Student assessment nonparticipation (or opt out) has increased substantially in K-12 schools in states across the country. This increase in opt out has the potential to impact achievement and growth (or value-added) measures used for educator and institutional accountability. In this simulation study, we investigated the extent to which…

The increased emphasis on using student growth measures in teacher evaluation has raised questions about how to treat test scores from students with disabilities. This study explores the consequences of three common approaches for treating scores from students with disabilities in statistical approaches to estimating teacher effectiveness: (1)…

The levels and growth achievement functions make extreme and diametrically opposed assumptions about the rate at which teacher inputs persist. I first show that if these assumptions are incorrect, teacher value-added estimates can be significantly biased. I then develop a tractable, cumulative model of student achievement that allows for the joint…

This study compared five value-added models and illustrated the impact of model choice on the estimates of teacher effectiveness. The five models covered a broad range of technical procedures, some very simplistic and others very sophisticated. The five value-added models were applied to a common data set to generate teacher-effectiveness measures…

The quality of education and the teachers' effectiveness impact students' lives beyond classroom performance (Chetty, Friedman, & Rockoff, 2012) and achievement on standardized tests. However, some claim there is a prevalent failure to recognize teacher's effectiveness, to effectively document poor teacher performance and to provide teachers…

In May of 2011, the "Los Angeles Times" published, for the second time, results of statistical studies examining the variation in teacher and school performance in the Los Angeles Unified School District, based on the California Standards Tests for math and English Language Arts (ELA). The studies use data from the seven academic years…

Economic theory commonly models unobserved worker quality as a given parameter that is fixed over time, but empirical evidence supporting this assumption is sparse. In this paper we report on work estimating the stability of value-added estimates of teacher effects, an important area of investigation given that new workforce policies implicitly…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether third-grade teachers' instructional actions during reading comprehension lessons contributed to their students' reading comprehension achievement. Our framework focused on teachers' emphasis on three dimensions of instruction (pedagogical structure, teacher-directed instruction, and support for…

This study explored the relationships among the components of the Arizona Department of Education's new teacher evaluation model, with a particular focus on the extent to which ratings from the state model's teacher observation instrument differentiated higher and lower performance. The study used teacher-level evaluation data collected by the…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether third-grade teachers' instructional actions during reading comprehension lessons contributed to their students' reading comprehension achievement. Our framework focused on teachers' emphasis on three dimensions of instruction (pedagogical structure, teacher-directed instruction, and support for…

Several high inference ratings were made on a sample of 31 second- and third-grade teachers selected for study because of their consistency in producing student gains on the Metropolitan Achievement Test over three successive years. Data consist of scales, checklists, and percent estimates filled out by coders after or during classroom…

This study examines the stability of teacher effectiveness over a two-year period and its relation to emphasized reading skills. Data gathered in 1974 and 1976 for all third-grade and sixth-grade reading teachers at an Indiana school identified teacher effectiveness in reading instruction, instructional emphases, and any trends that might have…

This report evaluated a teacher education program designed to improve the quality of instruction for low income students in New York City. A major goal of the program was to increase student reading and English fluency skills. Teachers for the program were trained on college campuses. Each participating school designed its training program to suit…

This study was conducted in order to determine the kinds of knowledge third grade teachers need to teach an effective unit and to determine the relationship between content knowledge and classroom performance. The research focused on the subject matter areas in which three student teachers believed they were most and least confident. Data for this…

A system which used pupil outcomes to estimate the predictive validity of assessments of teacher outcomes was field tested in a performance-based teacher education program at Florida State University. Three levels of teaching competency were assessed: (1) competencies associated with cognitive identification of appropriate decisions for…