scholarly journals Houston, We Have a Problem: Teachers Find No Value in the SAS Education Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS®)

Author(s):  
Clarin Collins ◽  
SAGE Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 215824402092222
Author(s):  
Audrey Amrein-Beardsley ◽  
Tray Geiger

The Education Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS), the value-added model (VAM) sold by the international business analytics software company SAS Institute Inc., is advertised as offering “precise, reliable and unbiased results that go far beyond what other simplistic [value-added] models found in the market today can provide.” In this study, we investigated these claims, as well as others pertaining to the validity or truthfulness of model output, by conducting analyses on more than 1,700 teachers’ EVAAS results (i.e., actual EVAAS output to which no other external scholars have had access prior) from the Houston Independent School District (HISD). We found the EVAAS to perform, overall, in line with other VAMs in terms of validity and reliability, although it yielded possibly more biased value-added estimates than other VAMs due to differences in teacher’s EVAAS scores based on school-level student composition factors.


Author(s):  
Audrey Amrein-Beardsley ◽  
Clarin Collins

At the time of this study, the Texas Value-Added Assessment System (TxVAAS) was being piloted throughout Texas to hold teachers more accountable for their effects on students' achievement (i.e., teachers’ value added). It is still being used by districts throughout Texas today. Using a framework informed by the<em> Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing</em>, researchers conducted a content analysis of the marketing and research-based claims asserted about the TxVAAS, to (a) examine the “truth” of each claim to (b) help others critically consume the marketing claims using (c) nonproprietary, peer-reviewed literature. Given that the more popular, and also proprietary version of the TxVAAS—the Education Value-Added Assessment System—continues to be sold and marketed to other states and districts in similar ways, researchers deemed it critical to intervene before other states and districts might blindly trust the marketing and research-based claims presented.


2008 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 65-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Audrey Amrein-Beardsley

Value-added models help to evaluate the knowledge that school districts, schools, and teachers add to student learning as students progress through school. In this article, the well-known Education Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS) is examined. The author presents a practical investigation of the methodological issues associated with the model. Specifically, she argues that, although EVAAS is probably the most sophisticated value-added model, it has flaws that must be addressed before widespread adoption. She explores in depth the shortage of external reviews and validity studies of the model, its insufficient user-friendliness, and methodological issues about missing data, regression to the mean, and student background variables. She also examines a paradigm case in which the model was used to advance unfounded assertions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Agista Ayu Aksari

On 1st July 2012 SOE (State-Owned Enterprises)become the Value Added Tax (VAT) collector. According to the regulation of the Ministher of Finance No.85/PMK.03/2012 about the appointment of the State Owned Enterprises to collect, deposit and reporting Value Added Tax (VAT) and Sales Tax on Luxurious Goods, and precedures for collecting, depositing and reporting. The purpose of this research is to determine the difference between SOE as a Value Added Tax collector and not as a Value Added Tax collector.The object of this research is PT Pelabuhan Indonesia III cabang Benoa. The data analysis in this research is to analyze the calculation and reportig of VAT before being VAT collector and when it became VAT collector.The result of this research it is known that are the application of the value added tax on PT Pelabuhan Indonesia III Cabang Benoa before becoming tax collector is charged directly by fiskus and has official assessment system and as a PT Pelabuhan Indonesia III Cabang Benoa has a self assessment system whereby PT Pelabuahan Indonesia III Cabang Benoa became ILL wapu. Differnce in PT Pelabuhan Indonesia III Cabang Benoa as a collector, and the collector Is a time before becoming a collector has aself just my assessment system whereas before becoming a collector has official assessment system. Tax eceipt when it became a collector of VAT using duplicate counts 3 before becoming a collector only uses 2 of the double. For SSp before becoming a duplicate while using 4 collector as a collector to use duplicate. DOI 10.5281/zenodo.1214932


2008 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-136
Author(s):  
Cruz da ◽  
Pedro Henriques ◽  
Maria Pereira

To be a debugger is a good thing! Since the very beginning of the programming activity, debuggers are the most important and widely used tools after editors and compilers; we completely recognize their importance for software development and testing. Debuggers work at machine level, after the compilation of the source program; they deal with assembly, or binary-code, and are mainly data structure inspectors. ALMA is a program animator based on its abstract representation. The main idea is to show the algorithm being implemented by the program, independently from the language used to implement it. To say that ALMA is a debugger, with no value added, is not true! ALMA is a source code inspector but it deals with programming concepts instead of machine code. This makes possible to understand the source program at a conceptual level, and not only to fix run time errors. In this paper we compare our visualizer/animator system, ALMA, with one of the most well-known and used debuggers, the graphical version of GDB, the DDD program. The aim of the paper is twofold: the immediate objective is to prove that ALMA provides new features that are not usually offered by debuggers; the main contribution is to recall the concepts of debugger and animator, and clarify the role of both tools in the field of program understanding, or program comprehension. .


