scholarly journals Measurement Matters: Perspectives on Education Policy from an Economist and School Board Member

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 167-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Lang
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Education Community ◽  
Enormous Amount ◽  
School Board Member ◽  
Value Added Measures ◽  
Nclb Act ◽  
Summary Data

One of the potential strengths of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act enacted in 2002 is that the law requires the production of an enormous amount of data, particularly from tests, which, if used properly, might help us improve education. As an economist and as someone who served 13 years on the School Committee1 in Brookline Massachusetts, until May 2009, I have been appalled by the limited ability of districts to analyze these data; I have been equally appalled by the cavalier manner in which economists use test scores and related measures in their analyses. The summary data currently provided are very hard to interpret, and policymakers, who typically lack statistical sophistication, cannot easily use them to assess progress. In some domains, most notably the use of average test scores to evaluate teachers or schools, the education community is aware of the biases and has sought better measures. The economics and statistics communities have both responded to and created this demand by developing value-added measures that carry a scientific aura. However, economists have largely failed to recognize many of the problems with such measures. These problems are sufficiently important that they should preclude any automatic link between these measures and rewards or sanctions. They do, however, contain information and can be used as a catalyst for more careful evaluation of teachers and schools, and as a lever to induce principals and other administrators to act on their knowledge.

The Sensitivity of Teacher Value-Added Scores to the Use of Fall or Spring Test Scores

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (5) ◽  
pp. 335-349
Author(s):  
Allison Atteberry ◽  
Daniel Mangan
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Model ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Summer Learning Loss ◽  
Learning Loss ◽  
Summer Learning ◽  
Statewide Testing ◽  
Grade 3 ◽  
Value Added Measures

Papay (2011) noticed that teacher value-added measures (VAMs) from a statistical model using the most common pre/post testing timeframe–current-year spring relative to previous spring (SS)–are essentially unrelated to those same teachers’ VAMs when instead using next-fall relative to current-fall (FF). This is concerning since this choice–made solely as an artifact of the timing of statewide testing–produces an entirely different ranking of teachers’ effectiveness. Since subsequent studies (grades K/1) have not replicated these findings, we revisit and extend Papay’s analyses in another Grade 3–8 setting. We find similarly low correlations (.13–.15) that persist across value-added specifications. We delineate and apply a literature-based framework for considering the role of summer learning loss in producing these low correlations.

scholarly journals Factories: Getting Rid Of Learning

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allen Jackson ◽  
Laura Gaudet
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
School Consolidation ◽  
Teacher Qualifications ◽  
Educational Programming ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
School Settings ◽  
Educational Debate ◽  
Nclb Act

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act has been the main focus of educational debate since we entered the 21st Century. It has left educators in dispute about the reasonableness of federally-ordered reforms and the necessity for holding all students to the same academic standards. The 2001 legislation expanded the federal government’s role in public education and required greater school accountability and teacher qualifications with little concern for mandate funding. The NCLB requirements have resulted in larger public schools and rural school consolidation. This development has placed unnecessary burden on public schools and has forced many districts to eliminate educational programming. This article will discuss the ramifications of NCLB in public school settings, as well as the specific problems of schools in rural areas.

Under Pressure: Job Security, Resource Allocation, and Productivity in Schools under No Child Left Behind

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 207-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randall Reback ◽  
Jonah Rockoff ◽  
Heather L. Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Job Security ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Passing Rates ◽  
Class Instruction ◽  
Specialist Teachers ◽  
Standardized Exams ◽  
Nclb Act

We conduct the first nationwide study of incentives under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, which requires states to punish schools failing to meet target passing rates on students' standardized exams. States' idiosyncratic policies created variation in the risk of failure among very similar schools in different states, which we use to identify effects of accountability pressure. We find NCLB lowers teachers' perceptions of job security, shifts time towards specialist teachers in high-stakes subjects and away from whole-class instruction, and has positive or neutral effects on students' enjoyment of learning and achievement in reading, math, and science. (JEL H52, H75, I21, I28, J45)

scholarly journals Background Variables, Levels of Aggregation, and Standardized Test Scores

2009 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Sharon E. Paulson ◽  
Gregory J. Marchant
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Standardized Test ◽  
Demographic Characteristics ◽  
Standardized Test Scores ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
The Individual

This article examines the role of student demographic characteristics in standardized achievement test scores at both the individual level and aggregated at the state, district, school levels. For several data sets, the majority of the variance among states, districts, and schools was related to demographic characteristics. Where these background variables outside of the control of schools significantly affected averaged scores, and test scores result in high stakes consequences, benefits and sanctions may be inappropriately applied. Furthermore, disaggregating the data by race, SES, limited English, or other groupings ignores the significant confounding and cumulative effects of belonging to more than one disadvantaged group. With these approaches to evaluation being fundamental to the No Child Left Behind mandates, the danger of misinterpretation and inappropriate application of sanctions is substantial.

