Battelle for Kids VALUE-ADDED
Presenter: Dr. James Mahoney
www.BattelleforKids.org - (614) 481-3141
Battelle
for Kids is
a nonprofit
organization
committed
to enhancing
student
learning by bringing clarity to school improvement. Battelle staff provide professional development, training and consulting, research and evaluation services. KIDS:
Knowledge, Innovation, Data, and Strategic Alliances.
VALUE-ADDED: Add value to something by leaving it better than it was found. When applied to education, value-added refers to the role educators play in taking students beyond where they were when they started. Value-added assessment is progress assessment. Whether a student begins below the 1st percentile or at the 90th percentile, the goal is the same, progress.
VALUE-ADDED ANALYSIS: A statistical method used to measure a school’s impact on students’ rates of academic progress from year to year. Using this growth metric, districts and schools obtain valuable diagnostic information to begin interpreting the impact of their curricula, instruction, programs and practices on student achievement. In addition to providing information about students’ progress, value-added information also can help project students’ future academic performance. Educators can use this information to provide the appropriate intervention or enrichment or modify instruction to maximize student growth. Value-added analysis is not just another data point or education reform effort. Value-added analysis provides an insightful indication of a school’s impact on student learning across grades and subject levels.
Education is not Achievement OR Progress, it must be both. Value-added progress monitoring gives students HOPE. Even students with the most deficient skills will have hope when given data, a visual, that clearly shows they are making progress. The data Dr. Mahoney and the Battelle staff generate for students, buildings and districts (based on state and/or district achievement test results), promotes powerful discussions between and within districts about 'what's working for you?' Value-added data is not threatening to teachers when introduced with the correct foundation and process for goal setting. Realistic individual goals (aimlines) are based upon where students are now, what interventions are occurring, and how much progress they have made in the past. In high mobility schools, scores are weighted differently based upon how long a student has been in the district.
Battelle has examined 1000 schools to determine who has made consistent progress in all grade levels, in all subjects. Notably, the top 10 schools included 3 rural, 3 urban, and 3 suburban. Value-added support and analysis has helped educators ensure that ALL students achieve at the highest levels.