Hi,I handle media relations for WestEd. Your April 9th Big Education A.P.E. post titled "SEZ Who? Bigger Math Gains Seen In Middle School TFA Teachers' Pupils - Teacher Beat - Education Week" includes WestEd and the full list of Edvance research partners. While WestEd does work with Edvance on projects, we didn't participate in this report described in the blog post. It seems misleading to show us as research partners related to this specific story. Could you please either remove mention of WestEd from this story, or add text that explains the list shown is not specifically related to the report discussed in the post?Thanks.
Bigger Math Gains Seen In Middle School TFA Teachers' Pupils
Middle school Teach For America teachers in Texas seem to be holding their own in the classroom, outperforming other novice teachers in math, according to a recently released study from the San Antonio, Texas-based Edvance, an independent evaluation firm.
TFA alumni also did better than other veteran teachers in that subject, the study found.
The study stands out for several reasons. For one, it looks at a very large sample size of more than 1,500 TFA teachers and alumni, nearly 500 schools, and more than 11,000 students in each subject area of reading and math. The study also looked across several Texas districts' programs. Finally, the quasi-experimental methodology used allows for more confidence that the TFA teachers and not confounding factors are responsible for the student achievement, measured here using 2010-11 state standardized test scores.
That's important, because one problem with much of the research on TFA is that it tends to compare groups of students taught by TFA and non-TFA teachers, without ensuring that those groups' baseline characteristics are similar. The research is also mainly descriptive.
The research gold standard is a random-assignment experiment, using carefully matched treatment and control groups. But these are costly, time consuming, and logistically
The research gold standard is a random-assignment experiment, using carefully matched treatment and control groups. But these are costly, time consuming, and logistically
| Research Partners |
Edvance Research has established partnerships with leading national research and educational organizations. These alliances are instrumental in expanding the work we do and collaborating to support our mission of improving outcomes for students through building the capacity of educators and their school communities to conduct, understand and use research in their practice.
The partners listed below have contributed to Edvance work on various projects.
The Academic Development Institute (ADI) is a non-profit institution founded in 1984 with a portfolio of tools and resources for state agencies, school districts, communities and families. ADI has held contracts with state education agencies, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and with the U.S. Department of Education, most recently running the Center on Innovation & Improvement, a national content center for the U.S. Department of Education. ADI is now a partner in three national content centers—Innovations in Learning, School Turnaround, and Building State Capacity and Productivity, and is based in Lincoln, IL. www.adi.org.
 Through research and policy analysis, CRPE seeks ways to make public education more effective, especially for America’s disadvantaged students. CRPE's work emphasizes evidence over posture and confronts hard truths, searching outside the traditional boundaries of education to find pragmatic, equitable, and promising approaches to address the complex challenges facing public education. CRPE's goal is to create new possibilities for the parents, educators, and public officials who strive to improve America’s schools. Founded at the University of Washington in 1993, CRPE is a self-sustaining organization funded entirely through private philanthropic dollars, federal grants, and contracts. www.crpe.org. 
The Value-Added Research Center (VARC), housed in the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is recognized for their ground-breaking work on value-added systems and evaluation models, which are being increasingly utilized as a tool in school improvement. WCER is one of the oldest, largest and most productive university-based education research centers in the world.
VARC has gained national prominence as a technical assistance provider for performance-based compensation projects. The organization is recognized for their extensive capacity in data quality and innovation in system redesign, providing broad-based support of holistic school reform efforts. VARC provides expertise for the full range of policy & technical challenges including productivity measures, data quality, IT systems, leadership evaluation, teacher evaluation, communication and stakeholder engagement, and pipeline/human capital strategies. http://varc.wceruw.org 
The Education Commission of the States(ECS) is an interstate compact created in 1965 to improve public education by facilitating the exchange of information, ideas and experiences among state policymakers and education leaders. As a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization involving key leaders from all levels of the education system, ECS creates unique opportunities to build partnerships, share information and promote the development of policy based on available research and strategies.
