Taking Note
JUNE 2012
Examining Key Education Reform Ideas in Tennessee
TVAAS:
An Introduction to Value-Added in Tennessee
In its 2009 report, Roadmap to Success, SCORE highlighted the
importance of using data to enhance student learning. SCORE
encouraged the state to expand access to and use of the Tennessee
Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS), which tracks student
achievement from year to year to determine the learning growth students
experience over time. TVAAS is an important tool that helps schools craft
individual supports for students in the areas where they need it most,
as well as evaluate and support teachers in their own improvement and
professional growth. This issue brief provides an overview of how TVAAS
is calculated and its role in the education landscape in the state.
Calculating and Reporting TVAAS
What is TVAAS?
TVAAS is not a test administered in addition to other state mandated
tests, such as Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program
(TCAP), End-Of-Course, or the EXPLORE, PLAN, and ACT exams.
Instead, TVAAS is a measurement of student academic progress
that is based on the results of these tests. The distinction between
achievement and growth is essential to understanding the role of
TVAAS, or any value-added assessment system. Achievement
generally indicates a student’s demonstrated mastery of content on
one examination, such as an End-Of-Course standardized exam or the
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Achievement
levels tend to be oriented around levels of proficiency with course
material, such as Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, and Advanced.
Growth refers to the amount of learning a student gains over a period
of time. Value-added seeks to draw from a variety of measures
of academic
achievement in order
Achievement vs. Growth
to demonstrate
Achievement – Measures student
growth over time.
performance at one point in
Value-added data
time based on a defined level of
are used to inform
proficiency using a standardized
instructional practice
assessment (e.g., TCAP test result)
and interventions, in
addition to teacher,
school, and district
accountability.
In order to evaluate
a district, school,
or teacher’s
effectiveness for students in grades 3 through 8, progress on the TCAP
is compared to the average progress of all Tennessee students in those
grades. If the average progress for a district, school, or teacher is the
same or greater than the state’s average over the previous three years,
the district, school, or teacher is considered to be effective. At the high
school level, a district, school, or teacher’s effects on student progress
are compared to the average district, school, or teacher in the current
year. High school analyses are designed to accommodate for varying
testing schedules for those students. These analyses are based on all
the students’ previous test scores in all subjects.
Growth – Measures student
learning over a period of time, taking
into account the student’s prior
performance
TCAP is currently the major source of data used in the TVAAS system,
as all students in grades 3 through 8 take these tests in four subject
areas: reading/language arts, math, science, and social studies. TVAAS
scores in high schools are drawn from student end of course exams and
the ACT testing series. This series of exams includes the EXPLORE and
PLAN tests administered in the eighth and 10th grades, respectively, as
well as the ACT administered to every Tennessee student during 11th
grade.
After scores are calculated, results are sent to the SAS Institute®,
where they are matched with a teacher-student linkage file from RANDA
Solutions, a Nashville-based data analysis corporation, to calculate
teacher-effect data. TCAP results are determined and compared to the
state’s standard level of growth to determine a school’s value-added
status. The high school results are determined and compared to the
effectiveness of the average Tennessee school or teacher.v School
level scores are then publicly available online through the Tennessee
Department of Education’s Report Card.
Brief History of Value-Added Assessment
In 1992, Governor Ned McWherter signed into law the Education
Improvement Act (EIA), which provided a significant increase in state
funding for public education and required the use of new accountability
measures for districts, schools, and teachers based on student
performance outcomes. This legislation enabled the state to track the
educational value provided at the classroom, school, and district levels
by measures including student test results. Dr. William Sanders, then a
professor at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, pioneered value-
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