Abstract: In this article, we carefully examine two important implementation issues when estimating propensity scores using generalized boosted models (GBM), a promising machine learning technique. First, we examine which of the following methods for tuning GBM lead to better covariate balance...

Both research and practice of value-added models (VAM) have been growing in recent years due to the widespread effort to quantify teacher effectiveness. The existing VAM literature has not yet tested the sensitivity of value-added estimates to the rules that define which students contribute to...