The Magic Number for Value-Added?
IMPACT, the Washington DC teacher evaluation program put in place by Chancellor Michelle Rhee, gives individual value-added measures a 50% weight in teacher evaluation determinations (for teachers who have value-added scores). The magic number for Race to the Top was also 50%. Los Angeles Unified committed to 30% in California’s losing Race to the Top application.
The Economic Policy Institute’s new brief, which details the many concerns with and limitations to current value-added measures, says that 50% is “unwise.” However, despite EPI’s litany of concerns with value-added, the authors, who include Diane Ravitch, Helen Ladd, and Linda Darling-Hammond, conclude that: “Used