Making ValueAdded a Local Experience

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Making Value-Added a Local Experience

• How Oxford Schools utilize a daily professional
  learning period to improve everyones learning

Randy Squier, Janet Laytham, Timothy McDonald NYS
Value Added Conference May 2008
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Desired Outcomes for the Day

• By the end of the session, participants will be
  able to
• Begin the conversations for starting to utilize
  value added information to inform instruction.
• Develop an understanding of the foundation that
  is needed to support the use of value added data.
• Start the process of utilizing local assessments
  following the value-added model.
• Learn by doing the work.
• Describe concepts that support value added
  models.
• Reflect and determine next steps to move forward.

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NO to Status Quo

• Anyone too busy to reflect on ones practice is
  also too busy to improve.
• Robert Garmston
• We find comfort from those who agree with us,
  growth from those who do not.

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Le Book video
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Leaderships Role When you truly want better
results for students, you dont just stare at the
data and display some colorful charts. You dont
just talk about what the kids are doing. You
display courage and you are willing to do
unpopular things. The only schools that truly get
results are the ones who say, I know that the
buffer, as Elmore calls it, serves to protect
teachers from outside inspection or scrutiny.
Nonetheless, Im going to inspect and scrutinize,
and Ill encourage my colleagues to do this as
much as they can themselves. Ill ask the
uncomfortable questions, make sure certain things
are happening, and confront the people who are
not doing them. Ill do it as tactfully and
painlessly as possible, but if the good things
are not happening there will be a
confrontation. We need to be ready to say the
emperor has no clothes. M. Schmoker
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Start the process of utilizing local assessments
following the value-added model.

• Learn by doing the work.

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• Before scoring, decide what proficient will be
  for each learning target you are monitoring.
• THIS IS A POWERFUL STEP IN THE PROCESS OF
  BECOMING A COLLEGIAL TEAM!
• What percent does a student have to answer
  correctly in order to be proficient? (General
  rule is 80)
• What is proficient on a rubric? (Score of 3 on a
  1-4 point scale)
•  Score Assessment

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3rd Grade 1st Cycle
ANALYZE RESULTS
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Goal for Student Improvement   Teacher
___________________________ Date
______________________   Subject
__________________________   Unit
______________________________   Learning Target
__________________________________________________
________________________________   Proficient is
__________________________________________________
___________________________________   Instructiona
l Strategy Utilized _____________________________
_________________________________________     Curr
ent Reality The percentage of students who
scored at or above proficiency is ____________.
    Goal The percentage of students at or
above proficiency by ________________ , will be
___________. Date   Measurement Tool
The assessment used will be _____________________
_________________________________. ---------------
--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------   Results
The percentage of students who scored at or
above proficiency is ___________.
  The difference in the percent of students
scoring at or above proficient is
___________.     The percentage of students
who scored higher (growth) then previous
assessment is ___________.   Next Steps
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3rd Grade Formative Data
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CELEBRATE!!

• Culture will determine how to proceed.
• Do not hesitate to honor the hard work of your
  teachers.
• Share results school-wide
• Data walls
• Updates via email with data.
• FACTS ARE OUR FRIENDS!

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Assessment Cycle Results
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Assessment Cycle Results
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State Assessment Results3rd Grade ELA
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3-8 E.L.A. Results
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3-8 Math Results
Estimated
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3-8 E.L.A. ResultsCohort
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Setting the Foundation

• Beginning the conversations for starting to
  utilize
• Value-added information to inform instruction.

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The Research SaysIn great schools
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Essential Ideas

• We can be better than we presently are.
• All facets of school operation must be open to
  examination and change.
• Change in accordance with the best research
  literature.
• Keep our focus on our outcomes.

