Chapter 5: Borrowing the Strength of Unidimensional Scaling to Produce Multidimensional Educational Effectiveness Profiles

Educational effectiveness, as measured by value-added models, is increasingly being advocated as a component of educational reform. For example, the Race to the Top initiative of the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) included as a required criterion the development of educator evaluation programs that are based in significant part on student growth (USDOE, 2010). In addition, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) waiver initiative of USDOE also requires that, in order to receive flexibility under ESEA, states must adopt a statewide educator evaluation system that is based in part on student growth (USDOE, 2012).

By providing funding (Race to the Top) or flexible methods to comply with ESEA (flexibility), the USDOE has incentivized the development of statewide systems of educator evalution based in part on student growth (generally understood as the value-added by individual educators to students’ academic outcomes). With the advent of these initiatives, many states have made changes to their educator evaluation systems to include student growth (McGuinn, 2012). The National Council on Teacher Quality (2012) reports that these initiatives have resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of states requiring student achievement to factor into evaluations of teacher performance.