The Student Growth Objectives are assessments created locally or by commercial educational organizations. The students' scores from the Student Growth Objectives are included in teacher summative evaluation as one of the measures of teacher's effectiveness. The high amplitude of the requirements in teacher evaluation raised a concern of whether…

Despite the prevalence of student learning objectives (SLOs) in teacher evaluation systems throughout the United States, research on the validity of student and teacher SLO scores used for high-stakes decisions is lacking. For this reason, this dissertation is comprised of two chapters that examine student and teacher-level SLO performance data…

In 2009 the U.S. Department of Education announced the requirements and selection criteria for the monies attached to the Race to the Top Fund. The monies attached to this competition were awarded during phase one, phase two, and phase three. This casual comparative study examined the impact of the Race to the Top federal education competition on…

Tennessee has undertaken several wide-ranging reforms aimed at educator practice and effectiveness over the past several years, including the launch of a new teacher evaluation system, modification of teacher tenure policy, and initial implementation of Common Core State Standards. This report from the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE)…

The intention of this study was to establish if the third grade English Language Learners improved reading fluency when using the computerized Waterford Early Reading Program. This quantitative study determined the effectiveness of the Waterford Early Reading Program at two Title I elementary schools. Students not meeting Grade Level Expectations…

There is often confusion about distinctions between growth models and value-added models. The first half of this paper attempts to dispel some of these confusions by clarifying terminology and illustrating by example how the results from a large-scale assessment can and will be used to make inferences about student growth and the value-added…