Many school districts and states are looking to use student achievement scores as a way to evaluate teachers. The Race to the Top promotes, if not requires, this practice. In a search for evidence of effectiveness of this practice the articles and information below are what was found.




Can Value-Added Measures of Teacher Performance Be Trusted?
Education Policy Center at Michigan State University
Working Paper #18
Note: This paper was originally posted March 2011
Revised April 23, 2011
Cassandra M. Guarino, Ph.D. Mark D. Rekase, Ph.D. College of Education
Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, Ph.D.
Department of Economics
Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan 48824-1034

Given that the accuracy of VAM-based measures of teacher performance can vary considerably
across contexts and that the potential for bias if particular methods are applied to the wrong situations is
nontrivial, we conclude that it is premature to attach stakes to these measures until their properties have
been better understood.

Mathematical Intimidation: Driven by the Data
John Ewing

Making policy decisions on the basis of value- added models has the potential to do even more
harm than browbeating teachers.they sometimes don’t agree with common sense. None of this means that value-added models are

Value-Added Measures and the Future of Educational Accountability
Douglas N. Harris 12 AUGUST 2011 VOL 333 SCIENCE www.sciencemag.org
826 Published by AAAS




How Effective Are Los Angeles Elementary Teachers and Schools?
Richard Buddin


Problems with the Use of Student Test Scores to Evaluate Teachers
co-authored by scholars convened by the Economic Policy Institute:
Eva l. Baker, Paul E. Barton, Linda Darling-Hammond,
Edward Haertel, Helen F. Ladd, Robert l. Linn, Diane Ravitch,
Richard Rothstein, Richard J. Shavelson, and Lorrie A. Shepard
August 29, 2010 Briefing Paper #278
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Letter Report to the U.S. Department of Education on the Race to the Top Fund
Board on Testing and Assessment; National Research Council
ISBN: 0-309-14579-1, 19 pages, 8 1/2 x 11, (2009)
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Evaluating Value-Added Models for Teacher Accountability
DANIEL F. McCAFFREY J.R. LOCKWOOD DANIEL M. KORETZ LAURA S. HAMILTON
Prepared for the Carnegie Corporation by RAND Education

The estimates from VAM modeling of achievement will often be too imprecise to support some of the desired inferences…

The research base is currently insufficient to support the use of VAM for high-stakes decisions about individual teachers
or schools.

Tying Teacher Evaluation to Student Achievement
Caution, Yellow Light Ahead
Susan H. Fuhrman April 7, 2010 Education Week
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Approaches to Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness: A Research Synthesis
June 2008 Laura Goe, Ph.D. Courtney Bell, Ph.D. Olivia Little
National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality

The Relationship Between Standards-Based Teacher Evaluation Scores and Student Achievement:
Replication and Extensions at Three Sites
Anthony T. Milanowski, Steven M. Kimball, and Brad White
Consortium for Policy Research In Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison
March 2004 CPRE-UW Working Paper Series TC-04-01
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The Relationship Between Teacher Evaluation Scores
And Student Achievement: Evidence from Coventry, RI
Brad White, Consortium for Policy Research In Education
University of Wisconsin-Madison
April, 2004 CPRE-UW Working Paper Series TC-04-04
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Using Student Tests to Measure Teacher Quality
Julia E. Koppich CAESL
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Student Data and Teacher Evaluation - It's Not That Simple!
Kansas National Education Assocation
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Use of Student Achievement Scores as Basis for Assessing
Teachers’ Instructional Effectiveness: Issues and Research Results
Monday T. Joshua1, Akon M. Joshua2 and Anges Ebi Maliki3
1. Faculty of Education, University of Calabar
2. Faculty of Education, Cross River University of Technology
3. Faculty of Education, ***** Delta University
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Use of Student Achievement Scores as Basis For Assessing
Teachers’ Instructional Effectiveness: Issues And
Research Results
Dr. Monday T. Joshua Faculty of Education, University of Calabar
Dr. (Mrs.) Akon M. Joshua Faculty of Education Cross River University of Technology
William Allan Kritsonis Professor PhD Program in Educational Leadership
Prairie View A&M University Member of the Texas A&M University System
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Rush to Judgment: Teacher Evaluation in Public Education
By Thomas Toch and Robert Rothman
EDUCATION SECTOR REPORTS
January 2008
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Use research-based teacher evaluation
Pennsylvania State Education Association
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Teacher Evaluation
Policy Brief by Gene V Glass Arizona State University February 2004

