The mission of the Value-Added Research Center is to develop, apply, and disseminate value-added and longitudinal research methods to evaluate the performance and effectiveness of schools and teachers, and educational programs and policies. The Value-Added Research Center performs groundbreaking work on value-added systems, program and policy evaluation, and data-driven decision making. The Center is committed to promoting the use of value-added methods for education reform.

Value-Added Research Center (VARC)

Educators, researchers, and stakeholders have identified value-added models as prime areas of interest in the search for better ways to measure the performance of students, teachers, school districts, and state education organizations.

The Value-Added Research Center is directed by Rob Meyer. A staff of scientists, researchers, and education professionals provide a wide variety of cross-disciplinary expertise to allow for ground-breaking work on value-added systems and evaluation models. The work is rigorous, transparent, and highly collaborative.

Much basic research remains to be done to build high-quality value-added models and indicators that can legitimately support district and state accountability and high-stakes applications such as pay for performance.