The Experts below are selected from a list of 315 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Helen F Ladd - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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School based Accountability and the distribution of teacher quality across grades in elementary School
Education Finance and Policy, 2013Co-Authors: Sarah Crittenden Fuller, Helen F LaddAbstract:We use North Carolina data to explore whether the quality of teachers in the lower elementary grades (K–2) falls short of teacher quality in the upper grades (3–5) and to examine the hypothesis that School Accountability pressures contribute to such quality shortfalls. Our concern with the early grades arises from recent studies highlighting how children's experiences in those years have lasting effects on their later outcomes. Using two credentials-based measures of teacher quality, we document within-School quality shortfalls in the lower grades, and show that the shortfalls increased with the introduction of No Child Left Behind. Consistent with that pattern, we find that Schools responded to Accountability pressures by moving their weaker teachers down to the lower grades and stronger teachers up to the higher grades. These findings support the view that Accountability pressure induces Schools to pursue actions that work to the disadvantage of children in the lower grades. © 2013 Association for Education Finance and Policy
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School based Accountability and the distribution of teacher quality across grades in elementary School
Education Finance and Policy, 2013Co-Authors: Sarah Crittenden Fuller, Helen F LaddAbstract:Abstract We use North Carolina data to explore whether the quality of teachers in the lower elementary grades (K–2) falls short of teacher quality in the upper grades (3–5) and to examine the hypothesis that School Accountability pressures contribute to such quality shortfalls. Our concern with the early grades arises from recent studies highlighting how children's experiences in those years have lasting effects on their later outcomes. Using two credentials-based measures of teacher quality, we document within-School quality shortfalls in the lower grades, and show that the shortfalls increased with the introduction of No Child Left Behind. Consistent with that pattern, we find that Schools responded to Accountability pressures by moving their weaker teachers down to the lower grades and stronger teachers up to the higher grades. These findings support the view that Accountability pressure induces Schools to pursue actions that work to the disadvantage of children in the lower grades.
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status versus growth the distributional effects of School Accountability policies
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 2010Co-Authors: Helen F Ladd, Douglas Lee LauenAbstract:Although the federal No Child Left Behind program judges the effectiveness of Schools based on their students' achievement status, many policy analysts argue that Schools should be measured, instead, by their students' achievement growth. Using a 10-year student-level panel data set from North Carolina, we examine how School-specific pressure associated with status and growth approaches to School Accountability affect student achievement at different points in the prior-year achievement distribution. Achievement gains for students below the proficiency cut point emerge in Schools failing either type of Accountability standard, with the effects clearer for math than for reading. In contrast to prior research highlighting the possibility of educational triage, we find little or no evidence that failing Schools in North Carolina ignore the students far below proficiency under either approach. Importantly, we find that the status, but not the growth, approach reduces the reading achievement of higher performing students. Our analysis suggests that the distributional effects of Accountability pressure depend not only on the type of pressure for which Schools are held accountable (status or growth), but also the tested subject. © 2010 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.
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do School Accountability systems make it more difficult for low performing Schools to attract and retain high quality teachers
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 2004Co-Authors: Charles T Clotfelter, Helen F Ladd, Jacob L Vigdor, Roger Aliaga DiazAbstract:Administrative data from North Carolina are used to explore the extent to which that state's relatively sophisticated School-based Accountability system has exacerbated the challenges that Schools serving low-performing students face in retaining and attracting high-quality teachers. Most clear are the adverse effects on retention rates, and hence on teacher turnover, in such Schools. Less clear is the extent to which that higher turnover has translated into a decline in the average qualifications of the teachers in the low-performing Schools. Other states with more primitive Accountability systems can expect even greater adverse effects on teacher turnover in low-performing Schools. © 2004 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.
