FAQ’s About the Value-Added Achievement Awards Program

FAQ’s   What is the Value-Added Achievement Awards program? The Value-Added Achievement Awards are annual awards program that recognize Tennessee’s most effective middle and elementary school principals. These are the leaders whose schools have excelled at raising the academic performance of their students. The program is part of the Education Consumers Foundation’s efforts to make education data clear and understandable to education’s consumers. What is value-added assessment? Value-added assessment is a term taken from economics. It refers not … Read More

Value-Added Achievement Awards Initiative

The Value-Added Achievement Awards and School Performance Charts   Introduction Every citizen has a stake in school quality, especially parents. The purpose of these awards is to make school quality visible to all and to give those who are responsible for producing it the recognition they deserve. All states collect, analyze, and report mountains of school performance data. However, most of this information is not easily accessed or understood by non-educators. Our aim is to strengthen the public’s … Read More

Sample Opinion 2

Value-Added Accountability and Public Confidence in Education J. E. Stone, Ed. D. House of Representatives Testimony to the Select Committee on House Resolution 495 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Tuesday, September 19, 2000 Introduction Good morning. My name is John Stone. I am a licensed educational psychologist and licensed school psychologist, and I have taught prospective teachers for the past 30 or so years. I am a graduate of the University of Florida and currently a professor in the College of … Read More

Sample Opinion 1

A “Second Opinion” Regarding Implementation of the Nebraska Partnership for Quality Education Project September 9, 1999 George K. Cunningham, Ph.D. College of Education University of Louisville J.E. Stone, Ed.D. College of Education East Tennessee State University Martin Kozloff, Ph.D. Watson School of Education University of North Carolina – Wilmington all of the Education Consumers Consultant Network At the request of Ann Mactier–member of the Nebraska Board of Education–the Nebraska Partnership for Quality Education proposal was examined by the … Read More

Glossary of Terms

Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations Used in Tennessee’s Value-Added Assessment Reports   3-Year-Average NCE Gain The average academic gain of the most recent 3 years expressed as an NCE (normal curve equivalent) score. These scores represent the average number of NCE points by which a school exceeds or falls short of the student achievement growth that occurred statewide in 1998-the benchmark year, a.k.a., the Growth Standard. These are the scores on which the Value-Added Achievement Awards are based. … Read More

Issues in Public Education

posted in: Briefings & Reports |

Policy Analyses by J.E. Stone, Ed.D. Research and Analysis A great deal of research and policy analysis is available and its ostensive purpose is to improve public education.  The problem, however, is that almost all of it is produced by and for educators, not consumers.  As a result, it tends to serve the aims and purposes of its educator audience, not those of the consuming public.  In general, the public want schools to produce better student learning outcomes.  … Read More

Policy Highlights

Tennessee’s Race to the Top Application Significant Reforms Found By J.E. Stone, Ed.D. President Education Consumers Foundation February 15, 2010 (click here for PDF) Introduction Tennessee can take justifiable pride in its Race to the Top (RTTT) application. It is a bold plan and it succeeds by ensuring that the key elements of schooling enterprise—governance, hiring, compensation, and training—all treat student achievement gains as schooling’s top priority. Even retention for tenured teachers is subject to job performance requirements. In … Read More

About TVAAS

Tennessee’s Value Added Assessment: Why It’s Important and How It Works Ten years prior to the federal No Child Left Behind Act, Tennessee enacted its Value Added Assessment System (TVAAS). TVAAS was and is a major advancement in educational accountability. It remains the most sophisticated and mature school accountability system in use today. It is TVAAS’s statistical precision that makes it possible to rank Tennessee’s schools according to their effectiveness in helping students learn. Prior to 1980, school … Read More

Consumer Tools

ECF has numerous tools to help keep you informed. Check out the links below for more detailed reports and articles. The ECF Cost Calculator: Determining the Cost of the Failure to Teach Reading Reading failure is imposing a hidden annual surtax: Find out how much your schools are contributing to the problem. Calculate the Cost Background on the Calculator   School Performance Nationally by State Are the Schools in Your State Teaching Children to Read? School Performance Nationally … Read More

Achievement vs. Growth “Birdshot” Chart

posted in: Data Scoreboards, Graphic Tools Used in Tennessee, Tools for Rating Schools |

Tennessee Growth vs. Achievement “Birdshot” Chart   Tennessee school performance is measured on two factors: achievement, assessed with the TCAP and ACT tests; and growth, seen in TVAAS (i.e., value-added) results. Parents can compare the performance of their child’s school with others across the district or the state by viewing ECF’s interactive Growth vs. Achievement Charts. Links to charts of recent years are listed below.  Note that the 2011 charts for elementary and middle grades rely on a “Growth … Read More

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