The State of Maine benefits from WCER's Value-Added Research Center (Maine Public Broadcasting, 22 January).

Chris Thorn, Associate Director of VARC, discusses the Pittsburgh merit pay plan (Post-Gazette, 13 December), and how the Bush Foundation is partnering with VARC to evaluate teachers in Minnesota, and North and South Dakota, based on student performance (Pioneer Press, 3 December).

Rob Meyer talks with Todd Finkelmeyer of The Capital Times about value-added models and the "race to the top" (11/10/09).

On November 9, 2009, Wisconsin Public Radio featured the story Metrics system strives to provide comparisons that are "apples-to-apples," about value-added measures and the Value-Added Research Center.

The VARC project is helping NYC schools manage their data (NY Times, 8 September).

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Center for Educator Compensation Reform

The Center for Educator Compensation Reform (CECR) is a Department of Education funded organization that raises national awareness about alternative and effective strategies for educator compensation reform. Along with colleagues at Vanderbilt University, CECR provides guidance and technical assistance to grantees receiving support from the U.S. Departement of Education Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) Initiative. CECR focuses on issues of measurement, data systems, data quality, observational evaluation, and process redesign. For more information, see the CECR Web site.

CECR’s Web site serves as an online repository for information, tools, and resources to help policymakers, state officials, and district professionals, as well as TIF grantees, design and implement educator compensation reform policies and programs.

Additional CECR Links

• Data Quality Essentials (PDF)
• Information Technology Considerations (PDF)
• Essential Elements of a System to Measure the Performance of Schools and Classrooms/Teachers with Respect to Student Achievement (PDF)

Contact

Chris Thorn
Phone: (608) 263-2709
Office: 370G Ed Sciences
cathorn@wisc.edu