Value-added estimates of teacher or school quality are increasingly used for both high-and low-stakes accountability purposes, making understanding of their limitations critical. A review of the recent value-added literature suggests three concerns with the state of the research. First, the issues receiving the most research attention have not always been the concerns of greatest importance to theorists or critics. Second, there has been insufficient research on the interactions among various issues or assumption violations. Third, some of the big issues in value-added modeling have been challenging to address and may require educators to step back and answer some underlying philosophical questions about the nature of teacher and school quality.

In this article, the authors provide a methodological critique of the current standard of value-added modeling forwarded in educational policy contexts as a means of measuring teacher effectiveness. Conventional value-added estimates of teacher quality are attempts to determine to what degree a teacher would theoretically contribute, on average, to the test score gains of any student in the accountability population (i.e., district or state). Everson, Feinauer, and Sudweeks suggest an alternative statistical methodology, propensity score matching, which allows estimation of how well a teacher performs relative to teachers assigned comparable classes of students. This approach more closely fits the appropriate role of an accountability system: to estimate how well employees perform in the job to which they are actually assigned. It also has the benefit of requiring fewer statistical assumptions—assumptions that are frequently violated in value-added modeling. The authors conclude that this alternative method allows for more appropriate and policy-relevant inferences about the performance of teachers.

No abstract

No abstract

This study uses a discontinuous-linear regression methodological approach to test the Linguistic Threshold Hypothesis (LTH). Specifically, we investigate the following hypotheses: (1) the rate of transfer of literacy skills from L1 to L2 is a function of L2 oral language ability, (2) the rate of transfer from L1 to L2 accelerates when students cross a specified threshold(s) of L2 language oral ability, and (3) discontinuous change-point regression models fit the data better than linear regression interaction models. Across literacy skills, discontinuous change-point regression models revealed levels of L2 oral language at which transfer from L1 to L2 literacy was maximized, suggesting that the relationship between L2 language and cross-linguistic transfer is not constant for the young Spanish–English bilinguals in our study. Further, discontinuous change-point regression models fit the data better than linear interaction models, suggesting the importance of using models that better match the theoretical assumptions underpinning the LTH.

Recently there has been increasing emphasis on co-teaching experiences for teacher candidates. Despite the significance of collaboration between cooperating teachers and student teachers, limited empirical attention has focused on student teachers' co-teaching experiences. The following study utilized survey data to ascertain if student teachers' use of different co-teaching strategies changed over the course of their student teaching semester, as well as, compared student teacher use of co-teaching strategies in elementary, middle, and secondary program areas. Pilot Study Survey data revealed that approximately one-fourth of the student teacher's time is spent teaching alone. However, the Student Teacher Survey data indicated that the Team Teaching co-teaching strategy increased more than any other co-teaching strategy in all program areas. The study concludes that as teacher education programs seek to maximize the benefits of the co-teaching model, student teachers and cooperating teachers need additional training in ways to utilize all the co-teaching strategies to maximize student learning.

No abstract

No abstract