Vergara Decision Based Upon Flawed Research

In his Vergara decision, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Treu relied heavily upon the testimony and research of Dr. Raj Chetty and his colleagues.  Unfortunately, that research is severely flawed.  The National Education Policy Center of at University of Colorado’s School of Education has published a report that details its concerns about Chetty’s work.

(This information is taken verbatim from the report’s introduction and reformatted to improve access to the information.)

“Five key problems with the research emerge.

First, their own results show that the calculation of teacher value-added is unreliable.

Second, their own research also generated a result that contradicts their main claim—but the report pushed that inconvenient result aside.

Third, the trumpeted result is based on an erroneous calculation.

Fourth, the report incorrectly assumes that the (miscalculated) result holds across students’ lifetimes despite the authors’ own research indicating otherwise.

Fifth, the report cites studies as support for the authors’ methodology, even though they don’t provide that support.

Despite widespread references to this study in policy circles, the shortcomings and shaky extrapolations make this report misleading and unreliable for determining educational policy.”

I will post more specific information on each point in the next few days.