Indiana wants test scores measured over time

Like many other states, Indiana wants to move to some sort of growth or value added modeling to keep more states off the failing list. We've been looking at this at Wisconsin Center for Education Research. We recently evaluated several of the growth models proposed by states in a series of brown bag sessions this summer. We used longitudinal research data we have in house to impose various state models on the same data set to get an apples to apples comparison. One of the clear factors common to most of the models is that they decrease the percentage of schools identified as failing by 10-12%. This is only a year one effect, however. By 2-3 years out, if the high growth rates predicted are not met (and that's not to surprising), all states are back at high percentages of schools failing. So, the current flurry of activity may only buy 2 or 3 years of coverage.

Chris