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Kukla

Abstract The scope of this work focuses on the aspects of quality and safety assurance of the iron cast manufacturing processes. Special attention was given to the processes of quality control and after-machining of iron casts manufactured on automatic foundry lines. Due to low level of automation and huge work intensity at this stage of the process, a model area was established which underwent reorganization in accordance with the assumptions of the World Class Manufacturing (WCM). An analysis of work intensity was carried out and the costs were divided in order to identify operations with no value added, particularly at individual manufacturing departments. Also an analysis of ergonomics at work stations was carried out to eliminate activities that are uncomfortable and dangerous to the workers' health. Several solutions were proposed in terms of rationalization of work organization at iron cast after-machining work stations. The proposed solutions were assessed with the use of multi-criteria assessment tools and then the best variant was selected based on the assumed optimization criteria. The summary of the obtained results reflects benefits from implementation of the proposed solutions.


2003 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haggai Kupermintz

This article addresses the validity of teacher evaluation measures produced by the Tennessee Value Added Assessment System (TVAAS). The system analyzes student test score data and estimates the effects of individual teachers on score gains. These effects are used to construct teacher value-added measures of teaching effectiveness. We describe the process of generating teacher effectiveness estimates in TVAAS and discuss policy implications of using these estimates for accountability purposes. Specifically, the article examines the TVAAS definition of teacher effectiveness, the mechanism employed in calculating numerical estimates of teacher effectiveness, and the relationships between these estimates and student ability and socioeconomic background characteristics. Our validity analyses point to several logical and empirical weaknesses of the system, and underscore the need for a strong validation research program on TVAAS.


Author(s):  
Adrian Ducu Matei

The article highlights the characteristics of a phenomenon that tends to directly attack the wellbeing of large amounts of the population in a manner that jeopardizes the development of the individuals, diffuses the leisure and damages the social equilibrium of a nation. This phenomenon also pairs well with other phenomena common these days such as corruption and underground economy. We are living in hard times when the shameless triumph or the abusers are admired, a society without guiding principles, and the opportunism wins, the insolents set the tone while the population tolerates it, everything becomes corruptible while the majority remains silent. This picture of today’s world is very often complemented by the indifference taking the form of lack of action, ultimately giving birth to thoughts on whether it is high time to hide, to back down, analyze our activity to take a firm grip on oneself and reevaluate those around us. When the abuse of power for personal gains manifests from post to pillar, the corruption is systemic, the harmful perception that impunity exists should be destroyed. Unless we do it by uniting our forces in fighting this critical issue, the idea that money can be earned without effort or work will be disseminated and ultimately their value cannot be other but zero.It would be very helpful to look back in history while reconsidering out attitude towards work, moral and ethical values, well promoted by religion. There is an attractive link between religion and economy, but without understanding it in broad sense, as if religion should be linked to the evolution of an economic indicator. Beyond the attribute of being an economic performer the believer possesses, this attribute can be outwardly disseminated only through work, as it is the only that adds value. Isn’t the economic growth measured precisely by the value added? Where does this new value comes from which has its roots exclusively in lively work carried out by the people – creation of the Divinity – with and on the materiality? To better understand this, I suggest we should imagine a peasant in spring going with a basket full of corn seeds to seed a plot of land that he had previously ploughed and cared so as to be ready for a new crop. If he carefully seeds the corn from his basket on the plot formerly looked after and through his effort, his work, attends for the shoots coming out from the ground to be irrigated on time and the pests to be removed, there is no doubt that the results will not be late in coming. Following the faithful effort and work put into the cultivation of the corn, the harvesting will bring out ten folds more corn seeds. Isn’t this added value? Is this peasant respect-worthy? Are his effort and work true and clean?


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