ERIC Number: ED544205
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2013-Sep
Pages: 62
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-
EISSN: N/A
Using Alternative Student Growth Measures for Evaluating Teacher Performance: What the Literature Says.
REL 2013-002
Gill, Brian; Bruch, Julie; Booker, Kevin
Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic
States are increasingly interested in including measures of student achievement growth, or "value-
added," in evaluating teachers. Annual state assessments, however, which are the typical measure of student
growth, usually cover only reading and math teachers and only in grades 4-8. These state assessments thus cannot
generally be used to measure contributions to student achievement growth for early elementary school teachers,
most high school teachers, and teachers of other subjects. As a consequence, a growing number of states and
school districts are exploring alternatives for measuring teachers' contributions to student learning. These
alternatives have the potential to be used for evaluating not only teachers who work in grades and subjects
outside the annual state testing regime but also as complementary growth measures for teachers of tested grades
and subjects. This report reviews the literature on two categories of alternative measures for evaluating
teachers: (1) Alternative student outcome measures used in statistical growth (or value- added) models; and (2)
Teacher-developed student learning objectives used for measuring growth. It also summarizes the evidence on the
use of three types of alternative growth measures: (1) Student assessments other than annual state assessments
used in statistical growth models; (2) Nontest student outcomes used in growth models; and (3) Student learning
objectives (SLOs). Three appendixes are included: (1) Literature search methodology; (2) Results of the
literature search for alternative student outcomes in statistical growth models; and (3) Results of the
literature search for student learning objectives. (Contains 3 notes and 16 tables.) [This report was prepared
for the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) by Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic administered by
ICF International. For the report summary, see ED544208.]
Descriptors: Teacher Evaluation, Teacher Competencies, Evaluation Methods, Educational Testing, Scores, Educational Objectives, Correlation, Standardized Tests, State Standards, Academic Achievement, Achievement Gains, Incentives, Teacher Effectiveness, Test Reliability, Outcomes of Education, Meta Analysis, High Stakes Tests, Statistical Analysis, Teacher Improvement, Student Evaluation, Alternative Assessment, Public Schools
Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic. 11785 Beltsville Drive Suite 300, Calverton, MD 20705.
Tel: 301-572-0889; Tel: 866-735-6239; e-mail: info@relmidatlantic.org; Web site: http://www.relmidatlantic.org
Publication Type: Information Analyses
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education; Elementary Education; Middle Schools; High Schools
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic (ED); National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (ED)
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: ACT Assessment; Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS); Iowa Tests of Basic Skills; Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test; Stanford Achievement Tests
IES Funded: Yes
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
IES Cited: ED558160; ED561234; ED561236; ED544797
IES Publication: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/projects/project.asp?ProjectID=369