Huffman "flummoxed" as VAM Canned for Teacher Licensure Renewal

Yesterday we witnessed the beginning of the end for value-added testing for high stakes purposes.  

If Commissioner Kevin Huffman is, indeed, flummoxed that the Tennessee Board of Education has canned attempts to value-added test results to determine teacher licensure renewal, and if he doesn't have to read the book, he should begin here and here to understand what's going on.  

Story in the Tennessean by Joey Garrison:

In a stunning move, the Tennessee Board of Education overrode Tennessee Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman and reversed a key piece of controversial new teacher licensing law on Friday, giving the teachers’ union a rare win in this state.

The state board, by a voice vote, rescinded a recently approved practice of using student growth measured through “value-added data” to determine renewing teaching licenses, capping a meeting Friday in which a visibly frustrated Huffman said he was “flummoxed” by the union’s opposition.

The same board had voted to approve the new policy last year, triggering criticism from teacher advocates and Democrats. The policy is still set to go into effect during the 2015 school year, but it is now dramatically altered. . . .