scholarly journals Teacher and School Characteristics: Predictors of Student Achievement in Georgia Public Schools

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alisande F. Mayer ◽  
Ellen Wiley ◽  
Larry Wiley ◽  
Dianne Dees ◽  
Simmie Raiford
2011 ◽  
Vol 113 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Spyros Konstantopoulos ◽  
Geoffrey D. Borman

Background/Context A main objective of the Equality of Educational Opportunity Survey (EEOS), conducted in 1965, was to document the lack of availability of equal educational opportunities for minority students in public schools. Another equally important objective was to reveal specific inequalities in facilities and resources available to students in predominantly minority or predominantly White schools. Coleman et al. (1966) analyzed the EEOS data and found surprisingly few differences between the characteristics of schools attended by minority and White students. As a result, Coleman et al. concluded that school characteristics are not strongly related to student achievement in the presence of family background and that family inputs are much more valuable predictors of student achievement than school inputs are. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The present study revisited this issue about the importance of schools in promoting student achievement and reanalyzed the EEOS 12th grade data using multilevel models. Our sample included 12th graders in public schools in the U.S. in 1965. We sought to determine the predictive efficacy of school characteristics on student achievement net of the effects of family background. The overarching question motivating this research is: Would Coleman and his colleagues have reached the same conclusions had they had available today's multilevel modeling statistical methods that are more appropriate for determining school effects? Research Design We used both regression and multilevel models to gauge school effects and compared our findings to those reported by Coleman et al. Our estimates infer strictly correlational, not causal, associations between school characteristics and achievement. Conclusions/Recommendations We found considerable and significant between-school variance in achievement, which suggests school effects. Similarly, the observed school characteristics used in our models explained a substantial proportion of the between-school variation in achievement. Our results also indicated that schools play meaningful roles in distributing equality or inequality of educational outcomes to females, minorities, and the disadvantaged. These results are in congruence with recent studies that examined school effects from the 1970s to the 1990s using U.S. national probability samples of students (Konstantopoulos, 2006; Konstantopoulos & Hedges, 2008).


2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karlerik Naslund ◽  
Branco Ponomariov

Using data on charter and public school districts in Texas, we test the hypothesis that the labor practices in charter schools, in particular their ability to easily dismiss poorly performing teachers, diminishes the negative effect of teacher turnover on student achievement and graduation rates in comparison to public schools. We find some support for this hypothesis, and discuss implications for theory and practice.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-24
Author(s):  
Marytza A. Gawlik

This study explores the ways in which charter schools manage principalship socialization of individuals as they move into principalship roles. The topic is important in the context of increasing concerns about the need for quality educational principalship and the pressure charter schools face to demonstrate higher levels of student achievement than traditional public schools. Data were collected from three charter elementary schools in Florida during the 2012–2013 school year. The results reveal variation among the schools with respect to preparation for principalship transitions and subsequent socialization. This study provides a conceptual/analytic framework that can serve as a foundation for future research, which should (1) highlight the practices associated with using socialization as a stepping stone to building-level principalship and (2) compare network-based and stand-alone charter schools with respect to principalship development.


2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 161-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian R. Fitzpatrick ◽  
Mark Berends ◽  
Joseph J. Ferrare ◽  
R. Joseph Waddington

As researchers continue to examine the growing number of charter schools in the United States, they have focused attention on the significant heterogeneity of charter effects on student achievement. Our article contributes to this agenda by examining the achievement effects of virtual charter schools vis-à-vis brick-and-mortar charters and traditional public schools and whether characteristics of teachers and classrooms explain the observed impacts. We found that students who switched to virtual charter schools experienced large, negative effects on mathematics and English/language arts achievement that persisted over time and that these effects could not be explained by observed teacher or classroom characteristics.


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 217-231
Author(s):  
Tamgid Ahmed Chowdhury ◽  
Ishrat Jahan Synthia

PurposeThis paper aims to identify the determinants of school choice and factors that define the success of a school as perceived by the parents and then compare “Public” and “Private” schools with respect to the explored criteria to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the institutions.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on 1,121 quantitative data collected through survey questionnaire from the parents living in urban areas of Bangladesh. The school choice model was developed and validated by applying structural equation modeling.FindingsThis paper offers a statistically significant, robust and reliable five-dimensional 23-item school choice model that includes both school characteristics and preferred outcomes as perceived by the parents. Characteristic-wise comparisons in terms of characteristics revealed that public schools are superior to private institutions in fulfilling several choice criteria such as parents–teacher relationships, performance of the teachers, offerings of special programs, safety assurance in the campus and in having bigger campus with playground. On the other hand, private schools dominate in providing better educational environment, arranging training to the teachers, ensuring satisfactory library services and delivering information effectively to the parents. Among outcome determinants, government schools are well ahead in creating self-discipline, morality and good work habits among students. Private schools are superior in developing critical thinking skill of the kids.Originality/valueThere is a gap of comprehensive empirical study on school choice in South Asia region that includes both school characteristics and outcomes. Therefore, this paper contributes significantly to the relevant literature.


2019 ◽  
Vol 100 (8) ◽  
pp. 14-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Goldhaber ◽  
Vanessa Quince ◽  
Roddy Theobald

Empirical evidence shows that disadvantaged students tend to have less-qualified and less-effective teachers than their more-advantaged peers. These teacher quality gaps (TQGs), which have existed for decades and across many measures of student disadvantage and teacher quality, are an important factor explaining student achievement gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students. Research by Dan Goldhaber, Vanessa Quince, and Roddy Theobald — focusing on the sources of TQGs across different states and measures of teacher quality — suggests that policy makers should consider both the setting and the type of gap they wish to prioritize when designing policies to address TQGs.


2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melinda Adnot ◽  
Thomas Dee ◽  
Veronica Katz ◽  
James Wyckoff

In practice, teacher turnover appears to have negative effects on school quality as measured by student performance. However, some simulations suggest that turnover can instead have large positive effects under a policy regime in which low-performing teachers can be accurately identified and replaced with more effective teachers. This study examines this question by evaluating the effects of teacher turnover on student achievement under IMPACT, the unique performance-assessment and incentive system in the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). Employing a quasi-experimental design based on data from the first years of IMPACT, we find that, on average, DCPS replaced teachers who left with teachers who increased student achievement by 0.08 standard deviation ( SD) in math. When we isolate the effects of lower-performing teachers who were induced to leave DCPS for poor performance, we find that student achievement improves by larger and statistically significant amounts (i.e., 0.14 SD in reading and 0.21 SD in math). In contrast, the effect of exits by teachers not sanctioned under IMPACT is typically negative but not statistically significant.


1996 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 9-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric A Hanushek

Historic debates about the measurement of capital are even more complicated in the case of education and human capital. As extensive research demonstrates, education resources are not consistently related to student performance in existing elementary and secondary schools. This inefficiency in public schools implies that spending and resource measures do not accurately capture variations in school quality. This finding then has clear implications for both education policy and economic research. Because school inputs are poor policy instruments, an alternative policy focus that appears much more productive is performance incentives related to student achievement.


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