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State Education Commissioner John B. King, Jr. today announced that American Institutes for Research (AIR) has been awarded a contract to develop methodologies and measures for the student growth component of the State’s new teacher and principal evaluation system.�� The goal, according to Commissioner King, is to ensure New York has a state-of-the-art approach to developing fair and reliable assessments of educators’ contributions to their students’ growth in learning.

"The Race to the Top (RTTT) is in full swing," King said.�� "If we don’t know how our educators are doing, they can’t get to where they need to be, and our students can’t get to where they should be.�� We need every tool possible to measure student progress and teacher effectiveness.�� Our students are counting on us to help them succeed."��

King said the contract, awarded through a competitive bidding process and valued at approximately $2.7 million over 3 years, will be paid for from federal RTTT funds.�� The contract requires AIR to develop the state-provided measures of student growth for teacher and principal evaluations.�� The other components in New York State’s multiple-measure evaluation system include locally selected measures of student achievement and other measures of educator effectiveness.

Under the terms of the contract, AIR will provide three specific services:

1. The design and production of growth and value-added measures covering teachers and principals with students in grades 4-8 taking the State English language arts (ELA) and/or mathematics assessments;
2. The design of value-added methodologies and measures covering teachers and principals with students taking other existing State assessments, or new�� assessments added during the contract period, that are identified by the State Education Department (SED) as part of the teacher and principal evaluation initiative; and
3. The design and delivery of reports that effectively communicate student growth measures to parents/students, teachers, principals, schools, districts, Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), Teacher and Principal Preparation programs, and SED.

Founded in 1946, AIR is one of the largest not-for-profit behavioral and social science research organizations in the world. AIR is a national leader in teaching and learning improvement, providing the research, assessment, evaluation, and technical assistance to ensure that all students—particularly those who face historical disadvantages—have access to high-quality, effective education.

The contract runs through the 2013-14 school year.