Building Level Factors and Value-Added Score Relationships in Ohio

An ex post facto research design controlling for alternative hypotheses is the framework for this exploratory analysis of the relationships among school/non school factors and grade level/content value-added scores in Ohio. Building level, non school, student data such as socio-economic status, ethnicity, mobility, attendance and gender were matched with grade level/content value added scores in Ohio. School level data such as numbers of teachers, teacher experience and training were also matched with grade level/content value-added scores in Ohio. Boxplots revealed a reduction in range of value-added scores as the grade levels increase. Seven factors were used in a general linear modeling analysis: %Free and Reduced Lunch (FRL), %Black, Teacher attendance rate, %Teachers with a Masters, Teacher experience, Teacher experience squared and %Teachers fully certified. Of these, %FRL and teacher attendance have consistent relationships with grade level/content value added scores in Ohio. The conclusions are that there are relationships among building level school/non school factors and grade level/content value-added scores in Ohio.