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the dallas School Accountability and incentive program an evaluation of its impacts on student outcomes
Economics of Education Review, 1999Co-Authors: Helen F LaddAbstract:Consistent with the current emphasis on performance-based Accountability in K-12 education, several states and a few local districts have introduced School-based incentive programs. This paper provides one of the few evaluations of the effects of such programs on student outcomes. Using a panel data set for Schools in large Texas cities, it measures the gains in student performance in Dallas relative to those in other cities. It finds positive and relatively large effects for Hispanic and white seventh graders, but not for black students. Potentially positive effects also emerge for dropout rates and principal turnover rates.[ JEL I20] © 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Martin R West - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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development and implementation of student social emotional surveys in the core districts
Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 2017Co-Authors: Martin R West, Katie Buckley, Sara Krachman, Noah BookmanAbstract:Abstract States and School districts across the U.S. are seeking to expand their definition of student success to include social-emotional learning. The CORE Districts, a collaborative of California districts that has developed a system of School Accountability and continuous improvement that includes measures of social-emotional skills based on student self-reports, exemplify this trend. In this case study, we provide an overview of CORE's School Quality Improvement System, which was implemented in the 2015–16 School year across six districts serving roughly one million students. We describe how four social-emotional competencies—growth mindset, self-efficacy, self-management, and social awareness—were selected for assessment; the process for curating and piloting assessments of students' social-emotional skills; and reliability and validity evidence from a 2015 field test of social-emotional measures based on self-reports from nearly 400,000 students. We conclude with lessons from the development of CORE's system for other next-generation Accountability and continuous improvement efforts.
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School Accountability autonomy choice and the equality of educational opportunities
2013Co-Authors: Gabriela Schuetz, Elke Luedemann, Martin R West, Ludger WoessmannAbstract:Many contemporary education reforms aim at raising the level of student achievement by increasing Accountability, autonomy, and choice within School systems. We examine how these market-oriented reforms affect the equality of educational opportunities as measured by the dependence of student achievement on socioeconomic background (SES). To this end, we analyze data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2003, a representative sample of 15-year olds. Our estimation sample consists of more than 180,000 students from 27 OECD countries. We find that government funding for privately operated Schools is associated with higher equality of opportunity. Moreover, inequality of opportunity is substantially higher in School systems that assign students to specific educational tracks at early ages. With respect to Accountability, the strong positive association of external exit exams with student achievement is slightly smaller for low-SES than for high-SES students. School autonomy in determining course contents is associated with higher equality of opportunity, whereas equality of opportunity is lower in countries where more Schools have autonomy in hiring teachers. We conclude that rather than harming disadvantaged students, Accountability, autonomy, and choice are mostly tides that lift all boats.
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promotion and reassignment in public School districts how do Schools respond to differences in teacher effectiveness
Economics of Education Review, 2011Co-Authors: Matthew M Chingos, Martin R WestAbstract:Abstract We use a unique administrative database from the state of Florida to provide the first evidence that promotion and other job reassignments within School districts are systematically related to differences in teacher effectiveness in raising student achievement. We follow the career paths of a cohort of almost 25,000 classroom teachers during the 2001–2002 School year for seven subsequent years. Our results confirm that effective teachers are more likely to become assistant principals or principals and less likely to be reassigned to a low-stakes teaching position. The tendency of highly effective teachers to continue teaching in high-stakes grades and subjects is strongest in Schools receiving low ratings from the state's School Accountability system. Teachers entering the principal track experience a large increase in annual earnings, but the share of teachers promoted in this way is small enough that future compensation remains largely unrelated to effectiveness for teachers as a whole.
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School Accountability autonomy and choice around the world
Books, 2009Co-Authors: Ludger Woessmann, Gabriela Schuetz, Elke Luedemann, Martin R WestAbstract:Accountability, autonomy and choice are now the watchwords of education reformers around the globe. This book presents new evidence from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test on whether students perform better in School systems with such institutional measures in place. It also provides a theoretical framework for considering these reforms and summarizes previous international evidence. The results confirm that various policies promoting Accountability, autonomy and choice are strongly associated with higher achievement for students from both disadvantaged and advantaged backgrounds. In particular, choice through public funding for private Schools is associated with both higher performance overall and higher equality of opportunity.
