Value Added Education

Value Added is a term that simply means measuring each student’s academic progress each year. In other words, how much educational value did each student derive from that year in school. Applying a value added program to our schools will allow us to hold teachers and schools accountable for children’s progress, help a child falling behind in school, and give parents clear information on the quality of public schools.

How Value Added Works
Value added uses individual students' scores and then compares them with actual scores. This is the reason for annual testing.

The gain a student makes from one year to the next can then be compared to the national average gain for all students in that grade.

The national average is a full year of academic progress in the U.S. in that grade. The individual student’s gain can then be compared to the national average.

If a high performing student scored at the 80th percentile last year and again this year, that is acceptable, and that student is getting far more than an adequate education.

If a low performing student scored at the 20th percentile last year and the 20th percentile this year, they have also made one year of average academic gain. But clearly this is not good enough. These students have to gain more than one year’s average gain each year.

Benefits of Value Added
Teachers whose students regularly achieve greater than an average year of academic progress need to be identified, rewarded, and retained in the public school system.

Teachers whose students do not regularly achieve a full year of academic progress need to be identified so they can receive help and assistance to improve.

The teachers who do regularly achieve greater than a full year’s academic progress can possibly serve as mentors to other teachers.

This system has been in place and used successfully in North Carolina and Tennessee.