Value-Added Assessment from Student Achievement Data: Opportunities and Hurdles
CREATE NATIONAL EVALUATION INSTITUTE July 21, 2000
William L. Sanders

Teacher and Classroom Context Effects on Student
Achievement: Implications for Teacher Evaluation
S. PAUL WRIGHT, SANDRA P. HORN AND WILLIAM L. SANDERS
University of Tennessee, Value-Added Research and Assessment Center
Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education 11: 57±67, 1997

CAN, AND SHOULD, TEACHERS BE EVALUATED USING STUDENT LEARNING DATA?
Teacher Evaluation: New Directions & Practices
Kenneth D. Peterson, Ph.D., Portland State University, Portland OR

Value-Added Assessment Annotated Bibliography


Other Related Papers, Reports, and Studies

Methodological Concerns About the Education Value-Added Assessment System
Audrey Amrein-Beardsley EDUCATIONAL RESEARCHER MARCH 2008

Identifying Effective Teachers Using Performance on the Job
Robert Gordon Center for American Progress
Thomas J. Kane Harvard Graduate School of Education
Douglas O. Staiger Dartmouth College
The Brookings Institution APRIL 2006

Classroom Accountability: A Value-Added Methodology
Dena Dossett Marco A. Muñoz
Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS)
VanHoose Education Center Accountability, Research, and Planning Department
Louisville, KY
Paper presented at the 2003 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association,

How to Improve the Supply of High Quality Teachers
By Eric A. Hanushek and Steven G. Rivkin
Brookings Papers on Education Policy May 21-22, 2003

News Articles

The Kids Aren't All Right in Florida Schools
Walt Gardner on March 25, 2011 Education Week

Teacher Merit Pay: Why Test Scores Shouldn't Dictate Salaries
Todd Farley December 23, 2010 The Huffington Post

Standardized Testing: The New Wild West
Todd Farley December 18, 2010 The Huffington Post

City Revamps Guidelines for Teacher Tenure
Beth Fertig December 14, 2010 WNYC News

What Works in the Classroom? Ask the Students
SAM DILLON December 10, 2010 The New York Times

Judge Hears Arguments In Request For Teacher Performance Scores
Lindsey Christ 12/08/2010 NY1 News

Showdown Nears on Release of NYC Teacher Ratings
KAREN MATTHEWS December 7, 2010 The Associated Press The Washington POst

When layoffs come to L.A. schools, performance doesn't count
December 04, 2010|By Jason *****, Jason Song and Doug Smith, Los Angeles Time

Video Eye Aimed at Teachers in 7 School Systems
SAM DILLON December 3, 2010 The New York Times

Teacher Ratings Get New Look, Pushed by a Rich Watcher
SAM DILLON December 3, 2010 The New York Times
See Comments on Video Evaluation of Teachers related to this article.

L.A. TimesReport Criticized After Teacher’s Suicide
The Validity of Value-Added Models An Allegory
Seeing the experience of value-added models through the lens of
foster parenting makes clear some of the challenges facing education.
By Joseph A. Martineau April 2010 Kappan

Formula to Grade Teachers’ Skill Gains Acceptance, and Critics
SAM DILLON August 31, 2010 The New York Times

Curriculum Effects and Value-Added
Robert Pondiscio August 23rd, 2010 Core Knowledge Blog
read the comments as well

WHAT ABOUT CURRICULUM EFFECTS?
Barak Rosenshine August 19, 2010 ALBERT SHANKER INSTITUTE

Flow and diffusion of high-stakes test scores
M. Marder and D. Bansal
Edited by Leo P. Kadanoff, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, and approved August 18, 2009 (received for review December 2, 2008)