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Our Priorities

• Focus on collaborative culture
• Focus on learning
• Focus on results
• Provide timely, relevant information

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• Isolation is the enemy of improvement.
• Wagner, T., et.al. (2005) Change Leadership A
• Practical Guide to Transforming Schools. p. 113

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Advantages of Working in Collaborative Teams

• Gains in Student Achievement
• Higher Quality Solutions to Problems
• Increased Confidence Among All Staff
• Teachers/Staff Able to Support One Anothers
  Strengths and Accommodate Weaknesses
• Ability to test New Ideas
• More Support for New teachers/Staff
• Expanded pool of Ideas, Materials, Methods
• Judith Warren Little

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Need for a Collaborative Culture

• Improving schools require collaborative
  cultures.Without collaborative skills and
  relationships, it is not possible to learn and to
  continue to learn as much as you need to know to
  improve.
• Michael Fullan

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• None of us is as smart as all of us.
• Pogo
• NSDCs Standards for Staff Development Trainers
  Guide
• Stephanie Hirsh, 2001

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Together, We All learn

• Ultimately there are two kinds of schools
  learning enriched schools and learning
  impoverished schools. I have yet to see a school
  where the learning curvesof the adults were
  steep upward and those of the students were not.
  Teachers and students go hand in hand as
  learnersor they dont go at all.
• Roland Barth

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How
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Key Question

• The critical question to consider is not do we
  collaborate, but instead,

• what do we collaborate about?

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Essential Questions

• What do we want all students to learn?
• How will we know if they have learned it?
• How will we respond when they dont?
• How will we meet the needs of those who already
  know?

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Focus on Learning

• We accept high levels of learning for all
  students as the fundamental purpose of our school
  and therefore are willing to examine all
  practices in light of their impact on learning.

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If the purpose of school is truly to ensure high
levels of learning for all students, schools will

• Clarify what each student is expected to learn.

• Monitor each students learning on a timely basis.

• Create systems to ensure students receive
  additional time and support if they are not
  learning.

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Learning-All Students will learn at high levels

• Clarify what each student must learn.
• What is essential?
• What are the Power Standards?
• What is our Guaranteed Viable Curriculum?
• Each team of teachers must agree and commit to
  teach Essential Outcomes.

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Why?

• Teachers are most effective in helping all
  students learn when they are clear regarding
  exactly what their students must know and be able
  to do as a result of the course, grade level or
  unit of instruction.
• The single most powerful impact a school can
  have on student achievement is to have a
  guaranteed and viable curriculum.
• Robert Marzano- 2003

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Learning-Until it has been learned, it has not
been taught.

• IntendedImplementedAttained
• Stop wasting time trying to cover the intended
  curriculum, state standards, it cant be done.
• What you actually implement is our true
  curriculum.
• Is it the same as down the hall?
• What the learner actually attained is most
  important.
• Bob Marzano, ASCD

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Learning- We will monitor student learning
frequently

• We must know what students are learning.
• Common Formative Assessments.
• Do you want to be a doctor or coroner?
• Teachers of the same course or grade level
  should have absolute agreement on what they
  expect students to know and be able to do. They
  should have common collaboratively scored
  assessments at least once quarterly Doug Reeves

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CLARITY
Snow off car video
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Weeding the GardenWhat current content can we
eliminate because it is not essential?

• Does it have endurance? Do we really expect
  students to retain the knowledge skills over
  time and not just for the test?
• Inferential reasoning, descriptive writing, time
  management
• Does it have leverage? Will proficiency in this
  outcome help the student in other areas of this
  course and other disciplines?
• Non-fiction writing, create draw inferences
  form tables, charts graphs
• Does it develop readiness for the next level of
  learning? Is it essential for the next unit,
  course, grade level?
• What would you tell the teacher in the next lower
  grade about what students need to know
  understand?

Reeves, Douglas, editor. Ahead of the Curve,
Solution Tree, 2007
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We must move away from this way of working..
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Collaborative Study of Essential Learning

• Promotes Clarity
• Dialogue about the meaning and what learning
  looks like.
• Promotes consistent priorities
• Do we spend 1 day on Paul Revere or 1 week?
• Is crucial to the common pacing required for
  formative assessments.
• Eliminates that end of course rush.
• Can help establish a curriculum that is viable.
• Need 23 years otherwise. Scope
  sequence-spiraling
• Teachers own it.
• If you value it, it will be implemented.

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Responsibility

• We are the first generation of educators expected
  to have ALL kids learn.

