Claire, I found this on the TES community forum. Does it help?
“value added” is a term used to judge how good a school is doing compared to other schools with the same kind of intake. e.g. the local grammar school might get a higher percentage of A*-C grades but it is probably more selective in the kind of students it accepts than the local state funded comp. Value Added takes into consideration not only a child’s ability, but also their postcode, whether they are male or female (girls are expected to get higher grades than boys!), their ethnic origin, when their birthday is (students with September birthdays are expected to get higher grades than those with summer birthdays. Have a look at your bottom set students most of them will have June , July or August birthdays!). Each of these criteria is given a number (it’s a bit like handicapping in horse racing) and is added to the points already given for each GCSE, or equivalent, grade. The total number given to each student is based on their best eight GCSE grades, so if they don’t take eight GCSE exams you are pretty much on to a loser straight away. This of course is the reason why your SLT want all the children to study BTEC and GNVQ courses as they can achieve 4 equivalent GCSE A grades in the time it takes them to do some work and achieve one C in MFL. Any clearer?
Boadicea's Chariot 
and this:
So basically, the cohort come in with a set of base line data that says they’re x bright, at the end of GCSEs they are given a CVA score based on the GCSE results and other factors eg they’ll get a CVA +1 credit if they’ve got a lot of free school meals +2 credits for free school meals with high ethnicity in the catchment etc. CVA of 1000 is the acceptable line, and 3 points is worth half a GCSE so a CVA of 1009 means the kids are getting 1.5 GCSEs above expectations on average regardless if it’s a posh school or Scumbridge High? Who makes the CVA calculation and does each kid have one so a Head can compare how 2 kids from similar backgrounds are doing under 2 different teachers?
and this
CVA is meant to give a truer picture than value added,and is based on a number of factors such as how many pupils on free school meals, how many from ethnic minorities, how many travelling children and so on. It’s really dodgy though, because you are just given your context as a number for the school, so I would say that no-one really knows what it’s based on. That’s just my (cynical) opinion however.
I think you base the teacher’s performance on their individual residual score which the school has. This is a plus or minus, and I think 1 equates to half a grade up. So a teacher with a score of zero has performed according to the predictions.
But these are from 2009 and 2008, so you may be looking for a more recent thing. There’s a suggestion that the info is on the DCFS website, as it should be.
So, given we are stuck with league tables for now, why not, as you say, give extra points for harder subjects?
Easy peasy. Even I can answer that!
“Because it might blow a hole in the pseudo-intellectual national curriculum structure invented, by brylcreemKen in 1987, on the back of a fag packet.”
And then both the Tories and nuLabour, who have embellished this nonsense come hell or high water in the intervening 20+ years would look just a little bit fooolish, wouldn´t they?
>“value added” is a term used to judge how good a school is doing …..<
No, it is a term used to judge how well</b< a school is doing… TES is a teachers' grouping is it…
OK, messed up the bolding, but you get the idea 😦
Absolutely b22c. It is soooooo easy to make a mistake when you are in a hurry, or under pressure, or both.
I was under the impression that that was a quote from the website?
from a contributor to its blog, rather like us heer. Or here.
A teacher?
Oh. Interesting stuff. I didn’t realise less was expected of me and no 2 son because we have August birthdays. I thought we just had to get on with it and keep up! That’s what I always told him anyway 😀
Isobel, hon, thank you! You iz, lak, da biznesss, as my year 12s would say…will return to digest properly when my own kids not scrapping over toys… BUt thank you!!! ; )
Hi Claire, I was just going when saw you had found it. There’s more there too, but this seemed q clear. Take a look why don’t you.
I thought you were in Lancs. Your year 12s talk like Ali G?
Oh Claire and while you’re there take a look at the stuff about languages being optional at KS4. I think you’ll feel at home.
THanks again Isobel. Yep; Ali G, computer sez no…all in lancs hotpot.. But will return to this post for proper read in few hours : )
What a complicated way to massage the figures to get any result you want… and to con people into thinking that certain schools are doing well.
Hi again Isobel; kids in bed now…very good of you to post this. I’m doing forms and am lost in educational jargon… But, say if three of my students were predicted a B and got A*s, then for those students, would that be Value Added +1? And when you talk about an individual teachers’ Value Added performance, is that an average residual of the whole GCSE group?
I am definitely not sharpest tool in box when it comes to number crunching, I’m afraid…
Don’t know Claire, but if I were you, I would go armed with those questions to whoever is responsible in the admin side of your school for recording the figures, and your inspector who should be able to help you. If you have the energy, surf the TES pages and see if there is anything more helpful there. You can always post the question on the forum.
Thanks Isobel…for what it’s worth, some inspector gave me an excellent rating a year or so ago, which saved me from getting the boot for a while. But now they’re swinging the axe again. I’ll need everything I can get hold of woith the way it is in languages right now…all jobs are in London or darn sarf : )
This is ridiculous. we have shprtage of qualified, experienced language teachers, children get a poor deal in the classroom, give up languages, language graduates don’t go into teaching, No one learns a MFL. Mad.
Maybe I’ll go back…
I know, Isobel! Don’t get me started…we could swap back. I’ve been thinking of heading back to journalism!. Been buttering up the news editor of Liv echo again on facebook. Btway, I’ve been talking to Brendano on mother ship, told him to come here and got my head ripped off for my pains (not by him by others!) The place gets no better; I’m even more stressed now. Ah well, that’s what you get for spending far too long messin’ instead of marking!; )
Hi Claire, just found your comment. I keep being told how good I am at finding good presents for people and wondering how to turn it into something that earns money! Also thought the online tutoring looked interesting.
Boadicea, it’s like the comment I quoted in #2 says, it’s a ridiculous system to try to arrange schools in league tables and incredibly crude, but successive governments like it, so they keep coming up with ever more complicated methods to make it make sense of the data. Schools as sausage machines. I blame Margaret Thatcher. It was actually her government that started the whole nonsense so I can legitimately blame her. But I would anyway. A bit like 42 being the answer.
Hi Isobel…thanks. I’m supposed to beworking on job form tonight; we’re a bit in panic mode really. Added Value in education makes about as much sense to me as Added Salt…Who’d be a teacher, eh..? I swear I need to find a third profession..children’s entertainer, perhaps.? : )