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May/June 2005
Adding Value to Student Assessment Does “value-added assessment” live up to its name?
by Anand Vaishnav
When English teacher Dawna Vanderpool returned to school last fall, she did what many teachers do: She pored over her eighth graders’ test results from the previous year, searching for clues about how much they had learned and what aspects of her teaching had or had not been effective. Instead of relying on a single benchmark to measure achievement, however—for instance, whether a student scored as “proficient” on a statewide language arts test—Vanderpool measured each student’s progress by comparing his or her actual test score to the score the student had been expected to receive, a prediction calculated on the basis of performance on annual tests in previous years. The rest of this article can be found in the current issue of the Harvard Education Letter. Buy this issue.
Teacher Quality and Student Learning: Findings from Value-Added Data
by Elizabeth Barrett Kidder
Value-added assessment allows researchers to measure the effectiveness of a school and its teachers in new ways, using data on individual students’ academic growth over time. Several initial studies using this data have investigated the impact of teacher quality on student performance. The rest of this article can be found in the current issue of the Harvard Education Letter. Buy this issue.
No Adolescent Left Behind?
California’s testing and accountability system illustrates the challenges of extending No Child Left Behind to high school
by Robert Rothman
High school, one of the most enduring features of the American education landscape, has been subjected to increased scrutiny over the past few years, and its reform has risen to the top of the national education agenda. Spurred by concerns over persistently high dropout rates in cities and lagging performance on national and international assessments, educators and policymakers have launched a host of major efforts to redesign high schools.
The rest of this article can be found in the current issue of the Harvard Education Letter. Buy this issue.
High School Reform the San Jose Way
It wasn’t about testing, says the district’s former superintendent
by Robert Rothman
Although high school improvement in response to California’s test-based accountability system has generally been slow, the San Jose Unified School District has stood out by showing impressive gains. Yet according to former superintendent Linda T. Murray, the improvement has had little to do with the state’s accountability system. In response to the overwhelming demand for more rigorous coursework, the district implemented a plan to require all graduates to take a college-bound sequence of courses, including four years of English, three years of mathematics, and three years of science, beginning with the class of 2002. But the course requirements were only the first step. The rest of this article can be found in the current issue of the Harvard Education Letter. Buy this issue.
The Student-Teacher Relationship: Our Most Important “Data” Source
by Deborah Meier
In “Lessons from the Red Sox Playbook” (HEL January/February 2005), Beth C. Gamse and Judith D. Singer draw an excellent analogy between managing the World Champion Boston Red Sox and trying to improve the quality of teaching in our schools. But the comparison breaks down when it is used to make the case for randomized experimentation in schools. No baseball manager—Red Sox, Yankee, or otherwise—ever agreed to be a control site for an experiment in baseball. As in teaching, the stakes are too high to leave the outcome to chance.
The rest of this article can be found in the current issue of the Harvard Education Letter. Buy this issue.
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