Value added (VA) measures provide a different picture of school quality. Significant differences were found both between and within schools in terms of VA measures and crucially these measures provide a different picture of school performance in comparison to raw examination scores. Stakeholders argued that VA approaches would provide an important addition to current school evaluation systems in China but local priorities and methodological limitations need to be considered.
VA measures are required for different outcomes and student groups. Stakeholders consider it vital to extend the evaluation of student outcomes to include all-round development and vocational and attitude measures.
Data quality is crucial. Rigorous and systematic longitudinal data collection procedures are required to ensure quality data. Moreover differences in examination systems between provinces in China means that creating a national value added system would be very difficult but regional analyses within a nationally agreed framework is feasible.
Focus on school and teacher development. Stakeholders would welcome improved access to teacher development, developing schools as professional learning communities and a new government focus on school self evaluation and improvement. This would involve widespread and comprehensive training to support teachers’ use of new evaluation concepts and methods.
The ESRC/DFID funded Improving Educational Evaluation and Quality in China and Improving Teacher Development and educational Quality in China projects have used value added methods and innovative quantitative methodology (multilevel modelling) to investigate school.
Longitudinal data from 500,000+ students in 120+ schools was analysed to estimate the size and extent of school effectiveness in China over four consecutive cohorts (2009-12). A teacher survey was also conducted involving over 17,000 teachers. Multilevel modeling was used to create contextualized value added measures from the datasets - which comprised for each student their entrance examination to Higher Education scores matched to their entrance examination for senior high school scores as well as other relevant student background and school context factors. Interviews were also conducted with key stakeholders including national policy makers, Local Education Authority officers, teachers and students.
China Total Higher Education examination score - LEA 3
Thomas, SM., Kyriakides, L. & Townsend, T. (in press). Educational Effectiveness Research in New and Emerging Contexts (Chapter 16). In C. Chapman, D. Muijs, D. Reynolds, P. Sammons & C. Teddlie (Eds),The International Handbook of Educational Effectiveness: Research, Policy and Practice. Routledge.
Thomas, SM., Massoud, S. & Peng W-J. (2013). Monitoring and Evaluating School Effectiveness: The Case for longitudinal datasets. In L. Tikly & A. M. Barrett (Eds), Education Quality and Social Justice in the Global South: Challenges for policy, practice and research, pp59-74, Routledge
Peng, W-J., McNess, E., Thomas, SM., Wu, X., Zhang, C., Li, J. & Tian, H. (2013). Emerging Perceptions of Teacher Quality and Teacher Development in China. International Journal of Educational Development.
Further information online: http://reshare.ukdataservice.ac.uk/851265/
Prof Sally Thomas, Dr Wen Jung Peng
Email: s.thomas@bristol.ac.uk Phone: +44 (0)117 331 4382
Assessment and Evaluation; China Education; Quantitative Methods