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Focus on Results
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Goals Commit Ourselves to DO

• Every shared vision effort needs not just a broad
  vision, but specific realizable goals-milestones
  we expect to reach before too long. Goals
  represent what people commit themselves to do.
• Senge et. Al, 1994, p. 303

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No More Ornaments on the Tree

• Do we want schools to continue merely adopting
  new innovations? Or do we want schools to
  improve? If we collectively focus on goals and
  regularly measure the impact, then we will get
  results.
• Mike Schmoker

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Results

• How are we (students and teachers) doing?
• Good Intentions are just that.
• Pretty much all the truth telling done in the
  world is done by children.
• Oliver Wendell Holmes
• The R in SMART goals.
• S Strategic Specific
• M Measurable
• A Attainable
• R Results
• T Time Bound

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Results

• Teachers need timely data
• Cant wait for NYS
• Look in your own grade books, enough there.
• Common Formative Assessments!!
• Efficient, Fair, Effective for monitoring,
  Informs teacher practice, builds team capacity,
  collective response
• Collecting data is only first step toward
  wisdom, but sharing data is the first step toward
  community. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
• Do we feel safe to share our results?

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SMART Goals Contribute to a Results Orientation-a
purpose

• Strategic Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Results oriented
• Time Bound
• ONeill Conzemius
• The annual goal statements that emerge from
  school improvement efforts typically have two
  chronic deficiencies the proposed activities are
  rarely linked to student achievement and they
  seldom challenge the basic elements of
  established practice. (Grady McGonagill)

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Goals One step at a time
Baseline Where we started
Stretch Goal Score of B
Attainable Goal Where we want be by.

• Current Reality Baseline data
• Attainable Goal- Team Indicator of Success Short
  term goal, steps.
• Stretch Goal District Indicators of Success,
  BHAGs

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To set work toward any goal is an act of
courage. -Stephen Covey
Spanish
Reading Comp
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Part III on Regents
Read authentic passages in Spanish, answer
multiple questions in English Spanish about
reading Reading strategies
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To set work toward any goal is an act of
courage. -Stephen Covey
Science
Graphing
n/a
Increasepre test in Sept. post in Jan.
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School pre/post assessment
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Teamwork alone does not make a team.
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Assessments (Assessment as Professional
Development, Jay McTighe and Marcella Emberger
in Powerful Designs for Professional Learning
edited by Lois Easton)

• .We cannot claim to be standards based if we
  simply agree on content standards. We must also
  agree on what evidence will show that students
  have learned the knowledge and skills outlined by
  the standards.
• A performance task becomes a performance
  assessment when it is accompanied by a rubric or
  a scoring guide describing aspects and levels of
  accomplishment.

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Assessments

• . The format of the assessment should match the
  goals being assessed and the reason for
  assessing.

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• . A primary goal of teaching is to help
  students understand the important ideas and
  processes identified in content standards.
• Classroom, school, and district assessment should
  provide evidence of student understanding.

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Moving Forward

• Describe concepts that support value added models.

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DuFour, Richard Rebecca DuFour Robert Eaker
Thomas Many. Learning By Doing. Solution Tree,
2006.
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DuFour, Richard Rebecca DuFour Robert Eaker
Thomas Many. Learning By Doing. Solution Tree,
2006.
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DuFour, Richard Rebecca DuFour Robert Eaker
Thomas Many. Learning By Doing. Solution Tree,
2006.
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DuFour, Richard Rebecca DuFour Robert Eaker
Thomas Many. Learning By Doing. Solution Tree,
2006.
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DuFour, Richard Rebecca DuFour Robert Eaker
Thomas Many. Learning By Doing. Solution Tree,
2006.
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DuFour, Richard Rebecca DuFour Robert Eaker
Thomas Many. Learning By Doing. Solution Tree,
2006.
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• We make progress when we move away from the
  language of complaint to a language of
  commitment from a language of they to a
  language of we from focusing on what we cant
  stand to focusing on what we stand for.
• DuFour, Richard Rebecca DuFour Robert Eaker
  Thomas Many el.
• Professional Learning Communities Summit
  Presentations, Boston, 2007

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Our Commitments

• Ensure Success for Every Student.
• Provide an Effective Instructional Program
• Strengthen Productive Partnerships for Education
• Provide High-Quality Business Services that are
  Essential to the Educational Success of Students
• Create a Positive Work Environment in a
  Self-renewing Organization

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IMAGINE

• Some men see things as they are and say, Why?
  Others dream of things that never were and say,
  Why not?
• George Bernard Shaw

