At the request of Pittsburgh Public Schools and the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, Mathematica has developed value-added models that aim to estimate the contributions of individual teachers and schools to the achievement of their students.

This report describes the value-added models (VAMs) created for the Pittsburgh Public Schools and the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers. Pittsburgh's VAMs use not only state assessments but also course-specific assessments, student attendance, and course completion rates, aiming to produce...

This working paper examines the sensitivity and precision of teacher value-added model (VAM) estimates obtained under model specifications that differ based on whether they include student-level background characteristics, peer-level background characteristics, and/or a double-lagged achievement...

The federal Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (PLUS) program provides loans to parents of dependent undergraduate students to help pay for education expenses. To bring the standards in line with those used by banks, the U.S. Department of Education tightened the credit standards for PLUS...

This report describes Mathematica's work in developing value-added models (VAMs) that estimate teachers’ and schools’ contributions to the achievement of their students, and assisting the Pittsburgh Public Schools in developing performance-based pay plans for teachers and principals.

This report describes the value-added models (VAMs) created for the Pittsburgh Public Schools and the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers. Pittsburgh's VAMs use not only state assessments but also course-specific assessments, student attendance, and course completion rates, aiming to produce...

This working paper examines the sensitivity and precision of teacher value-added model (VAM) estimates obtained under model specifications that differ based on whether they include student-level background characteristics, peer-level background characteristics, and/or a double-lagged achievement...

The Team-Based Goals and Performance-Based Incentives (TBGI) intervention—conceptualized, designed, and implemented by CARE—leverages both the power of incentives and lessons from motivational theory on teamwork and goal-setting. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation created the...

REDF social enterprises are businesses that advance the public good and sell goods and services in order to provide jobs for hard-to-employ individuals. Initial findings from Mathematica's evaluation show that the enterprises served the hard to employ. Most workers were satisfied with their...