https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904819843593 Educational Policy 1–42 © The Author(s) 2019 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/0895904819843593 journals.sagepub.com/home/epx Article Teacher-Level Value- Added Models on Trial: Empirical and Pragmatic Issues of Concern Across Five Court Cases Audrey Amrein-Beardsley 1 and Kevin Close 1 Abstract Ongoing or recently completed across the United States are a series of lawsuits via which teacher plaintiffs are contesting how they are being evaluated using value-added models (VAMs) as part of states’/districts’ teacher accountability systems. To investigate the empirical and pragmatic matters addressed in court, researchers conducted a case study analysis of the documents submitted for five such cases. Researchers framed analyses using measurement concepts resident within the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, given issues with (a) reliability, (b) validity, (c) bias, (d) transparency, and (e) fairness, with emphases also on (f) whether VAMs are being used to make consequential decisions using concrete (e.g., not arbitrary) evidence, and (g) whether VAMs’ unintended consequences are also of legal pertinence and concern. Keywords accountability, education policy, educational reform, evaluation and assessment, legal issues, policy implementation, teacher quality 1 Arizona State University, Phoenix, USA Corresponding Author: Audrey Amrein-Beardsley, Professor, Educational Policy and Evaluation Program, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 37100, Phoenix, AZ 85069-7100, USA. Email: audrey.beardsley@asu.edu 843593EPX XX X 10.1177/0895904819843593Educational PolicyAmrein-Beardsley and Close research-article 2019