Principals
Teacher Incentives and Student Achievement: Evidence from New York City Public Schools
Roland Fryer
NBER Working Paper, March 2011
Abstract:
Financial incentives for teachers to increase student performance is an increasingly popular education policy around the world. This paper describes a school-based randomized trial in over two-hundred New York City public schools designed to better understand the impact of teacher incentives on student achievement. I find no evidence that teacher incentives increase student performance, attendance, or graduation, nor do I find any evidence that the incentives change student or teacher behavior. If anything, teacher incentives may decrease student achievement, especially in larger schools. The paper concludes with a speculative discussion of theories that may explain these stark results.
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The Impact of No Child Left Behind on Students, Teachers, and Schools
Thomas Dee & Brian Jacob
Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Fall 2010, Pages 149-194
Abstract:
The controversial No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) brought test-based school accountability to scale across the United States. This study draws together results from multiple data sources to identify how the new accountability systems developed in response to NCLB have influenced student achievement, school-district finances, and measures of school and teacher practices. Our results indicate that NCLB brought about targeted gains in the mathematics achievement of younger students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. However, we find no evidence that NCLB improved student achievement in reading. School-district expenditure increased significantly in response to NCLB, and these increases were not matched by federal revenue. Our results suggest that NCLB led to increases in teacher compensation and the share of teachers with graduate degrees. We find evidence that NCLB shifted the allocation of instructional time toward math and reading, the subjects targeted by the new accountability systems.
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Godfrey Gibbison, Tracyann Henry & Jayne Perkins-Brown
Economics of Education Review, April 2011, Pages 247-257
Abstract:
Freshman grade point average, in particular first semester grade point average, is an important predictor of survival and eventual student success in college. As many institutions of higher learning are searching for ways to improve student success, one would hope that policies geared towards the success of freshmen have long term benefits reflected in eventual graduation. In this paper, we look at whether participation in Intramural and Recreation programs is associated with freshman grade point average at a mid-sized public institution with extensive recreational opportunities. We find a strong positive association between freshman grade point average and participation in recreation. Our results suggest that investments in recreational opportunities for students are complementary to the institution's academic mission rather than a distraction from it.
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Values and Messages Conveyed in College Commencement Speeches
Jenifer Partch & Richard Kinnier
Current Psychology, March 2011, Pages 81-92
Abstract:
Using content analysis, values and messages were extracted from 90 American university commencement speeches delivered between 1990 and 2007. Overall the most frequent messages in descending order were: Help Others, Do the Right Thing, Expand Your Horizons, Be True to Yourself, Never Give Up, Appreciate Diversity, Cherish Special Others, and Seek Balance. Two messages were delivered more often at women's colleges than at coeducational universities, and more often by female speakers than male speakers. These were: Be True to Yourself and Cherish Special Others. Discussion focuses on these messages in light of contemporary American societal values and sex role expectations.
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Starting the Wrong Conversations: The Public School Crisis and "Waiting for Superman"
Katy Swalwell & Michael Apple
Educational Policy, March 2011, Pages 368-382
Abstract:
The documentary "Waiting for Superman" has become one of those rare things, a (supposed) documentary that generates a wider audience. It also is one of the more recent embodiments of what Nancy Fraser (1989) labels as the "politics of needs and needs discourses." Dominant groups listen carefully to the language and issues that come from below. They then creatively appropriate the language and issues in such a way that very real problems expressed by multiple movements are reinterpreted through the use of powerful groups' understandings of the social world and of how we are to solve "our" problems. This is exactly what is happening in education; and it is exactly what this film tries to accomplish. We critically examine the arguments and assumptions that the film makes, as well as how it makes them. In the process, we demonstrate how it elides crucial questions, contradicts many of its own claims, and acts to close off the kinds of substantive discussions that are essential for serious educational reforms.
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Latino/a Student Misbehavior and School Punishment
Anthony Peguero & Zahra Shekarkhar
Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, February 2011, Pages 54-70
Abstract:
Although Latino/as are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. student population, Latino/a youth face a number of educational hurdles, such as disproportionate school punishment. This topic is particularly relevant today in the midst of the current social, political, and economic debate over the influence of Latino/a immigration in the US school system. This study draws from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 and utilizes hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to analyze the relationships between gender, generational status, misbehavior, and school punishment for 7,250 Latino/a and White students. Findings reveal that Latino/a students, regardless of gender or generational status, are not misbehaving more than White students. For school punitive measures, however, third-generation Latino and Latina students are more likely to be punished. The implications of the disparate school punishment patterns for Latino/a students in the US school system are discussed more generally.
