New Report Looks at the Use of Value-Added Modeling in Education

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new report, Getting Value Out of Value-Added, was released today by the National Research Council and National Academy of Education. This report documents discussions of a workshop jointly held by the two organizations in 2008 to help policy makers understand the current strengths and limitations of value-added approaches and whether to implement them in their jurisdictions.    

Sponsored with generous support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the workshop brought together experts in educational testing and accountability, value-added methodology from both the economics and statistical traditions, and state and local data systems to help identify areas of emerging consensus as well as areas of disagreement regarding appropriate uses of value-added methods.

Value-added methods have attracted considerable attention in recent years due in part to the testing requirements of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, which has created a wealth of student achievement data with which to implement these techniques, and to dissatisfaction with the current status indicators used for NCLB. However, many researchers have questioned the validity of the inferences drawn from value-added approaches in view of the many technical challenges that exist.

"We hope that this workshop report will serve as an important reference for policymakers, researchers, and education officials regarding both the emerging capabilities of value-added methods, as well as to ground us in certain considerations that must be taken into account regarding their use," states Susan Fuhrman, National Academy of Education President and President of Teachers College.

The workshop explored the advantages and disadvantages of value-added methods and responsible and defensible uses in education settings. While the report does not issue recommendations, it summarizes current research findings and the judgments expressed by workshop participants.  

Many workshop participants observed that value-added approaches have the potential to provide useful information for educational decision-making. At the same time, they noted that there are many technical and practical issues that need to be resolved in order for researchers to feel confident in supporting certain policy uses of value-added results.

Some participants suggested that value-added results may be most useful for low-stakes purposes that do not have serious consequences for individual teachers or schools, such as using the results as an initial indicator of high-performing or low-performing teachers that can be used along with other indicators to identify teachers in need of professional development. However, some participants noted that longstanding and unresolved concerns about precision and bias of value-added results argue against employing value-added indicators as the sole basis for high-stakes decisions.

The National Academy of Education (NAEd) advances the highest quality education research and its use in policy formation and practice. Founded in 1965, the NAEd consists of U.S. members and foreign associates who are elected on the basis of outstanding scholarship or contributions to education. Since its establishment, NAEd has undertaken research studies that address pressing issues in education and which typically include both NAEd members and other scholars with an expertise in a particular area of inquiry. In addition, members are deeply engaged in NAEd's professional development fellowship programs focused on the rigorous preparation of the next generation of scholars.

SOURCE National Academy of Education