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).

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Introduction to the MPS Value-Added System
Dr. Robert H. Meyer
November 29th, 2002

Work conducted in partnership with:

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Click on the headings below to start a video of the segement. Before starting a video, be sure to download and print the relevant PDF attachments.

Introduction (5:53 minutes)

• Attachment #1 (Value-Added Indicators)
• Attachment #2 (A Value-Added System for MPS)
  

Testing Students (4:12 minutes)

• Attachment #3 (Testing Elementary, Middle and High School)
• Attachment #4 (The Average and Range of Test Score, in 7th and 8th Grade)
  

Comparing Two Schools (6:39 minutes)

• Attachment #5 (Figure 1a: A Graph of Student Achievement Data for Two Schools)
• Attachment #6 (Figure 1b: A Graph of Student Achievement Data for Two Schools)
• Attachment #7 (Figure 1c: A Graph of Student Achievement Data for Two Schools)
  

Comparing Many Schools (5:18 minutes)

• Attachment #7 (Figure 1c: A Graph of Student Achievement Data for Two Schools)
• Attachment #8 (The Range of High School Performance in Reading - South Division and Rufus King High Schools)
• Attachment #9 (The Range of High School Performance in Reading - Parkview and Kilbourn High Schools)
  

Accuracy (4:39 minutes)

• Attachment #10 (The Range of Middle School Perfomance in Reading - Beat the Average)
• Attachment #11 (The Range of Middle School Perfomance in Reading - Tier)
  

Tiers/Reports (7:29 minutes)

• Attachment #11 (The Range of Middle School Perfomance in Reading - Tier)
• Attachment #12 (School Performance Report - Morse Middle School)
• Attachment #13 (School Performance Report - Global Learning Center)
  

How We Do Value-Added (2:29 minutes)

• Attachment #14 (Features of Value-Added Models and Indicators Used to Measure Perfomance in Milwaukee Schools)
  

What Does it Mean (8:23 miniutes)

• Attachment #14 (Features of Value-Added Models and Indicators Used to Measure Perfomance in Milwaukee Schools)
• Attachment #15 (School Performance by Average Prior Achievement)
• Attachment #16 (Comparison of Indicators: Average 8th Grade Mathematics Achievement vs. Value-Added School Performance)
• Attachment #17 (Explanation of Difference between School Performance and Attainment: Average 8th Grade Math Achievement, 2000)
• Attachment #18 (Explanation of Difference between School Performance and Attainment: Average 8th Grade Math Achievement, 2000)
• Attachment #19 (Explanation of Difference between School Performance and Attainment: Average 8th Grade Math Achievement, 2000)
  

Quesitons & Answers (19:36 minutes)

• Attachment #9 (The Range of High School Performance in Reading - Parkview and Kilbourn High Schools)
• Attachment #11 (The Range of Middle School Perfomance in Reading - Tier)