Education Topics

• Research Methods and Reviews
• Teacher Quality and Compensation
• Value-Added Methods
• Curricula and Computers in the Classroom
• Charter Schools and School Choice
• College Access
• Career-Focused Education
• At-Risk Youth
• School Leadership
• After-School Initiatives
• Academic and Nonacademic Competencies
• Clients

Creating Value-Added Measures for Achievement First

Achievement First is a network of 19 public charter schools located in New Haven, Bridgeport and Hartford, Connecticut, and Brooklyn, New York with a commitment to educational excellence and a focus on preparing students for college. To help Achievement First realize its goals of teacher effectiveness and high student achievement, Mathematica created a variety of tools.

These included:

• Selecting student assessments used to evaluate teachers
• Using value-added methods to develop performance methods
• Providing computer programs in SAS and documentation to implement the measures Mathematica recommended
• Facilitating comparisons of Achievement First’s data with external data