About Value-Added And "Junk Science"

Matthew DiCarlo:

One can often hear opponents of value-added referring to these methods as "junk science." The term is meant to express the argument that value-added is unreliable and/or invalid, and that its scientific "façade" is without merit.

Now, I personally am not opposed to using these estimates in evaluations and other personnel policies, but I certainly understand opponents' skepticism. For one thing, there are some states and districts in which design and implementation has been somewhat careless, and, in these situations, I very much share the skepticism. Moreover, the common argument that evaluations, in order to be "meaningful," must consist of value-added measures in a heavily-weighted role (e.g., 45-50 percent) is, in my view, unsupportable.

All that said, calling value-added "junk science" completely obscures the important issues. The real questions here are less about the merits of the models per se than how they're being used.

If value-added is "junk science" regardless of how it's employed, then a fairly large chunk of social scientific research is "junk science." If that's your opinion, then okay - you're entitled to it - but it's not very compelling, at least in my (admittedly biased) view.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at May 7, 2013 1:12 AM
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