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

MPS Charter School/High School Evaluation

This project was authorized by the MPS Board of Directors and is a comprehensive evaluation of the effectiveness of its charter schools. Areas of research focus include academic performance, quality of curriculum, student enrollment and attendance issues, student satisfaction, parental involvement, and extracurricular activities. This work represents an important continued expansion of VARC's existing efforts to evaluate the impacts of reform initiatives in MPS.

Contact

Lisa Geraghty
Phone: (608) 265-2621
Office: 772 Ed Sciences
elgeraghty@wisc.edu