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Valid Measurement of School Performance

July 5, 2005

A school performance indicator must accurately and reliably measure school performance. School performance is defined as the contribution of a school to a particular test or other student outcome. The only indicator that satisfies this criterion, in general, is the value-added indicator. Unfortunately, the most common educational indicators—"level" indicators, such as average and median test scores and proficiency-level indicators—are highly flawed as measures of school performance, even if they are derived from highly valid assessments. As a result, they are of limited value. WCER researcher Rob Meyer proposes criteria for evaluating an outcome-based school performance indicator system. One of his recommendations is that school performance be measured using the value-added approach. Meyer considers how value-added indicators should be reported in this paper.