Team Teaching Practices Affect Value-Added Measurements

Jeff Watson

Schools can be closed. Compensation for teachers and principals can be affected.

Classroom Value-Added analysis metrics are now being applied in a variety of ways, ranging from simple school and classroom level reporting to high-stakes decisions. As school districts and states use these classroom value-added estimates in such high-stakes contexts it’s important to fully understand any limitations in the links between student achievement and teacher performance.

Linking performance data of students to their teachers might seem like something that district data systems automatically and routinely do, yet in most cases doing so is a real a challenge. That’s because most school student information systems were not designed to account for team-teaching approaches.

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Center on Education and Work Collaborates with Singapore Educators

Students and schools in Singapore are benefiting from research from the UW-Madison’s Center on Education and Work. In February 2009 the Singapore Ministry of Education adapted CEW’s WISCareers and CareerLocker online career-information systems for use in Singapore schools.

CEW staff have visited Singapore, provided training with the local schools, and witnessed the positive response of students and teachers to the system. Fran Breit, Associate Director for Career Information Systems at CEWsays it’s been “an incredible opportunity” to work with Singapore educators, who engage in world-class educational innovations.

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Press

MSAN Director Madeline Hafner comments on a new plan to close the achievement gap in Madison schools (Madison.com, 7 Feb.).

Richard Halverson says the emergence of new technologies should prompt school leaders to ask, "How can we use this?"  rather than "Should we use this?" (Christian Science Monitor, 1 Feb.).

Constance Steinkuehler is helping shape the Obama administration's policies around learning games that improve health, education, civic engagement and the environment (USA Today, 26 Jan.).

Adam Gamoran says the driving factor behind university tuition increases is the decline of state support (Badger Herald, 29 Jan.)

Sara Goldrick-Rab comments on President Obama's plan to link federal aid to colleges based in part on whether they provide “good value” to students (Inside Higher Ed, 30 Jan.)

Adam Gamoran, Allan Odden, and Steven Kimball weigh in on proposed changes to Wisconsin's teacher compensation system (Madison.com, 15 Jan.).

CENTER SITES

Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning

Center on Education and Work

Children, Families & Schools

Consortium for Policy Research in Education

CoMPASS

Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership for Learning

Culture, Cognition, and Evaluation of STEM Higher Education Reform

Formative Language Assessment Records for ELLs in Secondary Schools

Interdisciplinary Training Program in the Education Sciences

Longitudinal Study of Future STEM Faculty

Mobilizing STEM for a Sustainable Future

Minority Student
Achievement Network

ONPAR Assessment

Strategic Management of Human Capital

Surveys of Enacted Curriculum

System-wide Change for All Learners and Educators

Transana

Value-Added Research Center

WIDA Consortium

Wisconsin's Equity and Inclusion Laboratory

Law Students Need Epistemic Experience

There’s a difference between having a law degree and being ready to provide services. A recent news article suggests that law students graduate knowing a lot of theory, but lack a lawyer's epistemic frame. That is, they are not taught to use their skills, knowledge, and culture to see the world as a lawyer does. David Williamson Shaffer sees a solution: law schools should teach an epistemic frame. Epistemic games, like those being developed at UW-Madison, help players learn the ways of thinking–the epistemologies–of professions. More information is available here.