Value-added measures in higher education: a historical contextualization of Brazilian experiences

Abstract

School quality assessment has been the object of research of economists, educators, policymakers, and various stakeholders worldwide. In Brazil, the National Assessment System for Higher Education is an initiative that seeks to assess the country’s undergraduate programs, their faculty, and student achievement, as well as to provide quality indicators that account for the differences between them. One such indicator is the Indicator of Difference Between Observed and Expected Achievements (IDD), which measures the contribution of undergraduate programs to student achievement. Since 2006, policymakers have altered their estimation methodology, seeking to improve it as an accurate value-added measure. This research aims to discuss this change and its impacts on the ranking of undergraduate programs in Accounting in Brazil. A quantitative design was used to test four value-added models included in the historical records of the IDD and to identify the impact of these methodologies. The sample consisted of 30,668 students from 911 accounting schools. The results show that the current model is more accurate than the previous ones. However, both the literature and the findings indicate that the model could be improved by introducing explanatory variables for academic achievement that cannot be controlled by higher education institutions. The IDD is still unsuitable because it considers all institutions and all students equal.