Case Studies: Overview | Classroom | School | District
Value-added reports created by SAS® EVAAS® provide teachers with information on students' progress at each grade level and in each subject area. Additionally, these reports can display distinct patterns of growth for students with different achievement levels. To learn more about value-added reporting and find specific examples of different reports, see the Houston Independent School District's Resource Guide for Value-Added Reporting.
Value-added reports allow teachers to determine the focus of their instruction (identifying which students in their classroom have grown the most) and their overall instructional impact (how much growth their class as a whole has made since the beginning of the year). Teachers can also use their value-added data to:
- Assess individual student academic needs
- Evaluate their specific strengths and weaknesses across content areas and subgroups of students
- Implement differentiated, data-driven instruction plans to increase student achievement
Below is an explanation of how one teacher, Ms. Peters-Crosby, effectively utilized value-added data in her classroom. Ms. Peters-Crosby used the information she gained by analyzing value-added reports to inform her practice and lead her students to impressive academic growth. The case study was drawn from this Battelle for Kids example.
Ms. Peters-Crosby is a fifth-grade math teacher who used value-added as a diagnostic tool to improve her students' learning. When she received her first value-added results, Ms. Peters-Crosby found that her math students had made growth that was comparable with the average growth for fifth-grade math students.
Not satisfied with these results, Ms. Peters-Crosby analyzed the curriculum she was using for gaps with state standards. Finding some significant differences, Ms. Peters-Crosby created supplementary materials that addressed these gaps. The next year, her students saw growth 5.9 points higher than predicted.
Still not satisfied with the growth her students were making, Ms. Peters-Crosby again looked to value-added data. She saw that her low-achieving students were not making as much growth as her high-achieving students. Ms. Peters-Crosby changed her practice to address this weakness by providing tutors, placing added emphasis on review sheets, and making instructional changes. The next year, Ms. Peters-Crosby's students scored 23.4 points higher than expected.
There are lessons to be learned from Ms. Peters-Crosby's success. Each time she was able to increase her student's growth levels Ms. Peters-Crosby followed these steps:
- Analyze value-added data to determine strengths and weaknesses. Value-added reports allow teachers to identify groups of students who are not growing at the same rate as others in the class. Ms. Peters-Crosby found that her low-achieving students were not growing as fast as her high achieving students.
- Identify potential causes of the weaknesses that are under the teacher's control. Rather than focus on the multitude of factors outside of the classroom that impact student learning, teachers should focus on factors that they can address through their practice. For example, after identifying the growth of low-achieving students as a weakness, Ms. Peters-Crosby theorized that her instruction did not provide enough remediation for students who did not master concepts the first time they were taught.
- Address the causes of weaknesses by changing practice. Since teachers have identified factors that are under their control, they can modify their instruction to address the causes of weaknesses. For example, Ms. Peters-Crosby addressed the need for additional remediation by modifying worksheets and providing additional instruction after school.
The following resources come from Battelle for Kids, an organization that partners with school districts to develop educational services.
- Battelle provides helpful case studies of teachers and schools that effectively use value-added reports at the classroom level and clearly explains the benefits of value-added analysis for teachers.
- Battelle developed a training activity to help teachers analyze value-added reports. This activity shows participants common patterns of growth that might occur in their value-added data, and explains what each pattern means for the students in their classroom. For example, the type of pattern created by the data will show teachers whether high, middle, or low achieving students are benefitting the most from instruction.