Open Source Value-Added Model

It is our intention to provide a set of open source value-added models that will both advance scholarly discussions (such as the technical evaluation RAND did of the Sanders model) as well as provide support more ambitious evaluation efforts to figure out what programs, policies, and curricula work best and under what circumstances.

We also hope to engage other researchers and policy makers around the use of language in value-added research. We explicitly use the term classroom impact to include both teacher effect and other classroom factors. Given the fractured nature of educational policymaking (from federal mandates to locally elected school boards) and the complicated mix of interests tied up in that network of constituencies, it will be vital for VARC projects to focus on shared interest in making better choices for program selection and resource allocation.

Chris