Effectiveness Above Replacement (EAR)

“Fine” is a telling word in education. “How’s Mrs. ____?” “Oh, she’s fine.” At best, fine is average. Schools are resigned to housing fine teachers, because they do just enough to get by and/or not enough to be dismissed. Like Nearly Headless Nick, they float through building hallways, never positively contributing.

What if there was a way to quantify an educator’s fineness (not “Oh Mickey you’re so fine” fine, but fine as average)?

In baseball, the number of wins a player contributes to his team relative to that of a replacement-level player is called Wins Above Replacement (WAR). Put another way, if a player is injured and replaced by a substitute, how would it impact the team’s wins and losses. Essentially, what’s a players value to his team?

Advanced sports analytics are becoming ubiquitous (that’s twice!) in professional sports. What if similar statistics were utilized in education?

What Data Determines EAR

1. Student Attendance – Students show up for teachers who care about them and make learning fun.
2. Student Proficiency – How well a teacher does at getting students to pass a test.
3. Student Academic Growth – Not all students will pass a summative assessment at the end of the year, but all students can grow.
4. Student Self-Belief – Surveyed students provide feedback on how teachers can positively impact their self-worth and confidence.
5. Discipline Referrals – Through relationships and effective classroom management, behavior issues dramatically decrease.
6. Parent Satisfaction – The school-home relationship is paramount. There needs to be communication and collaboration between families and teachers.
7. Professional Learning Community (PLC) Efficiency – According to John Hattie’s research, collective teacher efficacy has the greatest impact on students achievement. It is imperative that teachers work together to ensure the best outcomes for students.
8. Positive School Culture Contribution – In addition to a school building being welcoming for students and families, it needs to attract and keep strong educators. Teachers play a huge role in contributing to an environment that is fun, collaborative, and challenging.
9. Extracurricular Participation – Some students thrive outside the curriculum and educators are needed to fill those coach/mentor/advisor roles.
10. Schoolwide Initiative Creation – The only constant in education is change. Life-long learner teachers challenge norms and drive schools to be better.

Where WAR predicts how many additional wins a player generates for a team, EAR predicts how many additional points a school earns on its State Report Card (North Carolina School Report Card System).

With a specific EAR score attached to every educator, fine teachers can no longer hide at the back of faculty meetings. All talent acquisition software would require candidates to input their EAR scores along with resumes. Administrators looking to improve their school’s state report card would have quantitative data informing them about which teachers are stunting a school’s growth and what talent is available.

Classroom complacency would be a thing of the past. “How’s Mrs. ____?” “Oh, she’s exploring other options.”