Value-Added Meets the Schools: The Effects of Using Test-Based Teacher Evaluation on the Work of Teachers and Leaders

Session Type: Invited Session

Abstract

Rapid expansion in the use of value-added measures for teacher accountability could potentially have far-reaching effects. While much has been written about the statistical properties of value-added measures, we know much less about their effects on teaching and learning. Three presentations will address a number of critical issues: What effects might value-added have on the teacher workforce? How are state and district leaders interpreting and using these methodologies for decision making? How are teachers making sense of the new evaluation systems, and how is it affecting the way they teach? The Symposium will provide initial insights into this dramatic experiment and the impacts on the key actors and components in the system. It will also help develop a future research agenda to explore the policies now being implemented across the country. The papers are part of a group of studies to be published in a special issue of Educational Researcher.

Sub Unit

• AERA Sessions

Chairs

• Carolyn D. Herrington, Florida State University

• Douglas N. Harris, Tulane University

Papers

• Exploring the Potential of Value Added to Affect the Quality of the Teacher Workforce - Dan Goldhaber, University of Washington

• Moving on Out: Value Added Measures, Principals’ Human Capital Decisions, and the Emergence of Teacher Observation Data - Ellen B. Goldring, Vanderbilt University; Jason A. Grissom, Vanderbilt University; Marisa A. Cannata, Vanderbilt University; Christine M. Neumerski, Vanderbilt University - Peabody College; Timothy Drake, Vanderbilt University; Mollie Rubin, Vanderbilt University; Patrick Schuermann, Vanderbilt University

• Implementing Teacher Evaluation in NYC - Jennifer Jennings, New York University; Aaron Pallas, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Will VAMS Reinforce the Walls of the Egg-crate School? - Susan Moore Johnson, Harvard University

Discussants

• Stephen W. Raudenbush, University of Chicago

• Linda Darling-Hammond, Stanford University