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

VARC Employment Talks

January 26, 2010, 10:30-12:00 Room 247 Educational Sciences
Kylie Goggins, University of Kentucky
Public School Choice: Charter and Magnet Schools and the Public-Private School Decision
PDF paper

January 28, 2010, 10:30-12:00 Room 378 Educational Sciences
Jaime Lynn Thomas, University of California, San Diego
Information Capital and Early-Career Wages
PDF paper
Combination Classes and Educational Achievement
PDF paper

February 2, 2010, 10:30-12:00 Room 247 Educational Sciences
Marc Luppino, University of California, Los Angeles
Classmate Turnover and Student Achievement: New Findings from Project STAR
PDF paper

February 8, 2010, 10:30-12:00 Room 247 Educational Sciences
Andrew Rice, Pennsylvania State University
Uncovering the Causal Pathways Between Education Investment and Reduced Mortality
PDF paper

February 9, 2010, 10:30-12:00 Room 247 Educational Sciences
Charles Hokayem, University of Kentucky
Health, Human Capital Accumulation, and Life Cycle Labor Supply
PDF paper

February 15, 2010, 10:30-12:00 Room 247 Educational Sciences
Andrew McGee, Ohio State University
Skills, Standards, and Disabilities: How Youth with Learning Disabilities Fare in High School and Beyond
PDF paper

February 16, 2010, 10:30-12:00 Room 247 Educational Sciences
Liang Choon Wang, University of California, San Diego
Peer Effects in the Classroom: Evidence from A Natural Experiment in Malaysia

March 10, 2010, 10:30-12:00 Room 253 Educational Sciences
Mikhail Pyatigorsky, Boston University
Mexican-Americans in US Schools
PDF paper

March 16, 2010, 10:30-12:00 Room 253 Educational Sciences
Erkan Erdem, Bates White, LLC
An Empirical Model of Investment Behavior in Dynamic Oligopolies

.