As Bruce Baker argues on his blog, Ravitch thinks the claims made for both charter schools and value -
added measures of achievement are overblown.
Not exact matches
Indeed, the whole point
of «value -
added»
measures is to control for observed traits such as students» prior
achievement and characteristics.
A teacher's contribution to a school's community, as assessed by the principal, was worth 10 percent
of the overall evaluation score, while the final 5 percent was based on a
measure of the value -
added to student
achievement for the school as a whole.
We can't fix the limits
of math and reading
achievement tests by
adding mandatory «grit» surveys or other
measures.
He
adds that the OECD's programs have a key role to play «in the
achievement of — and
measuring progress towards — SDG 4 and its targets, as well as other education - related SDG targets.»
To test the sensitivity
of our results to this methodological decision, we constructed a value -
added indicator that
measures a teacher's contribution to student
achievement (accounting for a wide variety
of student and classroom characteristics that could affect
achievement independent
of the teacher's ability).
As a result, in the past decade researchers have grown interested in ways
of measuring and comparing the gains in academic
achievement that a school or teacher elicits — in other words, a school or teacher's «value
added.»
Mostly based on «value
added,» a statistical
measure of the contribution the teachers make to student
achievement on standardized tests.
Teachers should be rewarded for producing useful student outcomes, most notably, student learning gains,
measured by value -
added standards (i.e., improvement) rather than by levels
of achievement at the end
of a course.
(To generate the weights, we regressed a teacher's average student -
achievement gain in one class against the three different
measures from another class, resulting in weights
of.758,.200, and.042 on value -
added, student survey, and classroom observation, respectively).
We do not find any statistically significant relationship between the number
of years a teacher has taught and students»
achievement, though this is probably due to the necessary omission
of first - year teachers (because we can not
measure their value
added for a previous school year).
We excluded kindergarten and first - grade teachers because earlier
achievement exams were not available for their students; this prevented us from developing a «value -
added»
measure of student learning.
We compared a principal's assessment
of how effective a teacher is at raising student reading or math
achievement, one
of the specific items principals were asked about, with that teacher's actual ability to do so as
measured by their value
added, the difference in student
achievement that we can attribute to the teacher.
While there are many ways to link teacher instruction to student
achievement, one family
of methods — Value -
Added Measures (VAMs)-- has generated national headlines (such as this article about Los Angeles teachers).
Measures of teachers» value
added in previous years are an even better predictor
of future gains in students»
achievement than are principal ratings.
Our basic value -
added model
measures the effectiveness
of a principal by examining the extent to which math
achievement in a school is higher or lower than would be expected based on the characteristics
of students in that school, including their
achievement in the prior year.
We find a positive correlation between a principal's assessment
of how effective a teacher is at raising student
achievement and that teacher's success in doing so as
measured by the value -
added approach: 0.32 for reading and 0.36 for math.
When they insist that ideas like school choice, performance pay, and teacher evaluations based on value -
added measures will themselves boost student
achievement, would - be reformers stifle creativity, encourage their allies to lock elbows and march forward rather than engage in useful debate and reflection, turn every reform proposal into an us - against - them steel - cage match, and push researchers into the awkward position
of studying whether reforms «work» rather than when, why, and how they make it easier to improve schooling.
At the same time, he
added, the
measure of Kansas» success won't be in funneling more money to schools but in actually translating that to higher student
achievement.
We designed value -
added models to
measure teacher and school effectiveness and have produced annual estimates
of educators» contributions to
achievement in grades 4 - 8 since the 2008 - 2009 school year.
The value -
added measures are designed to provide estimates
of the independent effect
of the teacher on the growth in a student's learning and to separate this from other influences on
achievement such as families, peers, and neighborhoods.
After analyzing a truly staggering amount
of data, the researchers conclude that teacher effectiveness can be
measured by using «value -
added» analysis
of student
achievement growth on standardized tests.
The three - year survey
of 3,000 teachers in seven school districts by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation found that the controversial method
of measuring student academic growth, known as value -
added, was a valid indicator
of whether teachers helped boost student
achievement.
Growth
measures — like «value
added» or «student growth percentiles» — are a much fairer way to evaluate schools, since they can control for prior
achievement and can ascertain progress over the course
of the school year.
The failure
of any other variable to
add much to the
achievement prediction simply shows that good reading habits are much more important to
achievement than family income and other
measures of social class.
The Scholars» Paradise model would use «scale scores» or a «performance index» for the «academic
achievement» indicator;
measure growth using a two - step value -
added metric; pick robust «indicators
of student success or school quality,» such as chronic absenteeism; and make value
added count the most in a school's final score.
The Education Trust, for example, is urging states to use caution in choosing «comparative» growth models, including growth percentiles and value -
added measures, because they don't tell us whether students are making enough progress to hit the college - ready target by the end
of high school, or whether low - performing subgroups are making fast enough gains to close
achievement gaps.
