Description:
Value-added models (VAMs) are methods meant to measure the value a teacher or school adds to student learning from one year to the next. To date, however, there is very little evidence to support their trustworthiness. The mission of this book is to shed light on this issue thereby improving states' Race-to-the-Top (RttT) reform proposals.
Review Quotes:
"Amrein-Beardsley (Arizona State Univ.) gives readers a thorough critique of the various analytical measures used to document students' academic progress over time as such measures are used to assess the value of a teacher and/or school...Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate, research, and professional collections."- A. L. Hsu, State University of New York College at Old Westbury, in CHOICE, January 2015
"Rethinking Value-Added Models in Education is the single most comprehensive resource on the uses and abuses of Value-added Measurement (VAM) in U.S. education policy. There is something for everyone in this text: from definitions for those with no background in statistics to thorough discussions of the reining positions and debates between researchers. It therefore serves as a primer on education policy as well as a deep dive into the specifics of VAM." --Education Review