ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Cramming: The Effects of School Accountability on College-Bound Students. Working Paper 7
Author: Donovan, Colleen
Date: 2007-04-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Test Preparation,Test Coaching,Review (Reexamination),Context Effect,Competency Based Education,Accountability,College Bound Students,Human Capital,Sanctions,Student Behavior,Behavior Modification,Study Habits,High Schools,Outcomes of Education,Curriculum Design,Student Evaluation

This paper presents the first evidence of the effects of school accountability systems on the long-term human capital development of high-performing, college-bound students. The results are mixed. On the one hand, the evidence is consistent that school accountability sanction threats are associated with changes in student study habits. Students who attended high schools that were threatened with accountability sanctions systematically study differently than did their school-mates who graduated from high school in an adjacent year but who were not directly affected by the school's threat of sanctions. Students from high schools threatened with sanctions postpone studying and cram more than students from the same high schools when the schools were not threatened with sanctions. The tendency toward increased cramming seems likely to result when threatened schools place a heavy emphasis on the outcomes of a specific test, rather than on overall learning outcomes over the entire year. The authors also find evidence that the induced increase in student cramming, &quot;ceteris paribus&quot;, leads to reduced course performance in the classes in which the student crams. These results provide potential lessons for the design of accountability systems. The finding that students are apparently better prepared for college coursework in the specific subjects that are emphasized by the accountability system suggests that accountability systems that cover more subject areas may in turn produce better-prepared students. At the same time, the finding that students performed better when their schools were threatened with sanctions under a standards-based accountability system than under an accountability system with lower standards indicates that a system with high-quality tests closely aligned with rigorous standards is likely to yield better student preparation for higher education. A full set of coefficient estimates is appended. (Contains 1 figure, 10 tables and 9 footnotes.)
Individual Teacher Incentives and Student Performance. Working Paper 8
Author: Figlio, David N.
Date: 2007-04-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Merit Pay,Incentives,Teacher Competencies,Academic Achievement,Teacher Effectiveness,Longitudinal Studies,National Surveys,Educational Policy,Educational Practices,Predictor Variables,Policy Analysis,Comparative Analysis,Individual Differences,Educational Assessment,Educational Indicators,Measurement Techniques

This paper is the first to systematically document the relationship between individual teacher performance incentives and student achievement using United States data. We combine data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey on schools, students, and their families with our own survey conducted in 2000 regarding the use of teacher incentives. This survey on teacher incentives has unique data on frequency and magnitude of merit raises and bonuses, teacher evaluation, and teacher termination. We find that test scores are higher in schools that offer individual financial incentives for good performance. Moreover, the estimated relationship between the presence of merit pay in teacher compensation and student test scores is strongest in schools that may have the least parental oversight. The association between teacher incentives and student performance could be due to better schools adopting teacher incentives or to teacher incentives eliciting more effort from teachers; it is impossible to rule out the former explanation with our cross-sectional data. (Contains 6 tables and 3 footnotes.) [This report was supported by the Warrington College of Business Administration.]
Efficiency and Equity in the Time Pattern of Teacher Pension Benefits: An Analysis of Four State Systems. Working Paper 6
Author: Costrell, Robert M.
Date: 2007-04-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Retirement Benefits,Teacher Retirement,Audits (Verification),Personnel Policy,Comparative Analysis,State Surveys,Salary Wage Differentials,Compensation (Remuneration),Longitudinal Studies,Measurement Techniques,Systems Analysis,Performance Factors

Defined Benefit pension plans often generate odd time patterns of benefits. One typical pattern exhibits low accrual in early years, accelerating in mid-late years, followed by dramatic decline, or even negative returns in years that are relatively young for retirement. We consider four states for specific analysis: Arkansas, Missouri, California and Massachusetts. There are interesting variations among these states' formulas, which affect the incentive to retire early. We identify key factors in the defined benefit formulas that drive such patterns and likely consequences for employee behavior. We examine the efficiency and equity consequences of these systems and lessons that might be drawn for pension reform. (Contains 1 table, 2 figures and 18 footnotes.)
Teacher Pensions and Retirement Behavior: How Teacher Pension Rules Affect Behavior, Mobility, and Retirement. Working Paper 5
Author: Podgursky, Michael
Date: 2007-03-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Public School Teachers,Teacher Retirement,Elementary Secondary Education,Cohort Analysis,Longitudinal Studies,Trend Analysis,Teaching Experience,Retirement Benefits,Faculty Mobility

