This article discusses Rochester's two academic models that offer different tools for different purposes--measuring individual learning and measuring what affects learning. The main focus of currently available growth measures is formative assessment--providing data to inform instructional planning. Value-added assessment is not a student assessment system. Rather, it is a way of analyzing results from student assessments over time to estimate the relative effect teachers and schools have on student learning. Value-added models are not intended to track individual student growth for instructional planning. Growth measures and value-added data both can provide powerful information to educators for improving instruction and increasing student learning. Each, however, must be used with an understanding of its strengths and limitations. Moreover, both value-added analysis and growth measures have contributed to strengthening the public schools in Rochester.