TVAAS

 

Description

The Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) measures the impact schools and teachers have on their students’ academic progress. TVAAS is a powerful tool because it measures how much students grow in a year, relative to other students across the state that took the same assessment that year. TVAAS shines more light on student progress than solely considering their score on an end of year test. TVAAS allows educators to consider their students’ growth (the progress students make relative to their peers across the state year to year) along with their achievement (their proficiency score on the end of year assessment).

How does TVAAS work?

 

The Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) measures student growth year over year, regardless of whether the student is proficient on the state assessment. When calculating TVAAS, a student’s performance is compared to the performance of his or her peers that year who have performed similarly on past assessments.  TVAAS expects students to maintain their same relative position to their peers each year as they progress through their Tennessee schooling experience.Misconceptions About Value-Added Reporting

How can schools use TVAAS to improve?

 

  • Monitor the progress of all groups of students from low-achieving to high-achieving, ensuring growth opportunities for all students.
  • Measure student achievement as a result of the impact of educational practices, classroom curricula, instructional methods, and professional development.
  • Make informed, data-driven decisions about where to focus resources to help students make greater progress and perform at higher levels.
  • Align professional development efforts to the areas of greatest need.

Three Facts about TVAAS

How can teachers serving high-achieving students score highly effective on TVAAS?

Student expectations are not built on a single score but on a multi-year, multi-subject measure so high or low performers are expected to perform in line with their own history of performance. When teachers are effective, their students will not lose ground, even if their students are initially high-performing.

How can teachers serving low-achieving students  score highly effective on TVAAS?

TVAAS does not compare a student’s performance to a set standard, but compares the student’s performance to his or her own prior performance. For example, a school or district can have low achievement scores based on the TCAP, but have very high TVAAS scores. The converse of this can be true as well.  It is important to note that a school or district can be high-performing in achievement and TVAAS simultaneously as well as low-performing in achievement and TVAAS simultaneously.

Additional Resources

 

Current Knowledge About Value-Added Modeling

Tennessee Department of Education TVAAS Homepage

SAS TVAAS Homepage