Whitman Elementary - Tulsa Public Schools

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2. Distribution of Effective Teachers (by Value-Added Scores)
In the past, the primary method of communicating a school's performance was student achievement data, a
measurement of student knowledge at a single point in time and how well that performance compares against a
standard. Achievement data alone, however, does not reflect the effectiveness of a school. Growth measures like
value-added provide a more complete and accurate picture of a school's impact on student achievement over a school
year. It isolates the effectiveness of the school and its teachers by combining achievement and growth information
with other data sources to statistically control for factors outside of educators’ influence such as students' starting
points, whether they are English language learners, their disability status, etc. Using value-added along with other data
allows us to separate what we think is happening from what is actually happening.
Value-added data is available now for 2009-2010 and 2010-2011. It is being used for information, analysis and
improvement. The statistical modeling and reporting is provided by the Value Added Research Center (VARC) of Univ.
of Wisconsin. In general terms, VARC calculates the gain of scale score points for students at each school using a
prior-test and a post-test. Due to the statistical controls that eliminate the effect of external factors (starting point,
student demographics, etc.), value-added data reveals in which schools students are growing faster than average and in
which schools students are growing slower than average. The District average is set at three. Consequently, schools
with high value-added are greater than three, and schools with value added estimates less than 3 are low value-added
schools. 1 The following tables reflect the distribution of teachers by their value-added scores for the 2010-2011 school
year.
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Please note that value-added data for Burroughs Elementary is not available because it would reveal one or more
individual teachers’ value added data, which is confidential and protected from disclosure.