Many states and school districts mandate testing programs to gather data about student achievement and to hold schools accountable. Certain uses of achievement test results are termed "high stakes" if they carry serious consequences for students or for educators. 

Over the past decade, the use of value‐added models (VAM) in teacher and administrator evaluation has grown nationally, while becoming one of education’s most controversial issues. Research evidence on the reliability and validity of VAM, and the consequences of using such indicators in educator evaluation, is still accumulating.

The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing are a product of the American Educational Research Association, the American Psychological Association (APA), and the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME). Published collaboratively by the three organizations since 1966, it represents the gold standard in guidance on testing in the United States and in many other countries.

	AERA Issues Statement on the Use of Value-Added Models in Evaluation of Educators and Educator Preparation Programs
	Special Issue of Educational Researcher on Value-Added Models
	Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (2014 edition)
	AERA Position Statement on High-Stakes Testing
	Research on Value-Added Models

Public Briefings:

Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing
September 12, 2014
The briefing addressed key takeaways and major changes in the new edition of the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. Learn more
Watch the webcast

Getting Teacher Evaluation Right: A Challenge for Policy Makers
September 14, 2011
The briefing addressed teacher effectiveness, evaluation policies and practices, and policies likely to support sound teacher evaluation. Learn more