Understanding Growth Models and How They Impact Teacher and School Evaluations

Presented Dr. Stanley Rabinowitz, Senior Technical Advisor, Pearson; and Dr. Laura Cain, Director, Pearson School Assessment

Sponsored by Pearson School Assessments

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States and school districts are incorporating growth models into a range of accountability and evaluation systems at increasing rates. However, there is no single universally accepted growth model. This edWebinar explores the following key questions:

• What are the characteristics of appropriate assessments to measure student growth?
• What factors are used to measure growth?
• What are the various types of growth models being used in schools?
• What technical criteria should be applied when evaluating a “growth model”?

This recorded edWebinar will be of interest to K-12 teachers, school and district leaders, and state departments of education.

About the Presenters

Dr. Stanley Rabinowitz is currently Senior Technical Advisor at Pearson and has over 30 years of experience in large-scale assessment, including work as a former assessment director. He has consulted extensively on standards, assessment, and school/educator accountability issues with researchers, policymakers and assessment staff at national, state, and district levels in the United States and elsewhere globally. Dr. Rabinowitz has served on more than a dozen state and national technical advisory committees. He has directed the National Center for Standards and Assessment Implementation and the PMO for the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. His expertise includes computer adaptive testing, developing and scoring technology-enhanced items, and assessing students across languages. Most recently, Dr. Rabinowitz served as General Manager for the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). In this position, he was responsible for managing the national assessment programs (NAPLAN and NAP sample), national data reporting, including the My School website, and launching NAPLAN online in 2018.

Dr. Laura Cain is currently a director with Pearson School Assessment. For the past year, she has been working on Pearson’s latest assessment innovation Transcend and will be supporting districts in their assessment needs. Laura has 30 years of experience in education, starting her career as a high school English teacher. She has held multiple levels of administrative experiences in K-12 education, most recently having worked in a cabinet level position in an urban district. While there, she was responsible for departments including assessments, professional learning, school and department strategic planning, accountability and managed federal grants such as Title II and a $40 million dollar Teacher Incentive Fund Grant. She completed her doctoral work in 2015 from Ball State University and currently resides in Indiana with her husband Matt.

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