The Sensitivity of Value-Added Modeling to the Creation of a Vertical Score Scale

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the sensitivity of growth and value-added modeling to the way an underlying vertical score scale has been created. Longitudinal item-level data were analyzed with both student- and school-level identifiers for the entire state of Colorado between 2003 and 2006. Eight different vertical scales were established on the basis of choices made for three key variables: the item response theory modeling approach, the calibration approach, and the student proficiency estimation approach. Each scale represented a methodological approach that was psychometrically defensible. Longitudinal values from each scale were used as the outcome in a commonly used value-added model (the “layered model” popularized by William Sanders) as a means of estimating school effects. Our findings suggest that while the ordering of estimating school effects is insensitive to the underlying vertical scale, the precision of such value-added estimates can be quite sensitive to the combinations of choices made in the creation of the scale.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 56 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.