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428
Can you recognize an effective teacher when you recruit one?
, 2008
"... Abstract Research on the relationship between teacher characteristics and teacher effectiveness has been underway for over a century, yet little progress has been made in linking teacher quality with factors observable at the time of hire. To extend this literature, we administered an in-depth surv ..."
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Cited by 56 (5 self)
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Abstract Research on the relationship between teacher characteristics and teacher effectiveness has been underway for over a century, yet little progress has been made in linking teacher quality with factors observable at the time of hire. To extend this literature, we administered an in-depth survey to new math teachers in New York City and collected information on a number of nontraditional predictors of effectiveness, including teaching-specific content knowledge, cognitive ability, personality traits, feelings of self-efficacy, and scores on a commercially available teacher selection instrument. We find that only a few of these predictors have statistically significant relationships with student and teacher outcomes. However, the individual variables load onto two factors, which measure what one might describe as teachers' cognitive and noncognitive skills. We find that both factors have a moderately large and statistically significant relationship with student and teacher outcomes, particularly with student test scores.
Who leaves? Teacher attrition and student achievement.” NBER Working Paper No
, 2008
"... susanna loeB, ..."
Everybody’s doing it, but what does teacher testing tell us about teacher effectiveness
- Journal of Human Resources
, 2007
"... ABSTRACT: This paper explores the relationship between teacher testing and teacher effectiveness using a unique dataset that links teachers to their individual students. My findings show a positive relationship between some teacher licensure tests and student achievement. But they also suggest that ..."
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Cited by 51 (8 self)
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ABSTRACT: This paper explores the relationship between teacher testing and teacher effectiveness using a unique dataset that links teachers to their individual students. My findings show a positive relationship between some teacher licensure tests and student achievement. But they also suggest that states face significant tradeoffs when they require particular performance levels as a precondition to becoming a teacher: some teachers whom we might wish were not in the teacher workforce based on their contribution toward student achievement are eligible to teach based on their performance on these tests, while other individuals who would be effective teachers are ineligible.
School Quality and the Black-White Achievement Gap”, NBER Working Paper No
, 2006
"... Substantial uncertainty exists about the impact of school quality on the black-white achievement gap. Our results, based on both Texas Schools Project (TSP) administrative data and the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey (ECLS), differ noticeably from other recent analyses of the black-white achieve ..."
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Cited by 39 (3 self)
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Substantial uncertainty exists about the impact of school quality on the black-white achievement gap. Our results, based on both Texas Schools Project (TSP) administrative data and the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey (ECLS), differ noticeably from other recent analyses of the black-white achievement gap by providing strong evidence that schools have a substantial effect on the differential. The majority of the expansion of the achievement gap with age occurs between rather than within schools, and specific school and peer factors exert a significant effect on the growth in the achievement gap. Unequal distributions of inexperienced teachers and of racial concentrations in schools can explain all of the increased achievement gap between grades 3 and 8. Moreover, non-random sample attrition for school changers and much higher rates of special education classification and grade retention for blacks appears to lead to a significant
Why we (usually) don’t have to worry about multiple comparisons ∗
, 2008
"... The problem of multiple comparisons can disappear when viewed from a Bayesian perspective. We propose building multilevel models in the settings where multiple comparisons arise. These address the multiple comparisons problem and also yield more efficient estimates, especially in settings with low g ..."
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Cited by 32 (7 self)
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The problem of multiple comparisons can disappear when viewed from a Bayesian perspective. We propose building multilevel models in the settings where multiple comparisons arise. These address the multiple comparisons problem and also yield more efficient estimates, especially in settings with low group-level variation, which is where multiple comparisons are a particular concern. Multilevel models perform partial pooling (shifting estimates toward each other), whereas classical procedures typically keep the centers of intervals stationary, adjusting for multiple comparisons by making the intervals wider (or, equivalently, adjusting the pvalues corresponding to intervals of fixed width). Multilevel estimates make comparisons more conservative, in the sense that intervals for comparisons are less likely to include zero; as a result, those comparisons that are made with confidence are more likely to be valid.
Classroom peer effects and academic achievement: Quasi-randomized evidence from South Korea
- Journal of Urban Economics
, 2007
"... Endogenous formation of peer groups often plagues studies on peer effects. Exploiting quasi-random assignment of peers to individual students that takes place in middle schools of South Korea, we examine the existence and detailed structure of academic interactions among classroom peers. We find tha ..."
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Cited by 31 (0 self)
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Endogenous formation of peer groups often plagues studies on peer effects. Exploiting quasi-random assignment of peers to individual students that takes place in middle schools of South Korea, we examine the existence and detailed structure of academic interactions among classroom peers. We find that mean achievement of one’s peers is positively cor-related with a student’s performance (standardized mathematics test score). Employing IV methods, we show that such a relationship is causal: the improvement in peer quality enhances a student’s performance. Quantile regressions reveal that weak students interact more closely with other weak students than with strong students; hence their learning can be delayed by the presence of worst-performing peers. In contrast, strong students are found to interact more closely with other strong students; hence their learning can be improved by the presence of best-performing peers. We also examine the implications of these findings for two class formation methods: ability grouping and mixing.
