Value Added to What? How a Ceiling in the Testing Instrument Influences Value-Added Estimation
Abstract
Value-added measures of teacher quality may be sensitive to the quantitative properties of the student tests upon which they are based. This article focuses on the sensitivity of value added to test score ceiling effects. Test score ceilings are increasingly common in testing instruments across the country as education policy continues to emphasize proficiency-based reform. Encouragingly, we show that over a wide range of test score ceiling severity, teachers' value-added estimates are only negligibly influenced by ceiling effects. However, as ceiling conditions approach those found in minimum-competency testing environments, value-added results are significantly altered. We suggest a simple statistical check for ceiling effects. © 2009 American Education Finance AssociationDownload Info
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Bibliographic Info
Article provided by MIT Press in its journal Education Finance and Policy.
Volume (Year): 5 (2010)
Issue (Month): 1 (January)
Pages: 54-81
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Web page: http://mitpress.mit.edu/journals/
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Related research
Keywords: value-added estimation; teacher quality; test score ceilings;Other versions of this item:
- Cory Koedel & Julian Betts, 2008. "Value-Added to What? How a Ceiling in the Testing Instrument Influences Value-Added Estimation," Working Papers 0807, Department of Economics, University of Missouri.
- Cory Koedel & Julian Betts, 2009. "Value-Added to What? How a Ceiling in the Testing Instrument Influences Value-Added Estimation," NBER Working Papers 14778, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
- I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
- I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Cory Koedel & Teerachat Techapaisarnjaroenkit, 2012.
"The Relative Performance of Head Start,"
Eastern Economic Journal,
Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 38(2), pages 251-275.
- Cory Koedel & Teerachat Techapaisarnjaroenkit, 2010. "The Relative Performance of Head Start," Working Papers 1009, Department of Economics, University of Missouri, revised 29 Jun 2011.
- Maria Fitzpatrick & David Grissmer & Sarah Hastedt, 2009.
"What a Differense a Day Makes: Estimating Daily Learning Gains During Kindergarten and First Grade Using a Natural Experiment,"
Discussion Papers
08-050, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
- Fitzpatrick, Maria D. & Grissmer, David & Hastedt, Sarah, 2011. "What a difference a day makes: Estimating daily learning gains during kindergarten and first grade using a natural experiment," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 269-279, April.
- Koedel, Cory, 2009.
"An empirical analysis of teacher spillover effects in secondary school,"
Economics of Education Review,
Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 682-692, December.
- Cory Koedel, 2008. "An Empirical Analysis of Teacher Spillover Effects in Secondary School," Working Papers 0808, Department of Economics, University of Missouri.
- Carolyn J. Heinrich & Gerald Marschke, 2010. "Incentives and their dynamics in public sector performance management systems," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 183-208.
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