Peeking Into the Black Box of School Turnaround: A Formal Test of Mediators and Suppressors

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 232-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary T. Henry ◽  
Lam D. Pham ◽  
Adam Kho ◽  
Ron Zimmer
Keyword(s):  
Effective Teachers ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Teacher Turnover ◽  
Student Mobility ◽  
Black Box ◽  
School Turnaround ◽  
Difference In Differences ◽  
Low Performing Schools ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Formal Test

A growing body of research evaluates the effects of turnaround on chronically low-performing schools. We extend this literature by formally testing factors that may either mediate or suppress the effects of two turnaround initiatives in Tennessee: the Achievement School District (ASD) and local Innovation Zones (iZones). Using difference-in-differences models within a mediational framework, we find that hiring effective teachers and principals partially explains positive iZone effects. In the ASD, high levels of teacher turnover suppress potential positive effects. Also, in iZone schools, increased levels of student mobility and chronic absenteeism suppress potentially larger positive effects. Policies that increase capacity within turnaround schools, such as financial incentives for effective staff, appear to be important ingredients for realizing positive effects from turnaround reforms.

scholarly journals Sustainability and Maturation of School Turnaround: A Multiyear Evaluation of Tennessee’s Achievement School District and Local Innovation Zones

AERA Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 233285842092284
Author(s):  
Lam D. Pham ◽  
Gary T. Henry ◽  
Adam Kho ◽  
Ron Zimmer
Keyword(s):  
School District ◽  
Effective Teachers ◽  
School Turnaround ◽  
Staff Turnover ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
High Turnover ◽  
Difference In Differences ◽  
Low Performing Schools ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
High Staff Turnover

Recent evaluations of reforms to improve low-performing schools have almost exclusively focused on shorter term effects. In this study, we extend the literature by examining the sustainability and maturation of two turnaround models in Tennessee: the state-led Achievement School District (ASD) and district-led local Innovation Zones (iZones). Using difference-in-differences models, we find overall positive effects on student achievement in iZone schools and null effects in ASD schools. Additional findings suggest a linkage between staff turnover and the effectiveness of reforms. ASD schools experienced high staff turnover in every cohort, and iZone schools faced high turnover in its latest cohort, the only one with negative effects. We discuss how differences in the ASD and iZone interventions may help explain variation in the schools’ ability to recruit and retain effective teachers and principals.

Effects of the award of public service contracts on the performance and payroll of winning firms

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Ravenda ◽  
Maika Melina Valencia-Silva ◽  
Josep Maria Argiles-Bosch ◽  
Josep García-Blandón
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Social Goals ◽  
Effective Management ◽  
Difference In Differences ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Service Contracts ◽  
Performance Dimensions ◽  
Service Procurement ◽  
Medium Firms

Abstract We investigate the effects of an exogenous demand shock arising from the award of public service contracts by Italian public administrations in 2015 on a sample of 1782 winning small and medium firms that were not awarded any contract during the previous 3 years. Using a difference-in-differences model with continuous treatments estimated on a propensity score matched sample, our results reveal that higher awarded values enhance various performance dimensions of the winning firms as well as their average payroll per employee. Nonetheless, higher winning rebates moderate the positive effects of the award on payroll by inducing the winning firms to downward manage both salaries and social security contributions per employee to maintain their desired level of performance. The effects are mostly significant for smaller microenterprises. In addition, winning rebates negatively affect the performance of firms in the construction industry by leading these firms to downward manage the payroll of their employees more aggressively than firms in other industries. Our findings provide novel insights for the implementation of industrial policies aimed at achieving sustainable macroeconomic and social goals, within the business fabric, through the effective management of public service procurement.

scholarly journals Examining a Most Likely Case for Strong Campaign Effects: Hitler’s Speeches and the Rise of the Nazi Party, 1927–1933

2018 ◽  
Vol 112 (4) ◽  
pp. 1050-1066 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER SELB ◽  
SIMON MUNZERT
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Nazi Party ◽  
Difference In Differences ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Campaign Effects ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Extensive Data ◽  
The Face ◽  
Populist Movements

Hitler’s rise to power amidst an unprecedented propaganda campaign initiated scholarly interest in campaign effects. To the surprise of many, empirical studies often found minimal effects. The predominant focus of early work was on U.S. elections, though. Nazi propaganda as the archetypal and, in many ways, most likely case for strong effects has rarely been studied. We collect extensive data about Hitler’s speeches and gauge their impact on voter support at five national elections preceding the dictatorship. We use a semi-parametric difference-in-differences approach to estimate effects in the face of potential confounding due to the deliberate scheduling of events. Our findings suggest that Hitler’s speeches, while rationally targeted, had a negligible impact on the Nazis’ electoral fortunes. Only the 1932 presidential runoff, an election preceded by an extraordinarily short, intense, and one-sided campaign, yielded positive effects. This study questions the importance of charismatic leaders for the success of populist movements.

scholarly journals The Arrival of Fast Internet and Employment in Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 109 (3) ◽  
pp. 1032-1079 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas Hjort ◽  
Jonas Poulsen
Keyword(s):  
Job Creation ◽  
Job Displacement ◽  
Difference In Differences ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Cable Network ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Employment Gain ◽  
Employment Rates ◽  
Fast Internet

To show how fast Internet affects employment in Africa, we exploit the gradual arrival of submarine Internet cables on the coast and maps of the terrestrial cable network. Robust difference-in-differences estimates from 3 datasets, covering 12 countries, show large positive effects on employment rates—also for less educated worker groups—with little or no job displacement across space. The sample-wide impact is driven by increased employment in higher-skill occupations, but less-educated workers’ employment gain less so. Firm-level data available for some countries indicate that increased firm entry, productivity, and exporting contribute to higher net job creation. Average incomes rise. (JEL F14, J23, J24, J63, L86, O15, O33)