This paper examines late career mobility and retirement decisions for a cohort of mid-career Missouri public school teachers. Specifically, the paper follows a cohort of teachers whose combined age and experience totaled 45 or more years in fall 1991 through the 2005-06 school year. Like many public employee pensions, Missouri has a system that permits teachers to receive full benefits if the sum of their age and experience is at least 80 (&quot;rule of 80&quot;). Thus, the sum of age and experience for most of the teachers in this cohort will hit 80--full retirement eligibility--in the 16-year window studied. Traditional benefit (DB) pension systems provide teachers with a large annuity value on retirement. The accrual of this annuity value occurs over the teacher's entire work life; however, the rate of accrual is highly nonlinear and back-loaded with most of the gain occurring in the final years prior to retirement. In addition, these pension systems have various rules that introduce kinks or discontinuities in the rate of accrual after 30 years. This paper explores the effect of these pension rules on retirement patterns, as well as general descriptive data on retirement patterns. Like many states, Missouri permits teachers to continue teaching part-time while collecting benefits (e.g., DROP plans). Teachers can also retire from one pension system and begin teaching in another. The paper examines both types of behavior. The primary source of data for this study is administrative teacher records maintained by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. These records include data on teacher experience, demographics, teaching field, compensation, retirement, and workforce exit, as well as the employing school and district. The paper also compares teacher retirement data from the Missouri administrative records with data from the 2000-01 Teacher Follow-up Survey. (Contains 16 figures, 1 table and 12 footnotes.)
Everyone's Doing It, but What Does Teacher Testing Tell Us about Teacher Effectiveness? Working Paper 9
Author: Goldhaber, Dan
Date: 2007-04-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Teacher Competency Testing,Teacher Certification,Screening Tests,Relationship,Teacher Effectiveness,Academic Achievement,Teacher Student Relationship,Data Analysis,Grade 3,Grade 4,Grade 5,Grade 6

This paper explores the relationship between teacher testing and teacher effectiveness using a unique dataset that links teachers to their individual students. My findings show a positive relationship between some teacher licensure tests and student achievement. But they also suggest that states face significant tradeoffs when they require particular performance levels as a precondition to becoming a teacher: some teachers whom we might wish were not in the teacher workforce based on their contribution toward student achievement are eligible to teach based on their performance on these tests, while other individuals who would be effective teachers are ineligible. (Contains 4 tables, 1 figure and 25 footnotes.)
Teacher Credentials and Student Achievement in High School: A Cross-Subject Analysis with Student Fixed Effects. Working Paper 11
Author: Clotfelter, Charles T.
Date: 2007-10-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Credentials,High Schools,Academic Achievement,Teacher Distribution,State Surveys,Educational Indicators,Teacher Effectiveness,Statistical Data,Scores,Achievement Gains,Schematic Studies,Measurement Techniques,Comparative Testing,Achievement Tests,Predictor Variables

We use data on statewide end-of-course tests in North Carolina to examine the relationship between teacher credentials and student achievement at the high school level. The availability of test scores in multiple subjects for each student permits us to estimate a model with student fixed effects, which helps minimize any bias associated with the non-random distribution of teachers and students among classrooms within schools. We find compelling evidence that teacher credentials affect student achievement in systematic ways and that the magnitudes are large enough to be policy relevant. As a result, the uneven distribution of teacher credentials by race and socio-economic status of high school students--a pattern we also document--contributes to achievement gaps in high school. An appendix that briefly describes the steps the authors took to match students' test scores by subject to the students' teachers, and reports the distributions of test taking for matched students is presented. (Contains 9 tables and 18 footnotes.)
Are Public Schools Really Losing Their Best? Assessing the Career Transitions of Teachers and Their Implications for the Quality of the Teacher Workforce. Working Paper 12
Author: Goldhaber, Dan
Date: 2007-10-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Public Schools,Teacher Effectiveness,Teacher Competencies,Career Change,Teacher Persistence,Teacher Qualifications,Faculty Mobility,Labor Turnover,Academic Achievement,Elementary School Teachers,Teacher Certification,Alternative Teacher Certification,Mathematics Achievement,Student Characteristics,Racial Differences,Gender Differences,Teacher Influence,Teaching Conditions,Teacher Salaries,Poverty

