Director Robert Meyer
Robert Meyer is a research professor and director of the Value-Added Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Meyer is also the founder and president of Education Analytics, Inc and a professor at the La Follette School of Public Affairs at UW-Madison. Dr. Meyer is renowned for his work on value-added modeling, evaluation methods, and strategic management of human capital. Since the early 1990s, he has worked with districts and states across the country to build value-added and performance management systems to inform decision-making with respect to policy and school improvement strategies.
As VARC's director, he works intensively with school districts in Atlanta, Chicago, Hillsborough County (Florida), Los Angeles, Madison, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New York City, and Tulsa, and the states of Illinois, Minnesota, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Dr. Meyer leads major initiatives in Minnesota and the Dakotas (and their partner school districts) to provide value-added information to all teachers and to the colleges and universities that prepared these teachers. He also works with many districts and states to expand value-added systems to include courses not typically covered by standardized state assessments. In addition, he has conducted major statistical evaluations of programs and policies such as class-size reduction, literacy, and supplemental educational services.
Among his accomplishments, Dr. Meyer was awarded a Senior Urban Education Research Fellowship from the Council of Great City Schools in 2007 and received the University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Research in 2010.