Value Added Assessment in Ohio:

1

• Value Added Assessment in Ohio
• An (On-Going) Tale
• of
• Two Accountability Systems
• Presented by Ann Sheldon
• Executive Director, Ohio Association for Gifted
  Children

2
Accountability The Ohio Story

• Brief Overview of Value-Added Assessment (Not
  in-depth or statistical)
• Impact of ESEA (No Child Left Behind)
• Policy and Issues Relating to Value-Added
• Response and Charge to Gifted Community
• Closer Look at Battelle for Kids Project SOAR and
  potential changes to Ohios accountability system.

3

What is Value-Added Assessment?

• Basic Premise Each child should make a years
  growth for a years worth of instruction.
• Value-added compares the gains each student makes
  from year to year
• Academic Growth is measured by
• Growth present performance prior performance
• Growth is not related to student stable
  characteristics (SES, race, ability, etc.)

4
Value-Added Advantages Over Threshold Assessment
Systems

• Each student is measured against his/her own
  starting level instead of a fixed minimum score.
• Value-added accounts for extraneous factors such
  as SES and tax-base that dismiss upscale suburban
  student performance and excuse low income urban
  performance.
• Value-added truly leaves no child behind. The
  growth of all children are examined, not just the
  levels of students jumping over a hurdle.

5
Achievement and Progress
High Achievement Low Progress
High Achievement High Progress
75 Pass
Achievement
Low Achievement High Progress
Low Achievement Low Progress
1 Years Growth
6
A View of Student Performance
We must expect progress for all students.
7
Patterns of Gain and Loss
Shed Pattern
Reverse Shed
Tee-Pee
Bubble/Threshold
8
(No Transcript)
9
General Findings of Value-Added

• Teacher is the most important factor in student
  success
• Poor/minority students can make as much progress
  as other students with the same teachers
• School in poor/minority areas can be as effective
  as other schools

10
Discoveries for High-Ability Students

• The most capable students may show the least
  amount of annual achievement growth.
• Students with limited opportunities for advanced
  coursework in high school perform much lower on
  the ACT

11
Pitfalls of ESEA

• ESEA looks at the majority of kids making
  progress to a minimal level, not AYP for each
  student or category of students
• Still drives threshold testing which can be
  gamed by the district
• Does not include gifted as a sub-category for
  measurement (which is undesirable in a threshold
  driven system).

12
Incorporating ESEA and Value-Added Assessment

• ESEA requires all students, grades 3-8 to be
  tested annually in math and reading.
• Specific sub-groups must be tracked for annual
  yearly progress (AYP).
• Twenty states have submitted proposals to
  incorporate value-added gains to AYP measures.
  Please go to www.oagc.com for a summary of state
  pilots accepted.

13
If ESEA requirements can be changed to look at
AYP in terms of growth based on value-added
rather than a threshold score, districts and
states just might be held accountable for all
students, including the gifted .
14
Why Are Value-Added and ESEA a Gifted Issue?

• Value-added offers an avenue to ensure that
  gifted kids are not held back in the world of
  Leave No Child Behind.
• What gets measured gets done.
• Gifted can be part of the mainstream educational
  reform issue.
• Gifted cannot continue to work in isolation and
  expect the mainstream to move toward gifted.

15
Current Gifted Response

• Nationally
• ???
• Locally
• Certain states are adopting Value-Added and
  attempting to merge ESEA and Value-added
• Grappling with ceiling effects for high-end

16
Desired Gifted Response

• Nationally
• Work with the concept to determine how to best
  use value-added with gifted students as a
  separate population.
• Research ceiling effects, most appropriate tests
  for use with all populations
• Off-grade level tests
• Talent Search data
• Potential for evaluating effects of different
  programs and services
• Provides ammunition to advocate for more federal
  support of gifted students.

17
Desired Response

• Locally
• Lobby to flag gifted students to examine
  separately in school databases
• Measure the effects of schools and programs on
  gifted student achievement

18
Value-Added in Ohio System One

• Battelle for Kids SOAR (Schools Online
  Achievement Reports)
• 40 volunteer districts with over 120,000 students
  in 2002 to 100 school districts in 2006.
• Districts are diverse in terms of geography,
  wealth, and performance based on state criteria
  (criterion-referenced tests)
• Can use student growth projections to determine
  future performance issues.

19
Value-Added in Ohio System Two

• By 2007/2008, Ohio will incorporate value-added
  assessment as part of the accountability system.
  The implications for Ohios gifted children could
  be potentially huge if ODE implements the growth
  measure appropriately
• Districts (especially suburban) wont be able to
  hide behind the proficiency tests.
• Ohios lack of consideration for high ability
  students will (hopefully) be transparent.
• Gifted children may well show up as the most left
  behind group in Ohio.
• Gifted services will need to be real.

20
Current Issues in Implementation

• Ohios Accountability Task Force must decide how
  to implement the growth measurement on the Ohio
  District Report Card.
• Some policymakers are getting cold feet as
  suburban districts show poor growth in the SOAR
  project.
• Technical issues to be resolved e.g.
  accelerated students

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For additional information on value-added, go
to http//www.oagc.com/Advocacy/alert.phpwww.
sas.com/govedu/edu/hunt_summary.pdfwww.sas.com/g
ovedu/edu/services/edweek.pdfwww.battelleforkids
.comhttp//www.tagpdx.org/tvaas.htmwww.pdkintl
.org