Meetings

2004 CCSSO Brain Trust on Use of Growth Models Based on Student-Level Data in School Accountability

• Agenda
• Presentations
  • Incorporating Student Growth (or Value-Added) Measurements Into School Accountability—What Are the Models?
    • Brian Gong, Center for Assessment
  • Examples of Two State Models Currently in Operation
    • Christopher Cobitz, North Carolina Department of Education
    • Mary Reel and Benjamin Brown, Tennessee Department of Education
  • Other Examples of Use of Growth Models
    • Robert Bernstein, Rachel Perry, California Department of Education
    • Mitchell Chester, Ohio Department of Education
    • Steven Ponisciak, University of Chicago
  • Discussion of Key Issues for States with Growth Models for School Accountability: Issues Include Equity, Inclusion, Legal, and Political
    • Ross Wiener, Education Trust
    • Mark Davison, University of Minnesota
  • Issues in Assessment Design, Vertical Alignment, and Data Management
    • Lauress Wise, HumRRO
    • Cornelia Orr, Florida Department of Education
    • William Auty, Oregon Department of Education
    • Pete Goldschmidt, UCLA/CRESST, part 1, part 2, and references
    • Joseph A. Martineau, Michigan Department of Education
  • Next Steps to Assist States: Role of CCSSO
    • Mary Yakimowski, CCSSO
• Additional References by Consultants/Partners
• National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST)
• Growth and Value-added Issues in Minnesota -- Mark Davison, University of Minnesota, and Leslie J. Davison, St. Cloud State University
• Measuring School Performance to Improve Student Achievement: And to Reward Effective Programs -- Dave Heistad and Rick Spicuzza, Research, Evaluation and Assessment Minneapolis Public School
• Notes
• Press
• Chiefline Announcement
• EdWeek Article: "States Weigh 'Value Added' Models," by Lynn Olson

Growth Models Primer

This memo is designed to answer many of the current questions about what growth models for accountability are, and what they are not. It discusses growth models in relation to status and improvement models and summarizes the following: 1) types of growth models and their purpose(s); 2) the advantages and disadvantages of growth models; 3) challenges to implementation and resource requirement; 4) use of growth models under NCLB; and 5) policy questions that may shape a state decision regarding the use of growth.

Explicitly Valuing Growth, Center for Assessment

This presentation emphasizes the need for designers to explicitly state how they value changes in student performance, or growth, for use in school accountability systems. The presentation also provides a practical way to measure and value student growth using vertically articulated standards, and provides suggestions and examples of some key analyses to check whether the student growth system fits the expressed values..

Growth in School Revisited: Achievement Gains from the Fourth to the Eighth Grade, Educational Testing Service

Using data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), this report tracks the performance of groups of individuals from varying demographic groups and states to examine the achievement gap as well as the academic attainment of these groups over time. It explores the problematic nature of examining growth via assessment scores attained at given times..

Mapping a Course for Improved Student Learning: How Innovative Schools Systematically Use Student Performance Data to Guide Improvement, Consortium for Policy Research in Education

In this study the authors examine how a handful of innovative schools are using a variety of student performance data to improve the instruction of teachers and the school organization’s support for instructional improvement..

Software Enabling School Improvement through Analysis of Student Data, Baltimore City Public School System

In this report, the authors consider issues surrounding school- and teacher-level use of student data and data-based decision making, describe the state of the field and possible future directions, and present a range of software for data analysis along with software reviews..

Using Hierarchical Growth Models to Monitor School Performance Over Time: Comparing NCE to Scale Score Results, National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST)

Monitoring school performance increasingly uses sophisticated analytical techniques and the authors investigate whether one such method, hierarchical growth modeling, yields consistent school performance results when different metrics are used as the outcome variable.

Value-Added Indicators: Do They Make an Important Difference? Evidence from the Milwaukee Public Schools, Wisconsin Center for Education Research

In this paper, Robert H. Meyer discusses mathematics achievement data from Milwaukee middle school students to illustrate the value-added approach to estimating school performance. It examines the growth demonstrated by groups of students, and the challenges associated with value-added indicators such as test scores.