Designing a Student Improvement System: Using a Multimethod Approach

• In Event: Roundtable Session 60
  In Roundtable Session: Approaches to Measuring Growth

Abstract

The rising prominence of growth models is evident in their central role in national school reform initiatives. The growing interest in growth models suggest that status models used for NCLB will eventually be discarded. Nevertheless, educational researchers assert that there are benefits to using a mix of growth and status models when evaluating achievement.
This paper describes how one state-level system was developed that combines status and growth models, with an underlying vertical scale, in an effort to inform instructional decision-making. In addition, this paper will describe a web-based application designed to operationalize a growth model in a way that facilitates effective school use.

Authors

• Norma Y. Sinclair, Connecticut State Department of Education

• Mohamed A. Dirir, Connecticut State Department of Education