The question should instead be, «If scales from a testing regime are used within a value -
added process, is there evidence that
measures of student progress are influenced by the distribution
of student
achievement levels in schools or classrooms because
of a lack
of equal - interval scales?»
Dr. Marzano will be on hand to discuss next - generation evaluation models, the most up - to - date research on evaluation and value -
added measures of student
achievement, and what has been learned as states implement federal and local directives to reform K - 12 teaching and learning.
In a briefing paper prepared for the National Academy
of Education (NAE) and the American Educational Research Association, Linda Darling - Hammond and three other distinguished authors reached the following conclusion: «With respect to value -
added measures of student
achievement tied to individual teachers, current research suggests that high - stakes, individual - level decisions, as well as comparisons across highly dissimilar schools or student populations should be avoided.»
Contemporary accountability policies have created the
added expectation that districts will differentiate support to schools on the basis
of achievement results from state testing programs and other accountability
measures, with particular attention to be given to schools where large numbers
of students are not meeting standards
of proficiency.
None
of the
measures of data use had a significant effect on student
achievement when
added to the equation on their own, nor did they have any unique explanatory value when combined with the four demographic
measures in the final equation.
The favorite way
of measuring gains, or lack thereof, in student learning is through «value -
added» models, which seek to determine what each teacher has
added to the educational
achievement of each
of his or her students.
Since joining the Association in June 2007, Eileen led the Association in notable efforts including: developing a model that
measures «value -
added» growth in
achievement, which is used for A-F rankings
of all Arizona schools; creating trainings that enable teachers and school leaders to collaboratively use data; launching joint purchasing programs; filing lawsuits for equitable funding for all K - 12 students; increasing positive public perceptions
of charters; and, building a comprehensive program to support prospective charter school operators.
The most controversial
of them include what is known as value -
added models1 that use data from standardized tests
of students as part
of the overall
measure of the effect that a teacher has on student
achievement.
If passed, this will take what was the state's teacher evaluation system requirement that 20 %
of an educator's evaluation be based on «locally selected
measures of achievement,» to a system whereas teachers» value -
added as based on growth on the state's (Common Core) standardized test scores will be set at 50 %.
As described in an earlier brief, some research provides evidence that value -
added measures — at least those that compare teachers within the same school and adjust well for students» prior
achievement — do not favor teachers who teach certain types
of students.
As examples, studies that use student test performance to
measure teachers» effectiveness — adjusted for prior
achievement and background characteristics — demonstrate that, on average, teachers
add more to their students» learning during their second year
of teaching than they do in their first year, and more in their third year than in their second.
Flawed as they are, value -
added measures appear to be better predictors
of student
achievement than the teacher characteristics that we currently use for high - stakes employment and compensation decisions.
I believe every vendor
of value -
added models should report this information for every
achievement test being used as a
measure of «teacher effectiveness.»
The meaning
of this term is never explained, and the most likely way to meet the vague requirement was to assign large or significant weight — 50 percent in some cases — to
measures of student
achievement growth, such as value -
added.
Recent Vamboozled posts have focused on one
of the qualities
of the
achievement tests used as the key
measures in value -
added models (VAMs) and other «growth» models.
You write, «I respectfully disagree with your suggestion that the closest thing states have to an objective
measure of student
achievement [value -
added growth scores based on standardized tests] should not be part
of the equation.»
While the Department will likely
add more academic performance
measures in the future, for 2014 officials also included the level
of participation in state assessments,
achievement gaps between students with disabilities and the general population as well as scores on the National Assessment
of Educational Progress, a standardized test used to gauge academic growth across the country.
Anacortes now has a busy team
of 12 teachers, principals, administrators, and association representatives working to finish the evaluation pilot,
adding multiple
measures such as
achievement results, peer assistance and review, and student surveys to the observation work.
In addition, we should have the capability to
measure the value -
added to each student's
achievement on an annual basis, as a diagnostic
measure of annual progress
of the student and the effectiveness
of educators.
In contrast to the traditional methods
of measuring school effectiveness (including the adequate yearly progress system set up under NCLB), value -
added models do not look only at current levels
of student
achievement.
We study mid-career teachers for whom we observe an objective
measure of productivity — value -
added to student
achievement — before, during, and after evaluation.
A second piece
of legislation, SB 1346, focuses heavily on requirements around English learners and
adds a mandate to include reclassified English learners to the subgroups
of pupils whose educational
achievement must be
measured by the state's Academic Performance Index.
States are using both student -
achievement measures (
measures of student learning at a specific point in time) and growth
measures (changes in student learning over time), including value -
added estimates based on state assessments when available, to capture
measures of student success aligned with individual teachers or teams
of teachers.