The Impact of Principal Attrition and Replacement on Indicators of School Quality

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Marcus A. Winters ◽  
Brian Kisida ◽  
Ikhee Cho
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
School Quality ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
New Principal ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Leadership Transitions ◽  
Principal Attrition ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Transitions to a new principal are common, especially within urban public schools, and potentially highly disruptive to a school's culture and operations. We use longitudinal data from New York City to investigate if the effect of principal transitions differs by whether the incoming principal was hired externally or promoted from within the school. We take advantage of variation in the timing of principal transitions within an event-study approach to estimate the causal effect of principal changes. Changing principals has an immediate negative effect on student test scores that is sustained over several years regardless of whether hired internally or externally. However, externally hired principals lead to an increase in teacher turnover and a decline in perceptions of the school's learning environment, whereas transitions to an internally promoted principal have no such effects. This pattern of results raises important questions about leadership transitions and the nature of principal effects on school quality.

The 49th Annual PDK Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools

2017 ◽  
Vol 99 (1) ◽  
pp. NP1-NP32 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
School Quality ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Academic Preparation ◽  
After School ◽  
The Public ◽  
Annual Survey ◽  
Public Money ◽  
Landline Telephone

The 2017 PDK Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools finds that Americans overwhelmingly want schools to do more than educate students in academic subjects. While they value traditional academic preparation, Americans say they want schools to substantially help position students for their working lives after school, which means both more direct career preparation and efforts to develop students’ interpersonal skills. In addition, as in past years, the 2017 poll also shows little public support for using public money to send children to private schools. The more Americans know about how voucher programs work, the less likely they are to support them or to say they’d participate in them. The poll also asked Americans about valuing diversity in schools, measuring school quality, wrapping support around students, grading the public schools, and expecting students to attend college. The 2017 poll is PDK’s 49th annual survey. It is based on a random, representative, 50-state sample of 1,588 adults interviewed by cell or landline telephone, in English or Spanish, in May 2017. For the first time, this year’s study also includes a pair of statewide samples — focusing on Georgia and New York — which are covered in separate reports that were not published in the magazine but are available at the organization’s poll web site. Langer Research Associates of New York, N.Y., produced this year’s poll.

Unexpected Arrivals

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 692-713 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilyn Ruble Whitesell ◽  
Leanna Stiefel ◽  
Amy Ellen Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
English Language ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Heterogeneous Effects ◽  
Eighth Grade Students ◽  
Short Run ◽  
The Impact

Across the country and in urban areas in particular, many students change schools during the academic year. While much research documents the impact of changing schools on the academic achievement of mobile students themselves, less research explores whether new arrivals have negative spillovers on stable classmates. The lack of research on impacts of mid-year entry is problematic, as poor, minority, and low-achieving students are disproportionately exposed to mid-year entry. In this study, we use a rigorous causal identification strategy and rich longitudinal data on fourth- through eighth-grade students in the New York City (NYC) public schools to estimate the impact of exposure to mid-year entry on the achievement of stable students. We analyze heterogeneous effects of mid-year entrants by origin (arriving from other NYC public schools, from other U.S. school systems, or from other countries), determine the extent to which mid-year entrants’ characteristics mediate the impact of mid-year entry, and explore the moderating influence of stable students’ characteristics. We find small negative effects of mid-year entry on both math and English language arts test scores in the short run. These impacts are not driven by mid-year entrant characteristics and are somewhat larger for Asian students and those who do not qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Finally, results suggest mid-year entry continues to negatively influence the math performance of stable students beyond the year of exposure. We discuss the relevance of results and conclude with recommendations for future research.

A NOTE ON THE IMPACT OF VOUCHER PROGRAMS WHEN THERE ARE NONLINEAR PEER GROUP EFFECTS

2006 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 685-698 ◽  
Author(s):  
HUNG-JU CHEN
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Private Schools ◽  
School Quality ◽  
Peer Interactions ◽  
Peer Group ◽  
Voucher Programs ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Group Effects ◽  
Peer Group Effects

This study constructs a dynamic model of the coexistence of public and private schools to study the impact of voucher programs when there are nonlinear peer group effects. The government provides public schools as well as tuition vouchers for households attending private schools. School quality depends on expenditure per student and peer quality within the school. When peer quality is nonlinear, more agents will choose public schools if peer quality is more substitutable, whereas more agents will attend private schools if peer quality is more complementary. We find that vouchers will typically create a “cream skimming” effect and the impact of voucher programs on economic performance is sensitive to the way in which peer interactions affect school quality.

scholarly journals The Impacts of Charter Schools on Student Achievement: Evidence from North Carolina

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Bifulco ◽  
Helen F. Ladd
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Panel Data ◽  
Charter Schools ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Achievement Gains ◽  
Traditional Public Schools ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
The Impact

Using an individual panel data set to control for student fixed effects, we estimate the impact of charter schools on students in charter schools and in nearby traditional public schools. We find that students make considerably smaller achievement gains in charter schools than they would have in public schools. The large negative estimates of the effects of attending a charter school are neither substantially biased, nor substantially offset, by positive impacts of charter schools on traditional public schools. Finally, we find suggestive evidence that about 30 percent of the negative effect of charter schools is attributable to high rates of student turnover.

scholarly journals Moving Matters: The Causal Effect of Moving Schools on Student Performance

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Ellen Schwartz ◽  
Leanna Stiefel ◽  
Sarah A. Cordes
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
English Language ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Student Mobility ◽  
First Grade ◽  
Causal Effects ◽  
Grade Span ◽  
Negative Effect