Bad Tests or Bad Test Use? A Case of SAT Use to Examine Why We Need Stakeholder Conversations on Validity

2013 ◽  
Vol 115 (9) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madhabi Chatterji
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Teachers College ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Stakeholder Perspectives ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Test Use ◽  
Nclb Act

Background Much is still unknown or unclear about how and where validity issues arise in high stakes testing situations in education, and ways by which we can rectify validity problems in practice and policy contexts. Purpose This paper is the Foreword to the special issue of the Teachers College Record, When Education Measures Go Public – Stakeholder Perspectives on How and Why Validity Breaks Down. Method The paper analyzes a recent case involving an application of the SAT to highlight tensions between validity and test score use in high stakes school accountability environments driven by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. It uses the case study as a vehicle to introduce the individual papers and authors in the section. Conclusions There are information and power gaps among those who set societal priorities for using tests for high stakes purposes, those who design and conduct psychometric research on tests and testing programs, and those who could eventually face consequences of assessment misuse. These gaps could be addressed through thoughtful exchanges among key assessment stakeholders, as this special issue shows.

Declaring Bankruptcy on Educational Inequity

2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 908-934 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Bass ◽  
Cynthia Gerstl-Pepin
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Public Education ◽  
School Reform ◽  
Educational Policy ◽  
Reform Policy ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Educational Debt ◽  
Educational Inequity ◽  
Community Issues ◽  
Nclb Act

The authors consider Ladson-Billings’ (2006) charge to reframe the way the ‘achievement gap’ is viewed, and put forth the metaphor of “bankruptcy” as a way to acknowledge the educational debt and educational inequity and move towards debt forgiveness in public education. Specifically, the bankruptcy metaphor is used to examine the debt embedded in the historical progression of federal school reform policy including the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act. Acknowledging this debt requires valuing and supporting children and their families through educational policy that supports equity. The authors assert that reconciliation of the debt requires working across disciplines and agencies to address the larger community issues surrounding educational inequities.

Mapping America’s teacher evaluation plans under ESSA

2019 ◽  
Vol 101 (2) ◽  
pp. 22-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Close ◽  
Audrey Amrein-Beardsley ◽  
Clarin Collins
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Teacher Evaluation ◽  
Local Control ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Teacher Evaluations ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Teacher Observations ◽  
Student Learning Objectives ◽  
Teacher Evaluation Systems ◽  
Every Student Succeeds Act

In 2016, the federal government proposed and adopted the Every Student Succeeds Act, which retracted the federal government’s prior control over states’ teacher evaluation systems, permitting more local control. Kevin Close, Audrey Amrein-Beardsley, and Clarin Collins collected information from states to determine the degree to which states were shifting away from the value-added models (VAMs) that were ascendant under No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top and to understand what kinds of evaluation methods they are employing instead. States do appear to be moving slowly away from VAMs, continuing to use teacher observations, and incorporating student learning objectives as growth measures. Local control and more formative use of teacher evaluations also appear to be on the rise.

The Intertemporal Variability of Teacher Effect Estimates

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 572-606 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel F. McCaffrey ◽  
Tim R. Sass ◽  
J. R. Lockwood ◽  
Kata Mihaly
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Middle School Teachers ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Sampling Error ◽  
Teacher Performance ◽  
Value Added ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Student Test ◽  
Student Test Scores ◽  
Value Added Measures

The utility of value-added estimates of teachers' effects on student test scores depends on whether they can distinguish between high- and low-productivity teachers and predict future teacher performance. This article studies the year-to-year variability in value-added measures for elementary and middle school mathematics teachers from five large Florida school districts. We find year-to-year correlations in value-added measures in the range of 0.2–0.5 for elementary school and 0.3–0.7 for middle school teachers. Much of the variation in measured teacher performance (roughly 30–60 percent) is due to sampling error from “noise” in student test scores. Persistent teacher effects account for about 50 percent of the variation not due to noise for elementary teachers and about 70 percent for middle school teachers. The remaining variance is due to teacher-level time-varying factors, but little of it is explained by observed teacher characteristics. Averaging estimates from two years greatly improves their ability to predict future performance.

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