Most studies that have fueled alarm over the attrition and mobility rates of high-quality teachers have relied on proxy indicators of teacher quality, which recent research finds to be only weakly correlated with value-added measures of teachers' performance. We examine attrition and mobility of teachers using teacher value-added measures for early-career teachers in North Carolina public schools from 1996 to 2002. Our findings suggest that the most-effective teachers tend to stay in teaching and in specific schools. Contrary to common expectations, we do not find that more-effective teachers are more likely to leave more-challenging schools. (Contains 17 tables, 1 figure and 15 notes.)
Feeling the Florida Heat? How Low-Performing Schools Respond to Voucher and Accountability Pressure. Working Paper 13
Author: Rouse, Cecilia Elena
Date: 2007-11-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Scores,Teaching Methods,Academic Achievement,Educational Vouchers,Accountability,Educational Policy,Educational Practices,School Surveys,Longitudinal Studies,Educational Change,Change Strategies,Achievement Gains,Incentives,High Stakes Tests,Statistical Data,Low Achievement

While numerous recent authors have studied  the effects of school accountability systems on student test performance and school &quot;gaming&quot; of accountability incentives, there has been little attention paid to substantive changes in instructional policies and practices resulting from school accountability. The lack of research is primarily due to the unavailability of appropriate data to carry out such an analysis. This paper brings to bear new evidence from a remarkable five-year survey conducted of a census of public schools  in Florida, coupled with detailed administrative data on student performance. We show that schools facing accountability pressure changed their instructional practices in meaningful ways. In addition, we present medium-run evidence of the effects of school accountability on student test scores, and find that a significant portion of these test score gains can likely be attributed to the changes in school policies and practices that we uncover in our surveys. (Contains 45 footnotes, 10 tables, and 2 figures.)
Public School Choice and Integration: Evidence from Durham, North Carolina. Working Paper 14
Author: Bifulco, Robert
Date: 2008-02-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Racial Segregation,School Choice,School Segregation,Performance Factors,Educational Policy,Policy Analysis,Educational Assessment,Educational Indicators,Student Placement,Student Records,Socioeconomic Influences,Public Schools,Data Analysis,School Statistics,Racial Composition

Using evidence from Durham, North Carolina, we examine the impact of school choice programs on racial and class-based segregation across schools. Theoretical considerations suggest that how choice programs affect segregation will depend not only on the family preferences emphasized in the sociology literature but also on the linkages between student composition, school quality, and student achievement emphasized in the economics literature, and on the availability of schools of different types. Reasonable assumptions about how these factors differ for students of different races and socio-economic status suggest that the segregating choices of students from advantaged backgrounds are likely to outweigh any integrating choices by disadvantaged students. The results of our empirical analysis are consistent with these theoretical considerations. Using information on the actual schools students attend and on the schools in their assigned attendance zones, we find that schools in Durham are more segregated by race and class as a result of school choice programs than they would be if all students attended their geographically assigned schools. In addition, we find that the effects of choice on segregation by class are larger than the effects on segregation by race. (Contains 9 tables and 12 endnotes.)
School Segregation under Color-Blind Jurisprudence: The Case of North Carolina. Working Paper 16
Author: Clotfelter, Charles T.
Date: 2008-02-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Teacher Effectiveness,Elementary Secondary Education,Racial Segregation,School Segregation,Public Schools,Educational Policy,Policy Analysis,Data Analysis,School Statistics,Bayesian Statistics,Comparative Analysis,Longitudinal Studies,Student Placement,Court Litigation,Enrollment Trends,Resource Allocation

Using detailed administrative data for the public K-12 schools of North Carolina, we measure racial segregation in its public schools. With data for the 2005-2006 school year, we update previously published calculations that measure segregation by unevenness in racial enrollment patterns, both between schools and within schools. We find that classroom segregation generally increased between 2000-2001 and 2005-2006, continuing, albeit at a slightly slower rate, the trend of increases we observed over the preceding six years. Segregation increased sharply in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, which introduced a new choice plan in 2002. Over the same period, racial and economic disparities in teacher quality widened in that district. Finally, we compare our basic measure to two alternative measures of segregation. An appendix is included. (Contains 31 footnotes and 11 tables.)
Teacher Preparation and Student Achievement. Working Paper 20
Author: Boyd, Donald
Date: 2008-08-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Teacher Competencies,Academic Achievement,Academic Standards,Teacher Education Programs,Teacher Effectiveness,Achievement Gains,Performance Factors,College Outcomes Assessment,Educational Indicators,Data Analysis,Interviews,Content Analysis,Predictor Variables,Comparative Analysis,School Statistics,Language Arts,Mathematics Achievement