Forty-nine states, three territories and the District of Columbia constitute the commission's current membership. Each member state or territory is represented by seven commissioners -- the governor and six other individuals, typically legislators, chief state school officers, state and local school board members, superintendents, higher education officials and business leaders. www.ecs.org.
 Hi,
WestEd is a leading nonprofit research, development and service agency that offers a broad portfolio of nonpartisan, evidence-based solutions. As a nonprofit agency, WestEd work is guided by a mission of promoting excellence, achieving equity and improving learning for children, youth, and adults.
Founded in 1966, WestEd is guided by research and experience, drawing on an ever-growing and constantly refined base of knowledge and development for more than four decades. The organization brings in exceptional talent from across the country to tackle the complex issues related to education and human development. www.wested.org 
The Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR) is a national leader in research on high school reform and has conducted groundbreaking research on determinants of high school graduation and college access and success.
CCSR, which is part of the Urban Education Institute (UEI) at the University of Chicago, conducts research of high technical quality that can inform and assess policy and practice in the Chicago Public Schools. CCSR seeks to expand communication among researchers, policy makers, and practitioners as it supports the search for solutions to the problems of school reform. CCSR encourages the use of research in policy action and improvement of practice, but does not argue for particular policies or programs. Rather, CCSR helps to build capacity for school reform by identifying what matters for student success and school improvement, creating critical indicators to chart progress, and conducting theory-driven evaluation to identify how programs and policies are working.
CCSR is a partner with Edvance on the Texas Consortium on School Research (TCSR)project. Click here to learn more about CCSR: ccsr.uchicago.edu
 American Institutes for Research (AIR) is one of the largest behavioral and social science research organizations in the world. REL Southwest has partnered with AIR because of their vast experience in judging the quality of research evidence, their specialized capabilities in special education and high school reform and their ground breaking research in cost analysis.
Founded in 1946 as a nonprofit organization AIR’s work spans a wide range of substantive areas: education, student assessment, international education, individual and organizational performance, health research and communication, human development, usability design and testing, employment equity, and statistical and research methods. The intellectual diversity of our more than 1,100 employees, more than 50 percent of whom hold advanced degrees, enables AIR to bring together experts in many fields, including education, psychology, sociology, economics, psychometrics, statistics, public health, usability engineering, software design, graphics and video communications—all in the search for innovative answers to any challenge.
AIR has partnered with Edvance on the development of several fast response research studies for the Regional Educational Laboratory – Southwest (REL Southwest).
Click here to learn more about AIR: www.air.org
 KIPP, the Knowledge Is Power Program, is a national network of free, open-enrollment, college-preparatory public schools with a track record of preparing students in underserved communities for success in college and in life. There are currently 99 KIPP schools in 20 states and the District of Columbia serving more than 26,000 students. KIPP builds a partnership among parents, students, and teachers that puts learning first. By providing outstanding educators, more time in school learning, and a strong culture of achievement, KIPP is helping all students climb the mountain to and through college.
Edvance Research partnered with KIPP by providing expert advice around the design of the National Study on KIPP's Impact at the Middle School Level.
Click here to learn more about KIPP: www.kipp.org
 The University of Texas at Dallas Education Research Center (UTD-ERC), managed by Texas Schools Project, brings together over 500 million individual-level administrative data records from the Texas Education Agency (TEA), the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC), and other state agencies, creating an unparalleled source of PK-16 data that allows researchers to follow Texas students from pre-K through college and beyond.
Texas Schools Project, which was established in 1992, supports independent, high-quality academic research and evaluation to improve academic achievement, teacher effectiveness, increase transitions to and success in postsecondary education, and improve labor market outcomes of students in Texas and the nation. In 2006 Texas Schools Project received its designation as a State of Texas Education Research Center.
Over the past decade, Texas Schools Project has become one of the premier education research institutions in the country, working with leading researchers at universities in Texas and throughout the country to analyze relevant, policy-related questions that benefit students in Texas and nationwide.
UTD-ERC is a partner with Edvance on the Texas Consortium on School Researchproject. Click here to learn more about the UTD-ERC: www.texasschoolsproject.org
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