So, why have I been so busy?

I've been working with VARC Director Rob Meyer to grow our research center. We are engaged in a range of work in Milwaukee Public Schools, Chicago Public Schools, a series of Teacher Incentive Fund projects, as well as basic research on extensions of our value-added model.

The work includes a series of program evaluations, professional development around the use of VA measures, random assignment experiments, improvements in operational systems, and the use of VA models for quarterly diagnostic assessments. The current focus is on adding a number of tweaks to our model that uses two prior scores to compute VA measures. The complexity of including corrections for measurement error, mid-year testing, retention in grade, etc. has required lots of graph paper and white board makers.

As for the development of the team, at the last PhD count, we were up to 2 in sociology, 2 in industrial engineering, 2 in educational leadership, 1 in statistics, and 6 in economics. We are probably going to add a couple of more MAs in economics and statistics and a PhD in applied mathematics. I can also tell you that Fortran is alive and well here. We are hoping to start working with the Condor Project to address some of the computational problems of more complex VA models.

As the guy in charge of strategic planning and human capital development for this merry band, it's been an exciting 18 months.

Chris

Massachusetts Education Commissioner interested in VA

The new Commissioner for Education in MA is interested in VA for school and program evaluation. This notion that attainment alone does not tell enough of the story is popping up all over.

Chris

Ok. I'm going to try it again

Hi,

I actually liked doing these posts. The pressure of starting up a major research and technical assistance center made this effort look like the back breaking straw at the end of a long day. I am at the end of a growth phase and have added quite a few staff members. My goal is actually to bring in a few guest bloggers amongst the VARCians to contribute analysis and materials.

Chris

Spellings adds to list of Growth Model states

Secretary Spellings announced that Iowa and Ohio have been added to the list of states allowed to include growth models in their high-stakes accountability systems. The other states already on that list are North Carolina, Tennessee, Delaware, Arkansas, and Florida. Tony Bryk of Stanford University led the review panel.

Chris

Center for Teaching Quality publishes report on pay for performance

CTQ recently produced a report on recommendations for reforming teacher pay. The twist here is that the report was co-authored by 18 award-winning teachers. The thing that warms my heart is the acknowledgment that while the focus for all kids must be high achievement, the reality on the ground is that only high rates of growth will get them there. The group recommends fairly comprehensive systems of performance measurements in all grades and subjects. They also recommend incentives for accumulating relevant skills (pay for course work related to district goals) and for knowledge transfer (pay for high growth teacher to work at the school or district level to hand on that ability).

Here are the high points:

1. Get the base-pay system right.
2. Supplement the base-pay system with a performance-pay system that is open to all teachers.
3. Reward teachers who help their students make significant academic gains.
4. Provide additional pay for additional degrees and professional development, but only if the training is relevant.
5. Allow local flexibility.
6. Encourage collaboration.
7. Offer incentives to teachers who want to teach in high-needs, low-performing schools, but only if they’re qualified.
8. Reward leadership, not seniority.
9. Be brave, be bold.
10. Finally, make sure to include accomplished teachers in any efforts to overhaul your teacher compensation plans.

Chris