"However, the promise that value-added systems can provide such a precise, meaningful, and comprehensive picture is not supported by the data. As the discussion in this report showed, value-added assessments – like those reported in the New York City Teacher Data Reports and used to pay out bonuses in Houston’s ASPIRE program – are at best a crude indicator of the contribution that teachers make to their students’ academic outcomes. Moreover, the set of skills that can be adequately assessed in a manner appropriate for value-added assessment represents a small fraction of the goals our nation has set for our students and schools."
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But teachers, policymakers, and school leaders should not be seduced by the elegant simplicity of “value added.”
Annenberg Institute For School Reform at Brown University
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Press Release |
VALUE-ADDED TEACHER ASSESSMENTS EARN LOW GRADES FROM NYU ECONOMIST
| Contact: Sean Patrick Corcoran New York University (212) 992-9468 sean.corcoran@nyu.edu |
Warren Simmons Annenberg Institute for School Reform (410) 863-7675 warren_simmons@brown.edu |
NEW YORK – Value-added assessments of teacher effectiveness are a “crude indicator” of the contribution that teachers make to their students’ academic outcomes, asserts Sean P. Corcoran, assistant professor of educational economics at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, and research fellow at the Institute for Education and Social Policy, in a paper issued today as part of the “Education Policy for Action” series of research and policy analyses by scholars convened by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University.
“The promise that value-added systems can provide a precise, meaningful and comprehensive picture is much overblown,” argues Corcoran whose research report is entitled Can Teachers be Evaluated by Their Students’ Test Scores? Should they Be? The Use of Value-Added Measures of Teacher Effectiveness in Policy and Practice. “Teachers, policy-makers and school leaders should not be seduced by the elegant simplicity of value-added measures. Policy-makers, in particular, should be fully aware of their limitations and consider whether their minimal benefits outweigh their cost.”
