The Effect of Attending a Charter School in Newark, New Jersey, on Student Test Scores

We exploit information about parental preference and a randomized component in the assignment of students to schools within a deferred acceptance (DA) mechanism to estimate the causal effect of enrolling in a charter school in Newark, New Jersey, on student test scores. The estimates incorporate variation from students attending about 70% of the city’s charter schools, accounting for about 85% of charter school enrollment. Enrolling in a Newark charter school that participated in the DA assignment process leads to a large and statistically significant increase in math and English Language Arts (ELA) scores. Enrolling in a charter school that is operated by either the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) or Uncommon charter school networks has an especially large effect.

The Relationship Between School Turnaround and Student Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis

School turnaround has emerged as a predominant strategy to improve chronically low-performing schools, although the approach remains controversial. This meta-analysis synthesizes results from 35 studies to examine the relationship between school turnaround and various student outcomes. We find that school turnaround is associated with improved attendance, standardized test scores, and graduation rates. When separating the results by the different turnaround models, transformation, turnaround, and restart models are associated with improvements in student test scores. We find no evidence of a significant relationship between school closure or state turnaround conducted under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) waivers and student test scores. We describe how changes in organizational operations, human capital, and the governance and/or management of low-performing schools might have contributed to this observed relationship.

PENINGKATAN KEMAMPUAN BACA TULIS AL-QUR�AN MAHASISWA PAI MELALUI PROGRAM MATRIKULASI BTQ

In this study, the author describes the problem of how to implement the BTQ matriculation program at IAIN Pekalongan. Is there an increase in Al-Qur'an literacy skills of PAI students through the BTQ matriculation program at IAIN Pekalongan. The purpose of this study was to determine the implementation of the BTQ matriculation program at IAIN Pekalongan and to find out whether there was an improvement in the Al-Qur'an literacy skills of PAI students through the BTQ matriculation program at IAIN Pekalongan. The approach used in this study is a quantitative approach using experimental methods. The results of the study can be concluded that the implementation of the BTQ matriculation program at Pekalongan IAIN is conducted once a week on Saturdays. To find out the ability of students to read and write the Qur'an, an examination or test is carried out both written tests and oral tests. The results of calculations through prerequisite tests and comparative tests show that the BTQ matriculation program can improve the Al-Qur'an literacy skills of PAI students. From the results of these calculations, it can be concluded that there is a significant increase in the results of student test scores before participating in the BTQ matriculation program and after participating in the BTQ matriculation program.Keywords: Improvement, Read Write Al-Qur'an, BTQ Matriculation Program�

Teacher Merit Pay: A Meta-Analysis

Empirical research investigating the association between teacher pay incentives and student test scores has grown rapidly over the past decade. To integrate the findings from these studies and help inform the debate over teacher merit pay, this meta-analysis synthesizes effect sizes across 37 primary studies, 26 of which were conducted in the United States. Among the U.S. based studies, the results suggest that the effect of teacher merit pay on student test scores is positive and statistically significant (0.043 standard deviation). This summary effect varies by program design and study context, suggesting that teacher merit pay has the potential to improve student test scores in some contexts but researchers and policymakers should pay close attention to program design and implementation.