Policy makers and analysts often view the reduction of student mobility across schools as a way to improve academic performance. Prior work indicates that children do worse in the year of a school move, but has been largely unsuccessful in isolating the causal effects of mobility. We use longitudinal data on students in New York City public elementary and middle schools to isolate the causal effects of school moves on student performance. We account for observed and time-invariant differences between movers and non-movers using rich data on student sociodemographic and education program characteristics and student fixed effects. To address the potential endogeneity of school moves arising from unobserved, time-varying factors, we use three sets of plausibly exogenous instruments for mobility: first-grade school grade span, grade span of zoned middle school, and building sale. We find that in the medium term, students making structural moves perform significantly worse in both English language arts (ELA) and math, whereas those making nonstructural moves experience a significant increase in ELA performance. In the short term, there is an additional negative effect for structural moves in ELA. These effects are meaningful in magnitude and results are robust to a variety of alternative specifications, instruments, and samples.

Reviews of Lay Literature in Child-Care: What Parents Are Reading

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 88 (3) ◽  
pp. 518-518
Author(s):  
FRANCES PAGE GLASCOE ◽  
WILLIAM O. MOORE ◽  
ANNA BAUMGAERTEL
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Child Care ◽  
Time Management ◽  
Peer Pressure ◽  
List Price ◽  
Trade Books ◽  
School Work ◽  
Academic Activities ◽  
The Impact

L. Canter, L. Hausner. Homework without Tears. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1987; list price $7.95 (No. 30 on the 1990 bestseller list of books on child care from Ingram Book Co., distributor of trade books). This text offers parents some solid advice about children and homework, including: establishing an appropriate study area, working with teachers, time management, task analysis, test preparation and independent completion of work. The authors wander onto shaky ground when they suggest that parents should not help children learn concepts and when they fail to mention that a child's need for assistance with homework may be indicative of significant trouble with school work and learning problems. Accordingly, parents are not directed toward psychoeducational evaluations, tutors or other resources. Further, they are not helped to acquire insight into their child's feelings about school, developmental readiness for various academic activities, self-concept, peer pressure, or the impact of different kinds of educational experiences (e.g., self-versus teacher-directed activities, private versus public schools, large versus small classes, etc.). Despite these weaknesses, the book contains many helpful suggestions and fills a void in the offerings on child-care by focusing specifically on homework issues.

scholarly journals The corrosive effect of corruption on trust in politicians: Evidence from a natural experiment

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 205316801771418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Macarena Ares ◽  
Enrique Hernández
Keyword(s):  
Natural Experiment ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Corrosive Effect ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Survey Interviews ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Empirical studies do not provide a univocal answer about the effects of corruption on political attitudes and behaviour. Focusing on the relationship between corruption and political trust, in this article we explore whether real-world corruption scandals have a negative causal effect on trust in politicians; whether the impact of scandals decays over time; and whether corruption scandals have a weaker impact among the supporters of the party involved in the scandal. We address these questions through a natural experiment generated by the coincidence of the uncovering of a corruption scandal in Spain (the Bárcenas scandal) and the fieldwork of the European Social Survey. Given that the day at which survey interviews were conducted is as-if random, the uncovering of the scandal represents a unique opportunity to assess the causal effect of corruption on individuals’ trust in politicians. The results indicate that: (i) the corruption scandal had a substantial negative effect on trust in politicians; (ii) the effect of the scandal was stronger in the days following its disclosure; (iii) the effect of the scandal was independent from individuals’ partisan preferences.

scholarly journals The Ukrainian-Russian Virtual Flashmob against Sexual Assault

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 487-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feruza Aripova ◽  
Janet Elise Johnson
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
New York University ◽  
Feminist Activism ◽  
University Center ◽  
Female Promiscuity ◽  
The Impact

Feruza Aripova – PhD Candidate in World History, Northeastern University; Center Associate, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University; Visiting Scholar, Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia, New York University, USA. Email: [email protected] Janet Elise Johnson – Professor of Political Science and Women’s & Gender Studies, Brooklyn College, City University of New York; Visiting Scholar, Center for European and Mediterranean Studies at New York University, New York, USA. Email: [email protected] This article examines the 2016 Ukrainian-Russian virtual flashmob that took on the issues of sexual assault, including childhood sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and rape. Begun by a Ukrainian activist on Facebook, the flashmob resulted in more than ten thousand original posts and led to a broader discussion on violence against women in Ukrainian and Russian. Many women (and some men) for the first time publicly disclosed excruciating details of physical and psychological coercion and the lasting trauma they suffered. The commonalities across the posts and the public visibility of the flashmob directly confronted the stigma attached to the topic of sexual violence. The media reactions to the flashmob ranged from empathy toward the victims and condemnation of the perpetrators to criticism of female promiscuity and victim blaming. The flashmob had concrete results: criminal cases were opened against teachers at one of Moscow’s prominent public schools and a series of initiatives were directed against sexual violence in Ukraine. This article provides the first systematic documentation and analysis of these posts as well as their reception in mass media and the impact so far of the flashmob, situating this flashmob as the same kind of activism that was seen in the bigger 2017 #MeToo campaign. In these ways, we contribute to what little social scientists know about violence against women in the post-Soviet region and assess this new tactic of feminist activism. Unsurprisingly, such activism does not change societies in one fell swoop, but the Ukrainian-Russian flashmob shows how virtual activism can nudge towards progressive change.

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