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Bibliography

• Ainsworth, Larry. Power Standards, Advanced
  Learning Press, 2003
• Ainsworth, Larry. Unwrapping the Standards,
  Advanced Learning Press, 2003
• Ainsworth, Larry and Donald Viegut. Common
  Formative Assessments, Corwin Press, 2006
• Berlinger-Gustofan, Cathy. Conversation
  Presentation, Oxford CSD, August 2007, March
  2008.
• Blankstein, Alan. Failure is Not An Option. HOPE
  Foundation Corwin Press, 2004.
• DuFour, Richard and Robert Eaker. Professional
  Learning Communities at Work. National Education
  Services, 1998.
• DuFour, Richard and Rebecca DuFour. Getting
  Started. NES, 2002.
• DuFour, Richard Rebecca DuFour Robert Eaker
  Gayle Karhanek. Whatever It Takes. National
  Education Service, 2004.
• DuFour, Richard Rebecca DuFour Robert Eaker
  Thomas Many. Learning By Doing. Solution Tree,
  2006.
• DuFour, Richard Rebecca DuFour Robert Eaker
  Thomas Many el. Professional Learning
  Communities Summit Presentations, Boston, 2007
• DuFour, Rick. How Effective Leaders Build
  Professional Learning Communities Presentation _at_
  NYSCOSS, 2006.
• Erkens, Cassandra. Design Use of Common
  Assessments, Presentation Windsor, NY October
  2007.
• Fisher, Douglas and Frey, Nancy. Checking for
  Understanding, ASCD, 2007.
• Fogarty, Robin. Data, Dialogue, Decisions,
  Presentation, NYSCOSS, Syracuse, NY, April 2008
• Hord, Shirley, M. Sommers, William A. Leading
  Professional Learning Communities, Corwin Press,
  2008.
• ONeill, Jan, Conzemius, Anne.The Handbook for
  SMART School Teams, Solution Tree, 2006.
• ONeill, J., Conzemius, A. The Power of SMART
  Goals, Solution Tree, 2006.
• Fullan, M.G., Bennett, B. and Rolheiser-Bennet,
  C. Linking Classroom and School Improvement.
  Educational Leadership, May, 1990, (8) 13-19.
• Glasser, William, M.D.. The Quality School, New
  York, NY Harper Collins. 1998.

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Q A

• Why do I need to write essential outcomes? I
  know what students need to know.
•  
• Do the students know what they need to know? Do
  the parents? Does the teacher who had the kids
  before you know? The teacher who will have them
  next year? Do you share in writing with students
  at the beginning of each unit the skills,
  knowledge, concepts they will understand as a
  result of the upcoming unit? Kind of a promise
  you make to your students in writing. You will
  understand these I will do whatever it takes to
  make sure you do!
• What exactly is an essential outcome?
• What teachers believe are the most important
  ideas. The ideas teachers will do anything to
  make sure all kids understand. The ideas that
  will help kids in the next unit, next year, and
  in life. The ideas that countstate standards
  tests.
•  
• Now you want us to unwrap, whats that?
• The essential outcomes are big. We need to break
  them down into manageable chunks for teachers and
  kids. In order to know how an engine runs you
  need to look at the pistons, carburetor, fuel
  lines, etc. Teachers do this when they plan
  units. The essential outcomes are your
  destination, unwrapping is planning the trip,
  assessments are the road signs during the trip.

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Q A

• What is a formative assessment?
• If we use the assessments to ID students who are
  struggling and need extra support and give
  students specific feedback plus time and support
  to improve and give them another opportunity to
  demonstrate they have learned it. Then it is a
  formative assessment.
•  
• I assess all the time, why do I need to create
  new assessments?
• Well hopefully you wont need to re-create the
  wheel. As stated above it is not the assessment
  so much as what you do with it. What you need to
  look at is, does my assessment really measure
  student learning of the outcomes I decided were
  most essential? Will the assessment help me
  design my instruction to help kids who are
  struggling and enrich kids learning who get it?
  
