School-Wide Value-Added Data Reveal Inequities in Opportunity to Learn

• In Event: 35.081 - Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: 35.081-12 - Ways to Determine Teacher Quality: What We Know, Don't Know, and Still Have to Learn

Abstract

In spite of the known drawbacks to Value Added Models, they reveal persistent inequities when considered as one measure of Opportunity To Learn. Using data from approximately 4,000 teachers serving 100,000 students in 174 schools in 3 school districts, we found substantially lower value-added levels of effectiveness for high non-white schools (range from 1.83 to 2.82) than scores in low non-white schools (range from 3.85 to 4.10). Factors possibly contributing to these discrepancies include suspension rates, percentage of new teachers in each school, access to instructional materials, and access to quality induction support and co-teaching opportunities. A social justice education agenda incorporates analyzing barriers to school-wide value-added performance, not simply resisting teacher evaluation neutralized from its context.

Authors

• Susan McLean Benner, The University of Tennessee - Knoxville

• Bill Wishart, The University of Tennessee - Knoxville