ERIC Number: EJ911163
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011-Feb
Pages: 31
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0002-8312
EISSN: N/A
Different Tests, Different Answers: The Stability of Teacher Value-Added Estimates across Outcome Measures
Papay, John P.
American Educational Research Journal, v48 n1 p163-193 Feb 2011
Recently, educational researchers and practitioners have turned to value-added models to evaluate teacher performance. Although value-added estimates depend on the assessment used to measure student achievement, the importance of outcome selection has received scant attention in the literature. Using data from a large, urban school district, I examine whether value-added estimates from three separate reading achievement tests provide similar answers about teacher performance. I find moderate-sized rank correlations, ranging from 0.15 to 0.58, between the estimates derived from different tests. Although the tests vary to some degree in content, scaling, and sample of students, these factors do not explain the differences in teacher effects. Instead, test timing and measurement error contribute substantially to the instability of value-added estimates across tests. (Contains 14 notes, 9 tables, and 2 figures.)
Descriptors: Urban Schools, Teacher Effectiveness, Reading Achievement, Achievement Tests, Measurement, Error of Measurement, Educational Researchers, Teacher Evaluation, Evaluation Methods, Reading Tests, Correlation, Evaluation Problems, Educational Testing, Test Selection, Testing Problems, Test Reliability, High Stakes Tests, Educational Policy, Longitudinal Studies, Merit Pay
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Elementary Education; Elementary Secondary Education; Grade 3; Grade 4; Grade 5
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Stanford Achievement Tests
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
IES Cited: ED544797; ED544205; ED544674