It is understandable that parents, policy makers, educators, etc. want to know how schools are functioning. Extensive resources are expended on the educational enterprise and it is only reasonable that the impact of those resources be determined. However, determining the amount of change in students' skills and knowledge is not easy. Further, there is a desire to use relatively simple models to represent and report the results, but the reality is not as simple as we would like and using the simple models for the purposes of making reports understandable may lead to misleading interpretations. To illustrate these points, a simple model of growth is provided and its use is discussed to show why it can lead to misleading results. Then, the more complex situation of growth measurement using educational assessments is considered. Finally, the implications for value-added analyses will be addressed with some suggestions about how using over simplified models may lead to misleading results.