VARC staff are participating in a series of webinars sponsored by the department of education to provide support for districts considering implementing performance incentive systems as part of Race to the Top, Teacher Incentive Fund, or local initiatives. Michael Christian will be presenting in the session on Structuring Your Alternative Compensation Program: Challenges and Opportunities (to register click here). Chris Thorn and Peter Witham are the hosts of a session on Anticipating the Data Quality Challenges in TIF: Delivering Student-Teacher Linkages and Managing and Presenting Complex Data (to register click here). Recorded webinars will also be available after the fact on the CECR web site.

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 Racine [WI] Unified School Board on Monday approved a new partnership with the [Value-Added Research Center at the] University of Wisconsin-Madison that will allow the district to identify which specific schools and teachers advance student achievement (Racine Journal Times, 16 March, 2010).

VARC Job Candidate Talks

Center for Value-Added Research in the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS)

For the past seven years WCER staff have worked with Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) district staff to develop their capacity to analyze and make full use of data on students and schools. Rob Meyer and Gary Cook provide technical direction to the district on research issues.

This project funds the work of an "embedded researcher" who splits time between WCER and the Division of Research and Assessment at MPS, and conducts program evaluations and research involving key MPS initiatives and district improvement efforts. Examples of work conducted to date include evaluations of MPS summer school programs, a single-gender classroom initiative at an MPS middle school, and the MPS/Milwaukee Recreation Arts Partnership program. Ongoing work includes the establishment of a postsecondary tracking system for MPS graduates and an evaluation of year-round and extended-year schooling options in MPS.

Contact

Bradley Carl
Phone: (608) 263-3040
Office: 798 Ed Sciences
brcarl@wisc.edu