ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book describes that the Value-added models is intended to improve student outcomes by, among other things, dismissing low-performing teachers and providing incentives and differential pay to those with high value-added scores. The literature provides virtually no support for the use of merit-pay based incentive schemes to boost individual teacher performance and thereby improve student outcomes. The information they provide ranks teachers but provides no information about how teachers can improve their practices. In the educational context, cycles of continuous improvement are undertaken for the purpose of refining the processes that impact teaching practices. The work was grounded in deep understanding of the mathematics associated with the curriculum, a theory about the centrality of the lessons that guided instruction, and a model of conceptual understanding grounded in the mathematics needed to teach the curriculum.