•  
• This just seems like more of what I already do.
• Actually its not more to do but it may be a
  different way of teaching and learning. There
  is so much research on the effectiveness and
  impact of using assessments in a formative way
  that it would be malpractice to not engage in the
  process of developing and using assessments for
  learning (teachers and students). Also it is not
  new. These ideas have their foundation in the
  effective school movement-1960s and outcomes
  based education of the 1970s. Like many
  programs in schools, they got started or
  distorted and never took hold. Where they were
  sustained, those schools have seen results
  improve and were maintained at high levels. This
  is not a one shot concept. This is a multi-year
  process. Sustaining programs has always been the
  Achilles heal of schools.

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Q A

• The state provides me with grade level standards
  and performance indicators. Why reinvent the
  wheel?
• Do you really want to cover everything in the
  state syllabus? You need to clarify with
  yourself what is most essential so you can assess
  whether students really know it so then you can
  prevent students from falling behind by aligning
  your instruction to their needs. The outcomes
  are the destination, the assessments are the road
  signs to make sure you are going in the right
  direction. Its too late at the end of a unit or
  worse state assessment to find out a student did
  not make it to the destination. How would you
  feel if the bus company called and said hey we
  lost your kid somewhere in Jersey. Well how
  does a parent feel when their kid fails to get to
  the destination and you cant explain where they
  became lost.
•  
• My students do well on state tests, why distract
  myself with this?
• The districts current target commitment to
  the community is 80 of students will pass state
  exams and 35 will master them. If your
  students are there great. But dont you want to
  always get better at what you do? Isnt that
  what a professional does? From the survey
  teachers took last spring it was clear that there
  is low efficacy regarding assessments. Many
  variables influence student learning. Many of
  the variables- poverty, home life, we have little
  influence over. The one variable we do have
  influence over is how effective we are in the
  classroom. Its very clear that the single
  biggest impact on student learning is effective
  teaching. And, its being proven in the 90-90-90
  schools that once students enter school, poverty
  and race have a lessening impact on student
  learning. The teacher makes the difference.
•  
• Im trying to help all students succeed, I dont
  have time now to create outcomes and new
  assessments.
• How can you help all kids succeed if you dont
  know who they are now and what they need help
  with? We need to get away from the remediation
  concept and focus on prevention. The analogy of
  the physical vs. the autopsy has been used.
  Formative assessments are the physical. We use
  those timely results to prevent students from
  falling further behind. If we wait until the
  interims or state tests to do something it is too
  late. These assessments will help you give
  students a more exact preventive medicine. By
  determining what is most essential now, you will
  save time later because you will have more time
  to teach what matters most.

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Q A

• So is the expectation then that all I teach are
  the essential outcomes?
• No. The essential outcomes you have chosen are
  the enduring ideas understandings you feel are
  most important and want to spend the most time
  on. Then there are the ideas that are important
  to know and do and finally those items worth
  being familiar with. The latter two are needed
  for students to grasp and understand the
  essential outcomes.
•  
• There are a lot of standards and indicators. I
  need to cover them all.
• Do you actually cover every indicator, strand
  standard now? Do all the students learn them?
  Essential outcomes are subset of all the
  standards. When short on time you know that its
  more important to focus that time on what is
  essential so that every student is proficient
  then to cover everything.
•  
• If I dont cover everything in the state
  standards it will end up on the test.
• A good set of essential outcomes will cover
  about 88 of the items on the state test. For
  that extra 12 you will have to cover a much
  higher of standards. Is it a better use of
  time to ensure kids are proficient at 88 of what
  might be on a test or to have them cover 100 and
  be proficient, you hope, on a few items? You
  should be using the test to verify your essential
  outcomes. When you create a test do you assess
  what is important or useless facts? The state
  does the same thing. Teachers of Regents
  subjects know this.
•  
• Does this mean you want everyone who teaches a
  subject to do it the same way?
• No way! The art of teaching is deciding what
  will work best with each group of kids.
  Essential outcomes is clarifying what, not the
  how. Using assessments formatively will help you
  to personalize your instruction to the needs of
  your classroom.

