The papers in this panel address several methodological issues of importance to researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders as states and school districts are increasingly relying on value-added models (VAMs) for evaluation purposes. First, which controls should be included in VAMs, and what are the tradeoffs involved in choosing one set of controls over another? The choice of how to specify VAMs can have implications in terms of which schools and teachers are identified as high and low performers. This, in turn, can influence teacher incentives, particularly with respect to teaching in disadvantaged schools. The question of how to specify VAMs is highly contentious in policy discussions nationwide. Second is the issue of co-teaching. Most value-added studies in the research literature have avoided the co-teaching issue entirely – in many cases by simply dropping co-taught classrooms. However, co-teaching is a common occurrence and in policy applications it must be addressed. Third is the issue of multi-level fixed effects VAMs. In practice, the most common version of a multi-level fixed effects model is one that includes school and teacher effects. An important consideration is that different layers of fixed effects influence how teachers are compared to each other, and require different identifying assumptions. An application to the evaluation of teacher preparation programs is considered.