Teachers in districts with large fractions of disadvantaged students receive lower value-added ratings when student background characteristics are omitted¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associationalr?·q2
Currency · newest study 2015 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2018: tool and model accuracy changes quickly
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q2 i? Omitting student background characteristics lowers ratings for teachers in districts with a large fraction of disadvantaged students. → Matthew T. Johnson 2015
Evidence¶
Matthew T. Johnson 2015¶
Matthew T. Johnson, Stephen Lipscomb, Brian Gill. (2015). Sensitivity of Teacher Value-Added Estimates to Student and Peer Control Variables. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, vol. 8, issue 1. https://www.mathematica.org/publications/journal-article-sensitivity-of-teacher-valueadded-estimates-to-student-and-peer-control-variables
q2 · i? · associational · r?
Cross-specification comparison of teacher ratings for a district with many disadvantaged students. The article reports such teachers "receive lower ratings when background characteristics are omitted." No effect size or test statistic is printed in the available text.
"In particular, teachers in a district with a large fraction of disadvantaged students receive lower ratings when background characteristics are omitted."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Disadvantaged students in grades 4-8 receive less effective teaching on average than other students in the same grades — related
- Disadvantaged students in 29 study districts receive poorer-quality instruction, on average, compared with other students — related
- Teacher value-added estimates are highly correlated across model specifications that differ in student and peer control variables — related
- Effective teachers compound their advantage over consecutive years, and low-achieving students are disproportionately assigned to ineffective ones — related
- The working paper examines the sensitivity and precision of teacher value-added estimates under specifications differing in student-level, peer-level, and double-lagged achievement controls — related
- Mathematica developed and estimated VAMs for use in Phase 1 of the Pennsylvania evaluation pilot — related
- Student background characteristics are less strongly related to promotion power scores than to status measures — related
- Omitting same-subject pre-tests affects value-added estimates more than excluding other student background characteristics — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
vam-omitting-background-lowers-disadvantaged-district-ratings |
title |
Teachers in districts with large fractions of disadvantaged students receive lower value-added ratings when student background characteristics are omitted |
description |
Teachers in districts with large fractions of disadvantaged students receive lower value-added ratings when student background characteristics are omitted |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2015 |
source_checked |
2026-10-20 |
recheck_by |
2018 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-08 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — matthew-t-johnson-2015 |
Frontmatter is the page's machine-readable record — see the Schema & Guide.