SOAR’s success has helped pave the way to expand value-added pilot programs in other states. In 2005, Battelle for Kids received $1 million in federal funding to provide customized professional development training and innovative tools to help Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania, successfully roll out their value-added programs.
This funding will help to support and expand these programs and to share the results of this work nationally to leverage the power of value-added analysis to drive meaningful, data-supported educational change that is transformational in nature and national in scope.
Battelle for Kids, the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the New York Boards of Cooperative Education Services (BOCES) are providing professional development to a number of school districts to use sophisticated value-added data analysis tools and techniques to analyze student performance data.
We also are providing strategic counsel, professional development, technology, tool development and communications support to help the Houston Independent School District’s roll out its ASPIRE educational-improvement model.
These efforts are helping schools make data-driven decisions about how and where to focus resources to help students make greater academic progress and achieve at higher levels.