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Eric Taylor & John Tyler
NBER Working Paper, March 2011
Abstract:
The effect of evaluation on employee performance is traditionally studied in the context of the principal-agent problem. Evaluation can, however, also be characterized as an investment in the evaluated employee's human capital. We study a sample of mid-career public school teachers where we can consider these two types of evaluation effect separately. Employee evaluation is a particularly salient topic in public schools where teacher effectiveness varies substantially and where teacher evaluation itself is increasingly a focus of public policy proposals. We find evidence that a quality classroom-observation-based evaluation and performance measures can improve mid-career teacher performance both during the period of evaluation, consistent with the traditional predictions; and in subsequent years, consistent with human capital investment. However the estimated improvements during evaluation are less precise. Additionally, the effects sizes represent a substantial gain in welfare given the program's costs.
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Healthy school meals and Educational Outcomes
Michèle Belot & Jonathan James
Journal of Health Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper provides field evidence on the effects of diet on educational outcomes, exploiting a campaign lead in the UK in 2004, which introduced drastic changes in the meals offered in the schools of one Borough-Greenwich- shifting from low-budget processed meals towards healthier options. We evaluate the effect of the campaign on educational outcomes in primary schools using a difference in differences approach; comparing educational outcomes in primary schools (key stage 2 outcomes more specifically) before and after the reform, using the neighbouring Local Education Authorities as a control group. We find evidence that educational outcomes did improve significantly in English and Science. We also find that authorised absences - which are most likely linked to illness and health - fell by 14%.
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Industrial Actions in Schools: Strikes and Student Achievement
Michael Baker
NBER Working Paper, March 2011
Abstract:
While many jurisdictions ban teacher strikes on the assumption that they harm students, there is surprisingly little research on this question. The majority of existing studies make cross section comparisons of students who do or do not experience a strike, and report that strikes do not affect student performance. I present new estimates from a sample of strikes in the Canadian province of Ontario over the period 1998-2005. The empirical strategy controls for fixed student characteristics at the school cohort level. The results indicate that teacher strikes in grades 2 or 3 have on average a small, negative and statistically insignificant effect on grade 3 through grade 6 test score growth, although there is some heterogeneity across school boards. The effect of strikes in grades 5 and 6 on grade 3 through grade 6 score growth is negative, much larger and statistically significant. The largest impact is on math scores: 29 percent of the standard deviation of test scores across school/grade cohorts.
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Stefanie McDonald, Marsha Ing & George Marcoulides
Educational Research and Evaluation, October 2010, Pages 401-419
Abstract:
This study examined the developmental effects of early parental intrinsic and extrinsic motivational strategies on mathematics achievement scores obtained from White students compared to underrepresented minority students. A latent growth curve model was fit to data from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth (LSAY) with mathematics achievement assessed from 7th grade through 12th grade. Intrinsic parental motivational strategies were found to positively predict initial levels of mathematics achievement scores for White students but not underrepresented minority students. Extrinsic parental motivational strategies did not predict initial levels of mathematics achievement scores for either group of students. For White students, growth rate was found to be positively influenced by intrinsic and extrinsic parental motivational strategies. However, there is no evidence of this relationship for underrepresented minority students. This research contributes to an emerging literature relating developmental change processes to mathematics achievement.
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Steven Hemelt
Economics of Education Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
As the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law moves through the reauthorization process, it is important to understand the basic performance impacts of its central structure of accountability. In this paper, I examine the effects of failure to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) under NCLB on subsequent student math and reading performance at the school level. Using panel data on Maryland elementary and middle schools from 2003 through 2009, I find that the scope of failure matters: Academic performance suffers in the short run in response to school-wide failure. However, schools that meet achievement targets for the aggregate student group, yet fail to meet at least one demographic subgroup's target see between 3 and 6 percent more students in the failing subgroup score proficiently the following year, compared to if no accountability pressure were in place. I discuss alternative interpretations and policy implications of the main findings.
