Rethinking Value-Added Models in Education

Value-added models (VAMs) are methods meant to measure the value a teacher or school adds to student learning from one year to the next. To date, however, there is very little evidence to support their trustworthiness. The mission of this book is to shed light on this issue thereby improving states' Race-to-the-Top (RttT) reform proposals.

Audrey Amrein-Beardsley, Ph.D., is currently an Associate Professor in Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. She is one of the top Edu-Scholars in the nation, honored for being an academic who is contributing substantially to public debates about the nation's educational system. She is also creator and host of the blog: VAMboozled! (vamboozled.com).

Section I: Introduction Chapter 1: Socially Engineering the Road to Utopia Chapter 2: Value-Added Models (VAMs) and the Human Factor Chapter 3: A VAMoramic View of the Nation Section II: Highly Questionable Yet Often Unquestioned Assumptions Chapter 4: Assumptions Used as Rationales and Justifications Chapter 5: Test-Based, Statistical, and Methodological Assumptions Section III: Nontraditional Concerns about Traditional Methodological Notions Chapter 6: Reliability and Validity Chapter 7: Bias and the Random Assignment of Students into Classrooms Section IV: Alternatives, Solutions, and Conclusions Chapter 8: Alternatives, Solutions, and Conclusions