VALUE-ADDED ASSESSMENTAn Accountability Revolution

S. Woodring

What is Value-Added Assessment? Value-added assessment can show

whether particular students, those taking a certain class, have made the expected amount of progress, have made less progress than expected, or have been stretched beyond what they could reasonably be expected to achieve.

http://www.cgp.upenn.edu/ope_value.html#2

How is Value Added Different than traditional measures? Student performance on assessments

can be measured in two very different ways, both of which are important.

Achievement describes the absolute levels attained by students in their end-of-year tests.

Growth, in contrast, describes the progress in test scores made over the school year.

Why should we use the Value- Added theory?

Using the same methods, one can look back over several years to measure the long-term impact that a particular teacher or school had on student achievement.

http://www.cgp.upenn.edu/ope_value.html#2

Problem

Current school accountability systems do not measure growth in student learning and our students are failing to show significant growth.

In the past, students and schools have been ranked solely according to achievement.

The problem with this method is that achievement is highly linked to the socioeconomic status of a student's family.

The failure of public schools to educate America's most disadvantaged students is the country's most glaring and abiding social and moral problem.

Over nearly two decades, a rough national consensus has developed to improve schools by holding them accountable for their students' performance via high-stakes tests.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0510.toch.html

In contrast, value-added assessment measures growth and answers the question: How much value did the school staff add to the students who live in its community? How, in effect, did they do with the hand society dealt them?

If schools are to be judged fairly, it is important to understand this significant difference.

What are some of the benefits of the data? diagnostic information can be used

to: Identify effective teachers Identify ineffective teachers Determine where to allocate resources design comprehensive accountability

systems that can assess the impact that particular kinds of teaching, curriculum, and professional development have on academic achievement.

Effective vs. Ineffective Teachers

Value added assessment can be used to separate teachers by effectiveness in quintiles and determine the cumulative impact on student achievement.

Value-Added Concepts & Research with Dr. William Sanders video

Example

5th Grade Math Students assigned to teachers in the top quintile for three consecutive years scored at the 96th percentile.

Example

Conversely, students assigned to teachers in the bottom quintile for three consecutive years scored at the 44th percentile.

Measurement Patterns

Shed Patterns occur when the lowest level of achievers make the greatest gains in the classroom and the highest achievers are held back.

Gain

Previous Achievement

“Shed”

Tee-Pee patterns occur when teachers focus their instruction on the middle (average students) of the class. Average students make the greatest gains and those at the bottom and top realize less of a gain.

Gain

Previous Achievement

“Tee Pee”

June Rivers Study

This study examined the performance of 8th grade students on 9th grade proficiency tests and linked the scores back to performance on 4th grade tests to predict the possibility of passing on the first attempt on the ninth grade test.

Value-Added Concepts & Research with Dr. William Sanders video

Findings

Students from the bottom quartile who were assigned to a sequence of teachers from the top quintile for 4 years had a 60% chance of passing.

Students from the bottom quartile who were assigned a sequence of teachers from the bottom quintile for 4 years had a 15 % probability of passing.

Value-Added Concepts & Research with Dr. William Sanders video

Students from the top quartile who were assigned to a sequence of teachers from the bottom quintile for 4 years had an 80% probability of passing.

Students from the top quartile who were assigned to a sequence of teachers from the top quintile for 4 years had a 90% probability of passing.

Value-Added Concepts & Research with Dr. William Sanders video

How much impact can you have on kids by focusing on academic gain?

Realized Gain

Grade Level 100% 80% 110% 110% 120% 60%

2 2.0 2.0 2.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 3 3.0 2.8 3.1 2.1 2.2 1.8 4 4.0 3.6 4.2 3.2 3.4 2.6 5 6.0 4.4 5.3 4.3 4.6 3.4 6 6.0 5.2 6.4 5.4 5.8 4.2 7 7.0 6.0 7.5 6.5 7.0 5.0 8 8.0 6.8 8.6 7.6 8.2 5.8

Value-Added Concepts & Research with Dr. William Sanders video

Schools

Effective teachers appear to be effective with students of all achievement levels, regardless of the level of heterogeneity in their classrooms.

Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education 11: 57±67, 1997

If the teacher is ineffective, students under that teacher's tutelage will achieve inadequate progress academically, regardless of how similar or different they are regarding their academic achievement.

Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education 11: 57±67, 1997

There is a disturbingly common but not universal pattern for the best students to make the lowest gains.

Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education 11: 57±67, 1997

Possible explanations include a lack of stretch in curriculum and instruction to accommodate the highest achievers and insufficient availability of higher level course offering in all schools.

Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education 11: 57±67, 1997

Hundreds of studies on ability grouping have been conducted since the 1930s. Study after study finds no positive

effect of ability grouping in any subject or at any grade level, even for the high achievers most widely assumed to benefit from grouping.

Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education 11: 57±67, 1997

Teachers seem to have far more to do with the academic progress of students than does

the method used for assignment of children to teachers.

Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education 11: 57±67, 1997

Benefits of using Value-Added nationwide

Using a value-added testing regime could yield at least three important benefits

http://www.ppionline.org/documents/Value_Added_Testing.pdf

It would make ESEA more effective by providing a more accurate picture of which schools, school districts, and states are and are not making progress.

http://www.ppionline.org/documents/Value_Added_Testing.pdf

It would generate objective measures of teacher quality that could be used to improve teaching.

http://www.ppionline.org/documents/Value_Added_Testing.pdf

It would lend itself more readily to evaluating school reform programs.

http://www.ppionline.org/documents/Value_Added_Testing.pdf

Call to Action

Thank you