There are fierce debates over the best way to prepare teachers. Some argue that easing entry into teaching is necessary to attract strong candidates, while others argue that investing in high quality teacher preparation is the most promising approach. Most agree, however, that we lack a strong research basis for understanding how to prepare teachers. This paper is one of the first to estimate the effects of features of teachers' preparation on teachers' value-added to student test score performance in Math and English Language Arts. Our results indicate variation across preparation programs in the average effectiveness of the teachers they are supplying to New York City schools. In particular, preparation directly linked to practice appears to benefit teachers in their first year. Sample Results for Math with Pathway/Institution Effects and Description of Variables are appended. (Contains 6 footnotes, 9 tables and 4 figures.) [Funding for this report was provided by the City University of New York.]
Student Transience in North Carolina: The Effect of School Mobility on Student Outcomes Using Longitudinal Data. Working Paper 22
Author: Xu, Zeyu
Date: 2009-03-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Academic Achievement,Longitudinal Studies,Performance Factors,Cohort Analysis,Student Mobility,Transfer Students,Family Characteristics,Institutional Characteristics,Student Characteristics,Standardized Tests,Trend Analysis,Predictor Variables,School Statistics,Racial Differences,Student Surveys

This paper describes the school mobility rates for elementary and middle school students in   North Carolina and attempts to estimate the effect of school mobility on the performance of   different groups of students using student fixed effects models. School mobility is defined as   changing schools at times that are non-promotional (e.g., moving from middle to high school). We used detailed administrative data on North Carolina students and schools from 1997 to 2005 and followed four cohorts of 3rd graders for six years each. School mobility rates were highest for minority and disadvantaged students. School mobility rates for Hispanic students declined across successive cohorts, but increased for Black students. Findings on effects were most pronounced in math. School mobility hurt the math performance of Black and Hispanic students, but not the math performance of white students. School mobility improved the reading performance of white and more advantaged students, but had no effect on the reading performance of minority students. &quot;Strategic&quot; school moves (cross-district) benefitted or had no effect on student performance, but &quot;reactive&quot; moves (within district) hurt all groups of students. White and Hispanic students were more likely to move to a higher quality school while Blacks were more likely to move to a lower quality school. The negative effects of school mobility increased with the number of school moves. Tables are appended. (Contains 1 exhibit, 9 footnotes, 5 figures, and 15 tables.)
The Texas FERPA Story. Brief 5
Author: O'Brien, Dan
Date: 2008-11-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Privacy,Confidentiality,Student Records,Federal Legislation,State Action,Compliance (Legal),Data,Administration

This research brief describes the legal and operational structure of the Texas longitudinal data system related to recent changes in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA)--which establishes the rights of parents to access their children's educational records and protects the confidentiality of student information--that more closely align law and practice. The U.S. Department of Education's FERPA Final Regulations Amendments took effect January 8, 2009. Texas has developed a FERPA-compliant structure to enable research using linked longitudinal individual student records that accommodates projects which will benefit education in the state.
Taking Dual Enrollment Deeper: Supports for the &quot;Forgotten Middle&quot; in a Tenth Grade Classroom
Author: Leonard, Jack
Date: 2010-05-04
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Integrated Curriculum,Qualitative Research,School Readiness,Grade 10,Dual Enrollment,Tuition,Case Studies,College Curriculum,Team Teaching,Surveys,College Bound Students,Higher Education,Evaluation,College Preparation,Likert Scales,Community Colleges,Two Year Colleges,Professional Development,High Schools,Technology

This qualitative research case study examined the supports required for 31 academically average 10th grade students to succeed on three dual enrollment college courses. Conceptually, support was a team effort, with contributions considered from administrators, faculty, parents and students. The paper documents support contributions from all four teams of people, with significant evidence that students were developing important college readiness skills. Support mechanisms included such things as a learning community model, a stretched curriculum, reduced tuition fees, an interdisciplinary integrated curriculum, team-teaching, classroom accommodations and a no-failure rule. One unexpected finding was that tuition fees greatly increased parental support. The full survey appears is appended. (Contains 1 table.)
Pie Suppers and Cake Walks: A Historical Perspective of a Closed Rural Community School
Author: Robinson, Ruby
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Community Schools,Social Capital,Rural Areas,Rural Schools,Educational Objectives,Institutional Mission,Low Income,School Closing,Academic Achievement,Interviews

Rural community schools and their educational mission have always provided a sort of connectivity for the rural community. This research takes a closer look at the closing of a small rural community school located in a southern Appalachian region and determines its effects upon the teachers, students, and community culture. Although these students have the social capital to succeed and the environment to grow, the school was still closed. It was determined that there were both gains and losses incurred with the closing of this rural Appalachian community school. However, in this qualitative study, the participants all used the same term to describe the effects of the school's closing upon the community as &quot;devastating.&quot;