March, 2008 - Ohio's Value-Added Growth Model

When you first take your child to the pediatrician you are usually given a growth chart where your child's height and weight are plotted on a graph. On each subsequent visit, the height and weight continue to be plotted to check on your child's growth. As you look at this growth chart, you can see where your child compares to the average child of that age, but you can also see how your own child has grown compared to where he started.

Third grade in Ohio marks the beginning of annual reading and math tests for all students. In the past something was missing. You received your child's score for that year but the only comparison was how well he did against the proficient score. If your child was not proficient, you could not tell if he had grown a full year. If he was proficient, you could not tell if he had grown a full year. This year's state report card will be the first time that you will see how your child did on last year's achievement compared with this year's achievement. And as the years go on, you will be able to see how your child fares every year. This is called Ohio's Value-Added Growth Model. Now with the value-added score combined with the achievement score we begin to have a fuller picture of every student. If a child starts at a very low percentile and works very hard but does not reach the proficient level, he still gets credit for his hard work. Similarly, if a child starts at a very high percentile and remains at the proficient level without progressing, he does not receive value-added credit. We are looking for every child to make a full year's growth every year from where he started.

The growth model is being used in many states and it is up to each legislature to decide what constitutes a year's growth. In Ohio, students are expected to keep their place in line from year to year. That means that if their normal curve equivalent (NCE) score on their third grade test was 27 NCEs, then they would need to get 27 NCEs or better in order to keep their place and register a year's growth. 

It is important to have more than two data points when looking for trends such as downward movement. Graphing a child's progress helps to determine whether there is a problem that needs to be corrected. Value can and is added in many ways to a student's life. Some of this can be measured and some cannot. This is just one more way to get a better picture of our children's progress and to give us information to intervene either to enrich or to remediate.