Case Studies: Overview | Classroom | School | District
Value-added reports created by SAS® EVAAS® can provide school leaders with information on students' progress at each grade level and in each subject area. There are three types of reports that display value-added data at the district level:
Value-Added Summary Reports provide a comparison of the progress rates of students in all the schools in the region.
Diagnostic Summary Reports allow you to compare patterns of gain for students with differing achievement levels across all the schools in the region, by grade and subject.
Performance Diagnostic Summary Reports allow you to compare patterns of progress among subgroups of students predicted to score within different performance levels across all the schools in the region, by grade and subject.
In addition to the reports at the district level, district administrators can also take advantage of reports that analyze data at the school and even individual classroom level. For more information and specific examples of each of these types of reports, see the Houston Independent School District's Resource Guide for Value-Added Reporting.
District administrators can use information from these value-added reports to:
- Measure the impact of educational practices, classroom curricula, instructional methods, and professional development on student achievement.
- Identify successful and struggling schools, and teachers, and students.
- Make data-driven decisions about where to focus resources to help students make greater progress and perform at higher levels.
Below is an example of how one school district effectively used value-added reports to drive school reform and make significant academic growth in its lowest performing schools. Most of the information was pulled from an Education Sector report and a NewsHour special on the Hamilton County School District in Tennessee.
In 1996 Hamilton County, a suburban school district, and Chattanooga City Schools, an urban school district, merged into one. The new joint superintendent, Jesse Register, saw the merger as the opportune time to address the gap in achievement between the students in Hamilton County and the students in Chattanooga, who scored almost 30% lower on national standardized tests than their suburban peers.
Register's push to close the achievement gap was lent urgency by a report published in 2000 that found that nine of the twenty lowest performing elementary schools in Tennessee were located in Chattanooga. In 2001, The Hamilton County School District partnered with the Public Education Foundation and the Benwood Foundation to implement what became known as the Benwood Initiative. The Benwood Initiative was designed to improve instruction at the nine elementary schools and more specifically, to increase the number of third-graders reading at grade level.
The use of data, particularly value-added analysis, was a cornerstone of the Benwood Initiative. The district used value-added analysis to:
- Ensure a high-quality teaching staff. Benwood schools were reconstituted, requiring the 300 teachers in these schools to re-apply for their jobs. Struggling teachers were transferred to other schools, and Benwood hired 100 new staff. At this point, principals were tasked with ensuring the quality of teaching remained high. Teachers were evaluated three times a year, and those who were considered unsatisfactory were not issued their three-year contract.
- Match the highest performing teachers with struggling students. The Chattanooga urban league funded a program that matched high performing teachers with students who scored in the bottom quartile in reading. The urban league looked at teachers' value-added reports and selected those who had made the most progress with their students for the program.
- Target professional development. Principals in the Benwood schools used value-added data to identify teachers' strengths and weaknesses by subject area and with students of different performance levels. They sent staff to observe teachers who were identified as highly effective in specific areas, and targeted professional development to weaknesses observed across teachers' value-added reports.
- Celebrate success and student growth. The Hamilton County School District included all of its teachers, including those at Benwood Schools, in a program to reward highly successful teachers. The district used value-added data to identify teachers whose students grew at least 15% more than their expected growth. These highly effective teachers were awarded $5,000 bonuses from the mayor and $1,000 bonuses from the school district. Principals whose schools grew 15% or more above expected growth received $10,000 bonuses. By 2005, 115 teachers had earned these rewards.
Within the Benwood schools, the percent of third graders passing the state reading exam jumped from 23% in 2003 to 78% in 2008. At Hardy Elementary, which had been identified as the lowest performing school in Tennessee, 75% of students met reading standards by 2005. Battelle for Kids documented East Side Elementary as a powerful example of the use of value-added to improve students' academic growth.
- The Public Education Foundation's website contains a variety of information about the Benwood Initiative, including lessons learned by the Hamilton County School District.
- Battelle for Kids, an organization that partners with school districts to deliver education services, presents the benefits of value-added for superintendents and Frequently Asked Questions about value-added.