The Wisconsin Center for Education Research hosted the National Conference on Value-added Modeling April 22-24, 2008 to address some of the most important technical issues surrounding value-added measurement (VAM) and the implications for education policy. Specifically, the conference research grapples with the ways in which VAM can be used to identify effective school policy and educator practice. In doing so, the conference brought together researchers from multiple disciplines, including several NCPI affiliates including Dale Ballou (Vanderbilt University), Brian Jacob (University of Michigan), JR Lockwood (RAND), and Daniel McCaffrey (RAND).

Dale Ballou presented a paper entitled “Test Scaling and Value-Added Measurement”. JR Lockwood and Daniel McCaffrey presented a number of papers including:

• “Exploring Student-Teacher Interactions in Longitudinal Achievement Data”(JR Lockwood and D. McCaffrey)
• “The Intertemporal Stability of the Teacher Effect Estimates”(JR Lockwood, D. McCaffrey, and T. Sass)
• “Value-Added Assessment in Practice: Lessons from the Pennsylvania Value-Added Assessment System Pilot Project” (D. McCaffrey and L. Hamilton)

Brian Jacob served as a discussant on issues pertaning to measurement error in value-added modeling.

Click here to learn more information about the conference.