Sorting Through Performance Evaluations: The Influence of Performance Evaluation Reform on Teacher Attrition and Mobility

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (6) ◽  
pp. 2339-2377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis A. Rodriguez ◽  
Walker A. Swain ◽  
Matthew G. Springer
Keyword(s):  
Performance Evaluation ◽  
Teacher Attrition ◽  
Effective Teachers ◽  
Evaluation System ◽  
Race To The Top ◽  
Performance Evaluations ◽  
American Education ◽  
Mobility Patterns ◽  
Low Performing Schools ◽  
School Settings

The federal Race to the Top initiative signified a shift in American education policy whereby accountability efforts moved from the school to the teacher level. Using administrative data from Tennessee, we explore whether evaluation reforms differentially influenced mobility patterns for teachers of varying effectiveness. We find that the rollout of a statewide evaluation system, even without punitive consequences, was associated with increased turnover; however, there was comparably greater retention of more effective teachers, with larger differences in turnover between highly and minimally effective teachers confined to urban districts and low-performing schools. These results imply that states and districts can increase exit rates of low-performing instructors in the absence of automatic dismissals, which is a pattern that our analyses suggest may not generalize beyond urban school settings.

scholarly journals Meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials testing behavioural interventions to promote household action on climate change

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia F. Nisa ◽  
Jocelyn J. Bélanger ◽  
Birga M. Schumpe ◽  
Daiane G. Faller
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Randomised Controlled Trials ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Behavioural Plasticity ◽  
Controlled Trials ◽  
Alternative Strategies ◽  
Behavioural Interventions ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Randomised Controlled

Abstract No consensus exists regarding which are the most effective mechanisms to promote household action on climate change. We present a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials comprising 3,092,678 observations, which estimates the effects of behavioural interventions holding other factors constant. Here we show that behavioural interventions promote climate change mitigation to a very small degree while the intervention lasts (d = −0.093 95% CI −0.160, −0.055), with no evidence of sustained positive effects once the intervention ends. With the exception of recycling, most household mitigation behaviours show a low behavioural plasticity. The intervention with the highest average effect size is choice architecture (nudges) but this strategy has been tested in a limited number of behaviours. Our results do not imply behavioural interventions are less effective than alternative strategies such as financial incentives or regulations, nor exclude the possibility that behavioural interventions could have stronger effects when used in combination with alternative strategies.

scholarly journals Employment effects of investments in public employment services for disadvantaged social assistance recipients

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rasmus Ravn ◽  
Kristian Nielsen
Keyword(s):  
Labour Force ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
Target Group ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Public Employment ◽  
Difference In Differences ◽  
Employment Services ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
What Works ◽  
Active Labour

Across the OECD countries, there is a growing consensus in favour of targeting active labour market policies (ALMP) on the disadvantaged unemployed and persons outside the labour force to increase their employment prospects. Despite increased efforts, little is known about what works for getting persons with physical, mental, and social problems into employment. Using difference-in-differences regressions and propensity score matching on longitudinal population register data from Denmark, we investigate the effects of investment in public employment services for disadvantaged social assistance recipients, where social worker caseloads have been severely reduced and active employment measures for the target group have intensified. We find significant and robust positive effects of intervention on subsequent employment outcomes for disadvantaged, hard-to-employ social assistance recipients, suggesting the need for an increased focus on this target group in future research and in the design and implementation of ALMPs.

scholarly journals Teacher Turnover, Teacher Quality, and Student Achievement in DCPS

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melinda Adnot ◽  
Thomas Dee ◽  
Veronica Katz ◽  
James Wyckoff
Keyword(s):  
Student Achievement ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Teacher Turnover ◽  
School Quality ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Policy Regime ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Quasi Experimental

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.

scholarly journals Effectiveness of UK provider financial incentives on quality of care: a systematic review

2017 ◽  
Vol 67 (664) ◽  
pp. e800-e815 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rishi Mandavia ◽  
Nishchay Mehta ◽  
Anne Schilder ◽  
Elias Mossialos
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Quality Of Care ◽  
Quality Of Health Care ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Healthcare Quality ◽  
Standards Of Care ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
The Uk

BackgroundProvider financial incentives are being increasingly adopted to help improve standards of care while promoting efficiency.AimTo review the UK evidence on whether provider financial incentives are an effective way of improving the quality of health care.Design and settingSystematic review of UK evidence, undertaken in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) recommendations.MethodMEDLINE and Embase databases were searched in August 2016. Original articles that assessed the relationship between UK provider financial incentives and a quantitative measure of quality of health care were included. Studies showing improvement for all measures of quality of care were defined as ‘positive’, those that were ‘intermediate’ showed improvement in some measures, and those classified as ‘negative’ showed a worsening of measures. Studies showing no effect were documented as such. Quality was assessed using the Downs and Black quality checklist.ResultsOf the 232 published articles identified by the systematic search, 28 were included. Of these, nine reported positive effects of incentives on quality of care, 16 reported intermediate effects, two reported no effect, and one reported a negative effect. Quality assessment scores for included articles ranged from 15 to 19, out of a maximum of 22 points.ConclusionThe effects of UK provider financial incentives on healthcare quality are unclear. Owing to this uncertainty and their significant costs, use of them may be counterproductive to their goal of improving healthcare quality and efficiency. UK policymakers should be cautious when implementing these incentives — if used, they should be subject to careful long-term monitoring and evaluation. Further research is needed to assess whether provider financial incentives represent a cost-effective intervention to improve the quality of care delivered in the UK.

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