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Using longitudinal data from a cohort of middle school students from a large school district, we estimate separate “value-added” teacher effects for two subscales of a mathematics assessment under a variety of statistical models varying in form and degree of control for student background characteristics. We find that the variation in estimated effects resulting from the different mathematics achievement measures is large relative to variation resulting from choices about model specification, and that the variation within teachers across achievement measures is larger than the variation across teachers. These results suggest that conclusions about individual teachers' performance based on value-added models can be sensitive to the ways in which student achievement is measured.

Reprinted with permission from the Journal of Educational Measurement, Spring 2007, Vol. 44, No. 1, pp. 47-67. Copyright © 2009 by the National Council on Measurement in Education.

Originally published in the Journal of Educational Measurement, Spring 2007, Vol. 44, No. 1, pp. 47-67.

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