We are pleased to share a new report from the Brookings Institution on the use of the “value-added” model for evaluating teachers. This report summarizes four “areas of confusion” on the subject: the use of information in the model, the consequences for students and teachers, the use of the value-added approach in other professional fields, and the comparison of the value-added model with other teacher evaluation models currently in use. The report concludes, somewhat cautiously, that while the model is incipient and imperfect, it plays an important role today in the evaluation of individual teacher performance that other models cannot provide.

For more information on recent discussion of the value-added model, please see September post on the PREAL blog.