Sean McLaughlin is the production manager for the Value-Added Research Center (VARC). He graduated in 2008 with a major in elementary education and minor in physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Sean began working at VARC in 2006. His initial work involved investigating data warehouse structures for various districts as well organizing and archiving the work of VARC's senior scientist, Robert Meyer.

In 2009, Sean changed rolls to become part of the professional development team at VARC. In addition to continued work involving value-added data sets, he began working on creating materials to present information on value-added to a variety of audiences. This work has included report development for Wisconsin, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Tulsa, and Hillsborough. In addition, Sean's creation "The Oak Tree Analogy" has become a nationally recognized explanation of Value-Added analysis.

In 2012, Sean's duties expanded to include production management of VARC's projects. In this role, he coordinates with project managers to ensure timely delivery of analysis results to VARC's partners. This work centers on quality control of Value-Added estimates along with the reports that present those numbers.

Contact Information

Current Projects

Completed Projects

Continuing a Value-Added Model with the Madison Metropolitan School District

Milwaukee Classroom Value-Added Initiative

School Quality in Public and Private Schools in Wisconsin

Tulsa Public Schools Value-Added Project (Year 2)

Value Added and Growth Model Demonstration Project