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Todd Stinebrickner & Ralph Stinebrickner
NBER Working Paper, March 2011
Abstract:
Due primarily to the difficulty of obtaining ideal data, much remains unknown about how college majors are determined. We take advantage of longitudinal expectations data from the Berea Panel Study to provide new evidence about this issue, paying particular attention to the choice of whether to major in math and science. The data collection and analysis are based directly on a simple conceptual model which takes into account that, from a theoretical perspective, a student's final major is best viewed as the end result of a learning process. We find that students enter college as open to a major in math or science as to any other major group, but that a large number of students move away from math and science after realizing that their grade performance will be substantially lower than expected. Further, changes in beliefs about grade performance arise because students realize that their ability in math/science is lower than expected rather than because students realize that they are not willing to put substantial effort into math or science majors. The findings suggest the potential importance of policies at younger ages which lead students to enter college better prepared to study math or science.
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Parental nurturing and adverse effects of redistribution
Debasis Bandyopadhyay & Xueli Tang
Journal of Economic Growth, March 2011, Pages 71-98
Abstract:
This paper suggests that if parental nurturing is a dominating force in human capital formation then income redistribution may not promote economic growth. In particular, if, consistently with empirical evidence, parental human capital complements investment in a child's education and yields increasing returns in the intergenerational production of human capital, income redistribution may have an adverse impact on the growth rate of average human capital. Redistribution shifts resources towards the less educationally-productive families and thus in the presence of credit markets imperfections and increasing returns, it reduces the aggregate level of investment in human capital. Moreover, if the degree of increasing returns is sufficiently large to produce sustained growth, this adverse effect on human capital formation may outweigh the conventional beneficial effects of redistribution that arises from the interaction between a production technology exhibiting diminishing returns and credit market imperfections.
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Mark McDaniel et al.
Journal of Educational Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Typically, teachers use tests to evaluate students' knowledge acquisition. In a novel experimental study, we examined whether low-stakes testing (quizzing) can be used to foster students' learning of course content in 8th grade science classes. Students received multiple-choice quizzes (with feedback); in the quizzes, some target content that would be included on the class summative assessments was tested, and some of the target content was not tested. In Experiment 1, three quizzes on the content were spaced across the coverage of a unit. Quizzing produced significant learning benefits, with between 13% and 25% gains in performance on summative unit examinations. In Experiments 2a and 2b, we manipulated the placement of the quizzing, with students being quizzed on some content prior to the lecture, quizzed on some immediately after the lecture, and quizzed on some as a review prior to the unit exam. Review quizzing produced the greatest increases in exam performance, and these increases were only slightly augmented when the items had appeared on previous quizzes. The benefits of quizzing (relative to not quizzing) persisted on cumulative semester and end-of-year exams. We suggest that the present effects reflect benefits accruing to retrieval practice, benefits that are well established in the basic literature.
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Eric Bettinger & Rachel Baker
NBER Working Paper, March 2011
Abstract:
College completion and college success often lag behind college attendance. One theory as to why students do not succeed in college is that they lack key information about how to be successful or fail to act on the information that they have. We present evidence from a randomized experiment which tests the effectiveness of individualized student coaching. Over the course of two separate school years, InsideTrack, a student coaching service, provided coaching to students from public, private, and proprietary universities. Most of the participating students were non-traditional college students enrolled in degree programs. The participating universities and InsideTrack randomly assigned students to be coached. The coach contacted students regularly to develop a clear vision of their goals, to guide them in connecting their daily activities to their long term goals, and to support them in building skills, including time management, self advocacy, and study skills. Students who were randomly assigned to a coach were more likely to persist during the treatment period, and were more likely to be attending the university one year after the coaching had ended. Coaching also proved a more cost-effective method of achieving retention and completion gains when compared to previously studied interventions such as increased financial aid.
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Evaluating School Improvement Plans and their Affect on Academic Performance
Kenneth Fernandez
Educational Policy, March 2011, Pages 338-367
Abstract:
The development of a school improvement plan (SIP) has become an integral part of many school reform efforts. However, there are almost no studies that empirically examine the effectiveness of SIPs. The few studies examining the planning activities of organizations have generally focused on the private sector and have not provided clear or consistent evidence that such planning is effective. Some studies have even suggested formal planning can lead to inflexible and myopic practices or may simply waste time and resources. This study explores the relationship between the quality of SIPs and school performance by examining a unique dataset from the Clark County School District, the fifth largest school district in the nation. The study finds that, even when controlling for a variety of factors, there is a strong and consistent association between the quality of school planning and overall student performance in math and reading.