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Q A

• So making essential outcomes will help students
  do better?
• Its part of the equation. If we stop here and
  do not utilize assessments in a formative way, to
  measure our SMART goals focused on student
  learning then we will not see much improvement.
•  
• How will these help us vertically align what
  students learn?
• In your teams have a teacher look at the
  essential outcomes for the grade below. The 6th
  grade teacher says, look you dont need to spend
  time on polyhedrons. Take that time and make
  sure they really know number operations and are
  ready for 6th grade math. You have to be
  willing to tell others what you want kids to be
  able to do when they arrive in your class.
• I still dont see the need to set goals after
  every assessment.
• Those things that get measured are usually done
  well. The five step data process is a way to
  measure the effectiveness of what you do in the
  classroom. This is a new idea. But dont you
  want to know if what you are doing works? Here
  is a proven model that has worked.
• I am the only one teaching this subject, how can
  I make common assessments?
• Writing is one example. We all need kids
  to write well in our classes. In every subject
  students need to write persuasive essays. Each
  subject area teacher can assess this using their
  content. Doesnt it make sense to have one
  criteria across subjects on what good writing
  looks like?
• So I dont have to change my assessments, just
  use them formatively?
• You have to decide if you need to alter them.
  Do they assess not only knowledge but reasoning
  skills? What target skills are you looking for?
  Do your questions measure that?

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Q A

• What is value-added assessment? Value-added
  assessment is a new way of analyzing test data
  that can measure teaching and learning. Based on
  a review of students' test score gains from
  previous grades, researchers can predict the
  amount of growth those students are likely to
  make in a given year. Thus, value-added
  assessment can show whether particular students -
  those taking a certain Algebra class, say - have
  made the expected amount of progress, have made
  less progress than expected, or have been
  stretched beyond what they could reasonably be
  expected to achieve. Using the same methods, one
  can look back over several years to measure the
  long-term impact that a particular teacher or
  school had on student achievement.
• How is value-added assessment different from
  traditional measures of student performance?
  Student performance on assessments can be
  measured in two very different ways, both of
  which are important. Achievement describes the
  absolute levels attained by students in their
  end-of-year tests. Growth, in contrast, describes
  the progress in test scores made over the school
  year. In the past, students and schools have
  been ranked solely according to achievement. The
  problem with this method is that achievement is
  highly linked to the socioeconomic status of a
  student's family. For example, according to
  Educational Testing Service, SAT scores rise with
  every 10,000 of family income. This should not
  be surprising since all the variables that
  contribute to high-test scores correlate strongly
  with family income good jobs, years of
  schooling, positive attitudes about education,
  the capacity to expose one's children to books
  and travel, and the development of considerable
  social and intellectual capital that wealthy
  students bring with them when they enter school.
  In contrast, value-added assessment measures
  growth and answers the question how much value
  did the school staff add to the students who live
  in its community? How, in effect, did they do
  with the hand society dealt them? If schools are
  to be judged fairly, it is important to
  understand this significant difference.
• How does value-added assessment sort out the
  teachers' contributions from the students'
  contributions? Because individual students
  rather than cohorts are traced over time, each
  student serves as his or her own "baseline" or
  control, which removes virtually all of the
  influence of the unvarying characteristics of the
  student, such as race or socioeconomic factors.
  Test scores are projected for students and then
  compared to the scores they actually achieve at
  the end of the school year. Classroom scores that
  equal or exceed projected values suggest that
  instruction was highly effective. Conversely,
  scores that are mostly below projections suggest
  that the instruction was ineffective. At the
  same time, this approach does recognize
  student-related factors and other extenuating
  circumstances. For instance, imagine that a
  student's performance falls far below projected
  scores, while other students in the same class,
  with comparable academic records, do make the
  progress they were expected to make. This would
  be taken as evidence of an external effect,
  related to the student's home environment or some
  other variable lying outside the range of a
  teacher's influence.

