Uses of Student Growth Growth Models, Student Growth Percentiles and Accountability Damian W. Betebenner & Chris Domaleski National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment Dover, NH Indianapolis, Indiana December 20th, 2010 Betebenner & Domaleski Growth Models and Accountability

Overview Norm-referenced student growth/accountability Uses of Student Growth Criterion-referenced student growth/accountability Finding a happy medium Overview Accountability There are different levels of accountability Institutional Accountability (e.g., school, district, state) Personnel evaluation. Diagnosis Highlight students demonstrating poor growth needing attention/Highlight students needing to demonstrate high levels of growth in the coming year. Advocacy Highlight growth gaps between ethnic groups at state level. Betebenner & Domaleski Growth Models and Accountability

Overview Norm-referenced student growth/accountability Uses of Student Growth Criterion-referenced student growth/accountability Finding a happy medium Two Flavors of Growth based Accountability Our work in the last few years investigating growth/value-added models has led us to believe that there are two general types of growth based accountability Norm-referenced growth based accountability vis-à-vis value-added models Criterion-referenced growth based accountability vis-ã-vis growth-to-standard models implemented by many states for AYP. Betebenner & Domaleski Growth Models and Accountability

Overview Norm-referenced student growth/accountability Uses of Student Growth Criterion-referenced student growth/accountability Finding a happy medium Two Flavors of Growth based Accountability These two approaches to growth impart different levels of stringency Norm-referenced Is the group of students growing better/worse (on average) than statistical expectation? Criterion-referenced Is each student in the group growing at a sufficient rate to reach/maintain proficient status? The first judges against statistical expectation, The second judges against a common, desirable destination we want all students to reach (at a minimum). Betebenner & Domaleski Growth Models and Accountability

2008 CSAP Mathematics Growth and Achievement Chart 2008 Achievement Percentile Percentile Growth Trajectory Scale Score Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 8 Grade 9 Grade 10

Overview Norm-referenced student growth/accountability Uses of Student Growth Criterion-referenced student growth/accountability Finding a happy medium Norm-referenced student growth/accountability Using student growth percentiles, the median SGP for a group describes whether students in the group, on “average”, demonstrated growth above or below expectation. This is essentially, what value-added models quantify. Value-added models go an extra step an implicitly infer causality by labeling the aggregate measure as a school or teacher effect. Some value-added models include student level characteristics (e.g., demographics) and thus set differential expectations. Student growth percentiles do not include student level characteristics in the model. Any adjustments needed for accountability purposes can occur post-hoc. Betebenner & Domaleski Growth Models and Accountability

Overview Norm-referenced student growth/accountability Uses of Student Growth Criterion-referenced student growth/accountability Finding a happy medium Criterion-referenced student growth/accountability Former Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings initiated the growth model pilot program allowing states to include growth as a means of satisfying AYP. The “Bright Line Principle” of all students being proficient by 2014 remained. 15 states were accepted as part of the pilot. None saw a significant improvement in their AYP numbers. An impossible goal should be impossible regardless of how you “slice it” (via status or growth). Colorado successfully applied to be a part of the growth model pilot program using student growth percentiles/percentile growth trajectories. Betebenner & Domaleski Growth Models and Accountability

Overview Norm-referenced student growth/accountability Uses of Student Growth Criterion-referenced student growth/accountability Finding a happy medium Combining Norm- and Criterion-referenced growth We feel that value-added models and growth-to-standard models fail in isolation because each ignores the other. In all pursuits, we need both norms and criteria to make sense of the world. Student growth percentiles/percentile growth trajectories provide the basis for combining a norm- and criterion-referenced view of growth. Student Growth Percentiles describe what is. A median SGP describes what is on “average”. Percentile growth trajectories (target SGPs) describe what should be. A median target SGP describes what should be on “average. Comparing the median SGP to the median target SGP allows one to have both a norm- and criterion-referenced interpretation of growth. Colorado developed its school performance framework around this idea. New York is actively exploring this idea for AYP. Betebenner & Domaleski Growth Models and Accountability

About this copy

Growth Models, Student Growth Percentiles and Accountability — Indiana Department of Education, December 20, 2010.

This is an image-based copy of the original PDF slides; builds and animations are flattened.