Value Added Models of Teacher/Principal Evaluation

Value-added estimates of teacher or school quality are increasingly used for both high-and low-stakes accountability purposes, making understanding of their limitations critical. A review of the recent value-added literature suggests three concerns with the state of the research. First, the issues receiving the most research attention have not always been the concerns of greatest importance to theorists or critics. Second, there has been insufficient research on the interactions among various issues or assumption violations. Third, some of the big issues in value-added modeling have been challenging to address and may require educators to step back and answer some underlying philosophical questions about the nature of teacher and school quality.

Value-added models (VAMs) are used to measure changes in student achievement on large-scaled standardized test scores from year to year. When aggregated, VAM estimates are used to measure teacher effectiveness and hold teachers accountable for the value they purportedly add to or detract from student learning and achievement. In this study, researchers examined the extent to which purposeful (nonrandom) and random assign- ment of students into classrooms occurs in Arizona elementary schools (Grades 3–6). Researchers found that overwhelmingly, students are not randomly assigned and administrators, teachers, and parents play a prodigious role in the process. Findings have current implications for value-added anal- yses and the extent to which nonrandom assignment practices might impact or bias teachers’ value-added scores.

Despite growing calls for more accountability of teacher education programs (TEPs), there is little consensus about how to evaluate them. This study investigates the potential for using observational ratings of program completers to evaluate TEPs. Drawing on statewide data on almost 9,500 pro- gram completers, representing 44 providers (183 programs) in Tennessee across 3 years, we inves- tigate multiple models to estimate TEP quality. Results suggest that using observational ratings to evaluate TEPs has promise. We were able to detect significant and meaningful differences between TEPs, which were fairly robust across modeling approaches. Moreover, TEP rankings based on observational ratings were positively and significantly related to rankings based on student achievement gains.

This article examines the re-professionalization of teaching across a transformative decade of market-based and standards-based reforms in the U.S.A. The first section works with the sociological concept of the ‘new professionalism’ to situate the No Child Left Behind act, Race to the Top, and CAEP accreditation within a broader movement to align the professions with the commercial and managerial values of the private sector. The next section compares teacher interviews conducted at the onset of NCLB with interviews conducted at the height of Race to the Top to highlight how the ongoing shift from ‘occupational’ to ‘organizational’ governance of teaching can change how teachers think about and fashion themselves as teachers. This policy analysis and qualitative analysis aims to help the education field recognize, situate and interrupt education reforms that govern teaching and teacher education through standardization, commercialization and outcomes-based performance management.

Este estudio espera contribuir a la discusión sobre calidad docente en Chile a través de dos enfoques: el primero se basa en estimaciones de valor agregado del profesor o "efecto Profesor" en el aprendizaje. En él se explora el rol de las características del profesor y del contexto en que éste trabaja (escuela y municipio) en la estimación del efecto Profesor. El segundo enfoque intenta predecir el desempeño de los alumnos utilizando las variables de contexto y características del profesor. Con respecto al primer enfoque, los resultados muestran inestabilidad en las estimaciones de valor agregado, ante el ajuste de distintos modelos que incorporan covariables progresivamente. Por otra parte, el análisis de desempeño de los alumnos arroja como resultado que, de las variables de contexto, la escuela es más importante que el municipio para la predicción. A nivel del profesor, sólo resulta estadísticamente significativa la participación en perfeccionamientos profesionales, desestimándose el valor de la experiencia y de la formación inicial.

This paper was about analyses of the principals' effectiveness on school performance and how principals play a major role to make the school do well in terms of academic results. Furthermore, the paper discussed why it is important to have good leaders (principals) in schools who are able to contribute to the school's effectiveness in terms of school performance. The mixed-method was employed in this study as both descriptive and statistical data were used. In addition, the study included 30 participants who comprised both principals and teachers. The results revealed that the majority of teachers disagreed that their principals are not highly effective while some principals seem not to be well acquainted with the knowledge of the effectiveness of principals' roles.

On September 8, 2011 Teachers College Record published a book review of Douglas N. Harris’s recent book Value-Added Measures in Education. In this commentary the author takes issue with not necessarily the book's What Every Educator Needs to Know content but the author's overall endorsement of value-added, and his and others' imprudent adoption of some highly complex assumptions.

Az intézményes nevelés számos hatással bír a tanulók személyiségének fejlődését tekintve. Ezen eredmények közül kiemelkedő a pedagógiai hatás a tanulók egész életen át tartó tanulásra való felkészülése, a kompetenciák fejlődése, a műveltség formálódása szempontjából. A hazánkban 2003 óta működő, és 2008 óta pedig már a tanulók szintjén is követhető, összehasonlítható adatokat produkáló Országos Kompetenciamérés (OKM) fontos indikátorokkal szolgál a pedagógiai munka eredményességét illetően, az érintett évfolyamokon (6., 8. és 10.), valamint matematikából és szövegértésből közvetlenül, de áttételesen a nevelőmunka minőségének egészéről is.

Previous research has demonstrated conclusively that value-added inferences are sensitive to the choice of outcome measure within the domains of math and reading.  This implies that math and reading are multidimensional domains.  However, conventional factor analyses offer little support of this interpretation.  In this study some conceptual distinctions are explored with respect to what it is that tests of math and reading uniquely measure.  This is done by using longitudinal item response data from grades 5 to 9 to contrast undimensional item response theory model estimates of ability with the estimates from a bifactor item response theory model.  These different variable estimates are used as competing outcomes measures for a school-level value-added model.  It is shown that (1) the bifactor model produces domain-specific estimates that appear interpretable, and (2) that when a simple average is computed for value-added estimates in math and reading, this is equivalent to estimating value-added on a general factor common to math and reading tests.