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School Accountability autonomy choice and the level of student achievement international evidence from pisa 2003
Research Papers in Economics, 2007Co-Authors: Ludger Wobmann, Elke Ludemann, Gabriela Schutz, Martin R WestAbstract:Accountability, autonomy, and choice play a leading role in recent School reforms in many countries. This report provides new evidence on whether students perform better in School systems that have such institutional measures in place. We implement an internationally comparative approach within a rigorous micro-econometric framework that accounts for the influences of a large set of student, family, School, and country characteristics. The student-level data used in the analysis comes from the PISA 2003 international student achievement test that encompasses up to 265,000 students from 37 countries. Our results reveal that different facets of Accountability, autonomy, and choice are strongly associated with the level of student achievement across countries. With respect to Accountability, students perform better where policies are in place that aim at students (external exit exams), teachers (monitoring of lessons), and Schools (assessment-based comparisons). The combined achievement differences amount to more than one and a half PISA grade-level equivalents. Students in Schools with hiring autonomy perform better on average, while they perform worse in Schools with autonomy in formulating their budget. School autonomy over the budget, salaries, and course contents appears to be more beneficial when external exit exams hold Schools accountable for their decisions.
David N Figlio - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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School Accountability and teacher mobility
Journal of Urban Economics, 2018Co-Authors: Li Feng, David N Figlio, Tim R SassAbstract:Abstract We exploit a 2002 change in Florida’s School Accountability system, and use regression discontinuity and difference-in-difference approaches, to study the effects of Accountability pressure on teacher mobility. While School grading “shocks” do not affect mobility at most parts of the measured School quality distribution, there exists strong evidence that teachers are more likely to leave Schools that have received a failing grade. Receipt of an “F” grade translates into differently higher turnover for the best teachers, measured by contributions to student test scores, at a School. These results are robust to a wide range of parametric and nonparametric model specifications.
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chapter 8 School Accountability
Handbook of the Economics of Education, 2011Co-Authors: David N Figlio, Susanna LoebAbstract:School Accountability—the process of evaluating School performance on the basis of student performance measures—is increasingly prevalent around the world. In the United States, Accountability has become a centerpiece of both Democratic and Republican federal administrations' education policies. This chapter reviews the theory of School-based Accountability, describes variations across programs, and identifies key features influencing the effectiveness and possible unintended consequences of Accountability policies. The chapter then summarizes the research literature on the effects of test-based Accountability on students and teachers, concluding that the preponderance of evidence suggests positive effects of the Accountability movement in the United States during the 1990s and early 2000s on student achievement, especially in math. The effects on teachers and on students' long-run outcomes are more difficult to judge. It is also clear that School personnel respond to Accountability in both positive and negative ways, and that Accountability systems run the risk of being counter-productive if not carefully thought out and monitored.
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School Accountability and teacher mobility
Social Science Research Network, 2010Co-Authors: Li Feng, David N Figlio, Tim R SassAbstract:This paper presents the first causal evidence on the effects of School Accountability systems on teacher labor markets. We exploit a 2002 change in Florida's School Accountability system that exogenously shocked some Schools to higher Accountability grades and others to lower Accountability grades, and measure whether teachers in shocked Schools are more or less likely to move. Using microdata from the universe of Florida public School teachers, we find strong evidence that Accountability shocks influence the teacher labor market; specifically, teachers are more likely to leave Schools that have been downward shocked -- especially to the bottom grade -- and they are less likely to leave Schools that have been upward shocked. We also find that Accountability shocks influence the distribution of the measured quality of teachers (in terms of value added measures) who stay and leave their School, though the average differences are not large.
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cramming the effects of School Accountability on college bound students
Social Science Research Network, 2006Co-Authors: Colleen Donovan, David N Figlio, Mark RushAbstract:This paper is the first to explore the effects of School Accountability systems on high-achieving students' long-term performance. Using data from a large state university, we relate School Accountability pressure in high School to a student's university-level grades and study habits. We find that an Accountability system based on a low-level test of basic skills apparently led to reduced performance by high-achieving students, while an Accountability system based on a more challenging criterion-referenced exam apparently led to improved performance in college on mathematics and other technical subjects. Both types of systems are associated with increased cramming by students in college. The results indicate that the nature of an Accountability system can influence its effectiveness. View the working paper PDF on CALDER's website.