Measuring the Impacts of Teachers I: Evaluating Bias in Teacher Value-Added Estimates
, 2013
"... Are teachers ’ impacts on students ’ test scores (“value-added”) a good measure of their quality? One reason this question has sparked debate is disagreement about whether value-added (VA) measures provide un-biased estimates of teachers ’ causal impacts on student achievement. We test for bias in V ..."
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Cited by 29 (5 self)
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Are teachers ’ impacts on students ’ test scores (“value-added”) a good measure of their quality? One reason this question has sparked debate is disagreement about whether value-added (VA) measures provide un-biased estimates of teachers ’ causal impacts on student achievement. We test for bias in VA using previously unobserved parent characteris-tics and a quasi-experimental design based on changes in teaching staff. Using school district and tax records for more than one million children, we find that VA models which control for a student’s prior test scores ex-hibit little bias in forecasting teachers ’ impacts on student achievement. How can we measure and improve the quality of teaching in primary schools? One prominent but controversial method is to evaluate teachers based on their impacts on students ’ test scores, commonly termed the “value-added ” (VA) approach.1 School districts from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles have begun to calculate VA measures and use them to evaluate teachers. Advocates argue that selecting teachers on the basis of their VA can generate substantial gains in achievement (e.g., Gordon, Kane, and Staiger
Match Quality, Worker Productivity, and Worker Mobility: Direct Evidence From Teachers
, 2010
"... I investigate the importance of the match between teachers and schools for student achievement. I show that teacher effectiveness increases after a move to a different school, and I estimate teacher-school match effects using a mixedeffects estimator. Match quality can "explain away " a qu ..."
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Cited by 29 (2 self)
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I investigate the importance of the match between teachers and schools for student achievement. I show that teacher effectiveness increases after a move to a different school, and I estimate teacher-school match effects using a mixedeffects estimator. Match quality can "explain away " a quarter of, and is as economically important as, teacher quality. Match quality is negatively correlated with turnover, and increases with experience. This paper provides the first estimates of worker-firm match quality using output data as opposed to inferring productivity from wages or employment durations. Because teacher wages are essentially unrelated to productivity, this is the compelling evidence that workers may seek high quality matches for reasons other than higher pay. The productive quality of the match between a worker and the firm plays a central role in canonical models of worker mobility (Jovanovic 1979, Mincer and Jovanovic 1981, Neal 1999, Burdett 1978, Mortensen 1998, Johnson 1978). One of the key roles of the labor market is to allocate workers to firms in the most efficient manner. The hypothesized mechanism through which this efficient allocation emerges is through workers either leaving jobs where the productivity match between the worker and the firm is low or seeking jobs where match quality is high, or both. Match quality is also used to explain the stylized facts that changing jobs is associated with rapid earnings growth (Bartel and Borjas 1981, Altonji and Shakotko 1987,
The effects of NBPTS-certified teachers on student achievement. CALDER working paper no. 4
, 2007
"... In this study we consider the efficacy of a relatively new and widely accepted certification system for teachers established by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). To address the limitations in past research on the subject, we utilize a unique database covering the univer ..."
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Cited by 28 (1 self)
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In this study we consider the efficacy of a relatively new and widely accepted certification system for teachers established by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). To address the limitations in past research on the subject, we utilize a unique database covering the universe of teachers and students in Florida for a four-year span to determine the relationship between NBPTS certification and the impact of teachers on student test scores from both low-stakes and high-stakes exams. We find evidence that NBPTS certification provides a positive signal of teacher productivity in some cases, though the ability of NBPTS certification to identify high quality teachers varies considerably across subjects and grades. There is little evidence that the process of becoming NBPTS certified increases teacher productivity or that NBPTScertified teachers in a school enhance the productivity of their colleagues.
Error Rates in Measuring Teacher and School Performance Based on Student Test Score Gains. Available online at: http:// ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20104004/pdf/20104004.pdf Steenkamp
, 2010
"... This paper addresses likely error rates for measuring teacher and school performance in the upper elementary grades using value-added models applied to student test score gain data. Using realistic performance measurement system schemes based on hypothesis testing, we develop error rate formulas bas ..."
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Cited by 28 (3 self)
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This paper addresses likely error rates for measuring teacher and school performance in the upper elementary grades using value-added models applied to student test score gain data. Using realistic performance measurement system schemes based on hypothesis testing, we develop error rate formulas based on OLS and Empirical Bayes estimators. Simulation results suggest that value-added estimates are likely to be noisy using the amount of data that are typically used in practice. Type I and II error rates for comparing a teacher’s performance to the average are likely to be about 25 percent with three years of data and 35 percent with one year of data. Corresponding error rates for overall false positive and negative errors are 10 and 20 percent, respectively. Lower error rates can be achieved if schools are the performance unit. The results suggest that policymakers must carefully consider likely system error rates when using value-added NCEE 2010-4004 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
