Stephen Ponisciak was a 2010 First Place winner in the area of Oustanding Planning, Policy, or Management Research from the American Educational Research Association Division H (Research, Evaluation, and Assessment in Schools)

Rob Meyer has been honored with a 2010 Academic Staff Excellence Award in recognition of excellence in research by an independent investigator. Winners were recognized by the Academic Staff Assembly on April 12 and honored at a reception with University of Wisconsin Chancellor Biddy Martin.

Amy McIntosh, New York City Department of Education Chief Talant Officer, discusses VARC’s contribution to the district’s teacher data initiative (New York City Department of Education website).

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.