Value Added Assessment

Value-added assessment emerged as a possible approach to judging quality of institutions during the work of the Spellings Commission. The assessment drawing the most attention was the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA), a standardized qualitative assessment that prompts students to write answers to respond to complex problems that draw upon their critical and analytical thinking. 

Value-added assessment was adopted by the state of Tennessee in 1992 as a part of that state’s effort to improve public education. Development of that effort is often linked to Dr. William Sanders of the University of Tennessee.   

• Here is an interesting ERIC document summarizing the Tennessee school value-added assessment system: The Measure of Education: A Review of the Tennessee Value Added Assessment System and a shorter summary of the same effort with additional links: Value-Added Assessment in Tennessee
• An article with comments both pro and con on the validity and reliability of value-added assessment: A Warning on Measuring Learning Outcomes by Trudy Banta
• The Collegiate Learning Assessment: Facts and Fantasies by Stephen Klein, Roger Benjamin, Richard Shavelson, Roger Bolus

Value Added Assessment of Liberal Education
(Peer Review, Winter/Spring 2002, Volume 4, Number 2/3) An entire issue of Peer Review on issues in and models for value-added assessment.

Unveiling Value Added Assessment In Higher Education
A paper by Dr. Richard Hersh, Senior Fellow, CAE/Rand. Hersh discusses the context for new forms of assessment in higher education and details of the Collegiate Learning Assessment, a new value-added measure.