-Added Measures in Education is a masterpiece. Even in the places where I believe Harris is mistaken, he identifies the core issues involved in using value-added for evaluations.

My big complaint is Harris' agnosticism about who carries the burden of proof. I always assumed, and I still believe, that it should be obvious that value-added advocates carry the burden of proving that their reforms are likely to produce more good than harm. And that raises a question. Would reformers have tried to apply value-added to evaluations if they had had to show a preponderance of evidence that it was good educational policy?

Being a former legal historian, I was impressed with Harris' discussion of ...

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