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Q A

• Does value-added assessment raise student
  achievement? Not by itself. Value-added
  assessment is just a tool with which to measure
  progress. However, that tool can certainly be
  useful to people working to raise student
  achievement. Think of it as a stopwatch - it
  doesn't make people run any faster, but you can
  use it to time members of the track team, in
  order to decide how to maximize the strengths of
  each runner - determining who should run the
  anchor leg of the relay, how fast a miler should
  run the first lap, and what training regimens to
  implement - to achieve the team's overall goals.
• Likewise, value-added assessment provides school
  leaders with rich diagnostic information, which
  they can use in many ways such as assigning
  personnel, allocating resources and identifying
  mentor teachers and coaches. Further, this tool
  can help states and school districts to design
  comprehensive accountability systems that can
  assess the impact that particular kinds of
  teaching, curriculum, and professional
  development have on academic achievement.
• What diagnostic information can value-added
  provide educators? With a value-added analysis,
  educators now have a tool that provides them with
  the ability to determine their instructional
  results, the focus of their instruction
  (identifying which students have benefited most)
  and their instructional impact (how effective it
  has been in providing students with a year's
  worth of growth from where they began the year).
  Student achievement by classroom, grade, subject,
  school or district can be displayed showing
  distinct patterns of growth for students of
  different achievement levels.
• How can value-added assessment complement and
  improve the measurement of AYP requirements in No
  Child Left Behind?
• It tracks individual students over time. NCLB's
  Adequate Yearly Progress requirements don't
  follow the same student from, say, fourth grade
  to fifth grade rather, they compare this year's
  fourth graders with last year's fourth graders,
  whether or not the new cohort resembles the one
  from the previous year. In short, AYP can amount
  to an apples-to-oranges comparison. It cannot
  show the progress made by particular students or
  groups of students over time which is the only
  way to make valid comparisons of students'
  performance. It encourages schools to raise the
  achievement of all students, not just the subset
  of students whose improvement will satisfy AYP
  goals.

75
Q A

• By recognizing incremental progress, rather than
  insisting that all students reach a certain
  threshold, doesn't the value-added approach let
  educators off the hook, allowing them to paint a
  rosy picture of low-performing students? Making
  a year's worth of progress is significant, and it
  is a target worth shooting for. In fact, if all
  we did was assure that every child achieved a
  year of growth every year, our students would
  make dramatic learning gains, of the magnitude
  NCLB is meant to encourage. However, growth by
  itself is not enough for it denies too many
  students the chance to reach proficiency To be
  successful a school must ensure that all students
  reach an absolute standard. Without such a
  guarantee, the fear is that too many adults will
  continue to offer excuses as to why many students
  mostly those with disabilities, from poor
  families, with limited English proficiency, or
  who are racial minorities, fail to reach
  proficiency.
• The challenge then is how to retain the current
  emphasis on ensuring that all students are able
  to perform at high levels while also allowing
  some flexibility and time for schools that must
  educate our lowest achieving and most poorly
  prepared students. One option would be to adopt a
  Growth to Standards model that maintains the
  requirement that students reach proficiency, but
  allows schools flexibility in meeting those
  standards by incorporating a high quality
  approach to measuring individual student growth.
• What is the history of value-added? Value-added
  was invented by statistician Dr. William Sanders
  while working in the field of agricultural
  genetics at the University of Tennessee. In the
  early 1980's, when Lamar Alexander was Governor
  of Tennessee, Sanders learned that the
  administration was searching for an objective
  measure by which schools and educators could be
  held accountable for student learning. The notion
  that standardized test results could be used to
  determine the effectiveness of teachers was and
  still is a highly controversial idea. Sanders and
  his team at the University of Tennessee
  agriculture school thought they could do it based
  on theories applied in agricultural genetics.
  They wrote a proposal to the governor and were
  granted the rights to all of the test data for
  all of the students in Knox County schools.
• Their initial studies gained little attention.
  It wasn't until 1992, when a Tennessee Supreme
  Court order demanded a more equitable funding
  system for schools that a new interest in
  accountability surfaced and Sanders' formula
  began to attract interest. It became part of
  Tennessee's Educational Improvement Act that year
  and is still in use across the state today.
• Dr. Sanders is now manager of value-added
  assessment and research for SAS Institute Inc. in
  Cary, N.C. He assumed the SAS position in June of
  2000, upon retiring after more than 34 years as a
  professor and director of the University of
  Tennessee's Value-Added Research and Assessment
  Center. In addition to his value-added model,
  similar models have been developed by others
  across the country.

76
Contact Information

• Randy Squier, Superintendent of Schools
• rsquier_at_oxac.org
• Janet Laytham, Coordinator for Student Learning
• jlaytham_at_oxac.org
• Tim McDoald, Primary School Principal
• tmcdonal_at_oxac.org
• www.oxac.org
• Oxford Academy Central School District
• PO Box 192
• Oxford, NY 13830