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cramming the effects of School Accountability on college bound students
National Bureau of Economic Research, 2006Co-Authors: Colleen Donovan, David N Figlio, Mark RushAbstract:This paper is the first to explore the effects of School Accountability systems on high-achieving students' long-term performance. Using exceptional data from a large highly-selective state university, we relate School Accountability pressure in high School to a student's university-level grades and study habits. We exploit a change in the state's Accountability system in 1999 that led to some Schools becoming newlythreatened by Accountability pressure and others becoming newly-unthreatened to identify the effects of Accountability pressure. We find that an Accountability system based on a low-level test of basic skills apparently led to generally reduced performance by high-achieving students, while an Accountability system based on a more challenging criterion-referenced exam apparently led to improved performance in college on mathematics and other technical subjects. Both types of systems are associated with increased "cramming" by students in college. The results indicate that the nature of an Accountability system can influence its effectiveness.
Rebecca Dizonross - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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how does School Accountability affect teachers evidence from new york city
Journal of Human Resources, 2020Co-Authors: Rebecca DizonrossAbstract:Does holding Schools accountable for student performance cause good teachers to leave low-performing Schools? Using data from New York City, which assigns Accountability grades to Schools on the basis of student achievement, I perform a regression discontinuity analysis and find evidence of the opposite effect. At the bottom end of the School grade distribution, lower Accountability grades decrease teacher turnover and increase joining teachers’ quality. A likely channel is that Accountability pressures increase principal effort at lower-graded Schools, which teachers value. In contrast, at the top end of the School grade distribution, low Accountability grades may negatively impact joining teachers’ quality.
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how does School Accountability affect teachers evidence from new york city
Social Science Research Network, 2018Co-Authors: Rebecca DizonrossAbstract:Does holding Schools accountable for student performance cause good teachers to leave low-performing Schools? Using data from New York City, which assigns Accountability grades to Schools based on student achievement, I perform a regression discontinuity analysis and find evidence of the opposite effect. At the bottom end of the School grade distribution, I find that a lower Accountability grade decreases teacher turnover and increases joining teachers’ quality. A likely channel is that Accountability pressures induce increases in principal effort at lower-graded Schools, especially among high-quality principals, and teachers value these changes. In contrast, at the top end of the School grade distribution, where Accountability pressures are lower, low Accountability grades may negatively impact joining teachers’ quality.
Paul E Peterson - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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the efficacy of choice threats within School Accountability systems results from legislatively induced experiments
The Economic Journal, 2006Co-Authors: Martin R West, Paul E PetersonAbstract:Targeted stigma and School voucher threats under a revised 2002 Florida Accountability law have positive impacts on School performance as measured by the test score gains of their students. In contrast, stigma and public School choice threats under the US federal Accountability law, No Child Left Behind, do not have similar effects in Florida. Estimation relies upon individual-level data and is based upon regression analyses that exploit discontinuities within the Accountability regimes. Choice threats embedded within Accountability regimes can moderate educational inequalities by boosting achievement at the lowest-performing Schools, but policy design is crucial.
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the efficacy of choice threats within School Accountability systems results from legislatively induced experiments
2005Co-Authors: Martin R West, Paul E PetersonAbstract:Stigma and School voucher threats under a revised 2002 Florida Accountability law have positive impacts on student performance. Stigma and public School choice threats under the U.S. federal Accountability law, No Child Left Behind, do not have similar effects in Florida. Significant impacts of stigma, when combined with the voucher threat, are observed on the test score performance of African Americans, those eligible for free lunch, and those with the lowest initial test scores. No significant impacts of the voucher threat on the performances of whites and Hispanics are detected. Estimations rely upon individual-level data and are based upon regression analyses that exploit artificial distinctions created by cliffs within the Accountability regimes.
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no child left behind the politics and practice of School Accountability
2003Co-Authors: Paul E Peterson, Martin R WestAbstract:The 2002 No Child Left Behind Act is the most important legislation in American education since the 1960s. The law requires states to put into place a set of standards together with a comprehensive testing plan designed to ensure these standards are met. Students at Schools that fail to meet those standards may leave for other Schools, and Schools not progressing adequately become subject to reorganization. The significance of the law lies less with federal dollar contributions than with the direction it gives to federal, state, and local School spending. It helps codify the movement toward common standards and School Accountability. Yet NCLB will not transform American Schools overnight. The first scholarly assessment of the new legislation, No Child Left Behind? breaks new ground in the ongoing debate over Accountability. Contributors examine the law's origins, the political and social forces that gave it shape, the potential issues that will surface with its implementation, and finally, the law's likely consequences for American education.