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How to Use Value-Added Analysis to Improve Student Learning

A Field Guide for School and District Leaders

By: Kate Kennedy, Mary Peters, Mike Thomas

Foreword by Douglas B. Reeves

This book’s five-step continuous improvement model shows how to transform schools with value-added analysis—the most robust, statistically significant method for measuring student learning over time.

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Product Details

Grade Level: K-12
ISBN: 9781412996334
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2011
Page Count: 200
Publication date: November 27, 2012

Price: $39.95

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Description

A step-by-step guide to transforming student learning with value-added analysis

Value-added analysis is the most robust, statistically significant method available for helping educators quantify student progress over time. This powerful tool also reveals tangible strategies for improving instruction. Built around the work of Battelle for Kids, this book provides a field-tested continuous improvement model for using value-added information to increase student learning. The five-step process shows how to:

Create the conditions for success
Examine district, school, and classroom reports to assess strengths and challenges
Use these reports to create an improvement plan
Implement instructional changes
Evaluate and adjust the changes as the new school year starts

Each chapter includes case studies, real-life examples, action steps, and reflective questions in addition to numerous tools, samples, and protocols for implementing the model. By focusing on specific professional practices associated with gains in student performance, conversations shift from blame to analysis, from defensiveness to professional learning, and from micromanagement to inquiry—a fresh perspective that results in student success!

Key features

The book is organized around a field tested, five-step continuous improvement process that includes creating the conditions for success; examining district, school and classroom reports to assess strengths and challenges; using these reports to create an improvement plan; implementing instructional changes; and evaluating and adjusting the changes as the new school year starts.
Each chapter describes how to use that step in the spirit of school improvement. Included are case studies, real-life examples, end of chapter action steps, and reflective questions that will lead educators and Professional Learning Communities in discussions about how to incorporate successful data analysis practices into their schools and classrooms.
A Hands-On Resource Guide at the end of most chapters includes samples, protocols, and other tools to accompany the action steps for using value-added analysis. These short, one-page pieces can be reproduced and used by teachers and leaders.

Author(s)

Kate Kennedy

Kate Kennedy develops and leads professional development workshops for educators on how to use value-added analysis, formative assessment, and other research-based strategies and tools for school improvement. A Director at Battelle for Kids in Columbus, Ohio, she also develops online learning resources to support educators’ efforts to apply these strategies to accelerate student progress. Kate has traveled from Ohio to Hong Kong, and many interesting places in between, to help educators help kids.

Before joining the staff at Battelle for Kids, Kate studied education leadership at Teachers College in New York City and was an ESL, English Language Arts, and Social Studies teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Mary Peters

Dr. Mary Peters has conducted extensive research in the area of value-added analysis. In her role as Battelle for Kids’ Senior Director of Value-Added Research Services, Mary was responsible for managing a $6M grant with the Ohio Department of Education pertaining to the delivery and training of value-added analysis to school personnel across Ohio.

Prior to joining Battelle for Kids, Mary served as Director of Assessment and Planning for the Westerville City School District (OH). Additionally, she served as Westerville’s Value-Added Specialist to help district educators understand and use value-added information to accelerate student progress and achievement.

Mary also has experience at the state-policy level, working at the Ohio Department of Education to revise standards for Ohio schools, draft legislative language for accountability, and recommend the design of state and regional technical support systems.

An accomplished speaker, Mary has presented nationally on the topics of value-added analysis, formative assessment, and teacher effectiveness on behalf of the American Educational Research Association and the Alliance for Excellent Education. She has authored or co-authored numerous publications in the areas of school improvement and special education.

Mary is a former special education teacher and adjunct college professor.

Mike Thomas

With more than 30 years of education experience, Dr. Mike Thomas is one of the foremost experts on the implementation of value-added analysis for school improvement in the United States. Most recently, Mike has provided value-added training to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, the Houston Independent School District (TX), the Fort Worth Independent School District (TX), and numerous districts throughout New York and Ohio.

Mike led the development of Understanding & Using Value-Added Analysis: A Toolkit for School Leaders and Ohio•Learn, an online system that provides educators access to personalized professional development and instructional leadership planning tools. He also partnered with the Ohio department of Education and played an integral role in Ohio’s statewide rollout of value-added analysis, including the implementation of a professional development program to build the skills of educators from Ohio’s 12 regions.

Prior to joining Battelle for Kids as Senior Director of Innovation, Mike served as a co-coordinator of the pre-service elementary and middle school teacher education program at The Ohio State University. In this role, he was the recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award from The Ohio State University.

Mike has served as a presenter on the topic of value-added analysis at The Education Trust’s National Conference and the American Association of School Administrators’ National Conference on Education. He recently co-authored a chapter in Dr. Theodore Hershberg’s book, A Grand Bargain for Education Reform, published by Harvard Education Press in 2009.

Mike is a former middle school science and mathematics teacher.

Table of Contents

List of Figures

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

1. Step I: What Is Value-Added Analysis?

2. Step I: Jump into Value-Added Analysis

3. Step I: The Framework for Systemic Improvement

4. Step II: Assess District-Level Value-Added Reports to Determine Strengths and Challenges

5. Step II: Assess Building-Level Value-Added Reports to Determine Strengths and Challenges

6. Step II: Assess Teacher-Level Value-Added Reports to Determine Strengths and Challenges

7. Steps III and IV: Identify Root Causes and Produce an Improvement Plan

8. Step V: Take Action, Monitor, and Adjust

Afterword

Glossary

References

Index

Reviews

“This book offers a practical, engaging introduction to value-added assessment — it should be read by educators at all levels. The authors demystify a complex topic, and give educators the tools they need to use value-added data to help students learn.”

Bob Taft, Former Governor of Ohio, Distinguished Research Associate
University of Dayton, OH

"Value-Added Assessment is an extraordinarily important breakthrough in education research that provides a direct empirical measure of instructional effectiveness at the classroom level. This book could not be more timely, given the sea change now underway in how teachers and administrators are being evaluated and compensated."

Theodore Hershberg, Professor, Public Policy & History
Center for Greater Philadelphia, PA

“A welcome, plain-spoken and eminently practical guide to making the most of value-added analysis to strengthen data-driven decision making and boost achievement in our schools.”

Chester E. Finn, Jr., President
Thomas B. Fordham Institute, Washington, DC

"As districts across the country rapidly ramp up for using value-added performance measures in teacher evaluations, this book will provide invaluable information on making that data positive and productive, rather than frightening and antagonizing.”

Daniel F. McCaffrey, Senior Statistician
The RAND Corporation, Pittsburgh, PA

Other Titles in: Data-Driven Decision Making | School Change, Reform, & Restructuring

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