Students' abilities are multidimensional; teachers and schools shape students' cognitive skills, most often captured by test scores, but they also shape students' non-cognitive skills such as character, tolerance, effort, and conscientiousness. This study reviews the evidence indicating disconnects between test scores and non-cognitive skills from…

Using administrative data from D.C. Public Schools, I use exogenous variation in the presence and intensity of teacher monitoring to show it significantly improves student test scores and reduces suspensions. Uniquely, my setting allows me to separately identify the effect of pre-evaluation monitoring from post-evaluation feedback. Monitoring's…

We apply "value-added" models to estimate the effects of teachers on an outcome they cannot plausibly affect: student height. When fitting the relatively simple models that are widely used in educational practice to New York City data, we find the standard deviation of teacher effects on height is nearly as large as that for math and…

We use a novel database of the preservice apprenticeships ("student teaching placements") of teachers in Washington State to investigate the relationship between mentor effectiveness (as measured by value added) and the future effectiveness of their mentees. We find a strong, positive relationship between the effectiveness of a teacher's…

Estimates of teacher "value-added" suggest teachers vary substantially in their ability to promote student learning. Prompted by this finding, many states and school districts have adopted value-added measures as indicators of teacher job performance. In this paper, we conduct a new test of the validity of value-added models. Using…

Despite growing interest in the importance of nonacademic skills for student success, very few studies have examined the extent to which schools and teachers are associated with gains in these outcomes. This descriptive study adds to the nascent literature by examining the amount of school- and teacher-associated variation in kindergarten…

The purpose of this study was threefold: (a) to examine the academic progress of students in reading, who have a learning disability in reading, as they transfer from pull-out support services to inclusion services; and (b) to examine the academic progress of general education students in reading, as they transfer from a general education setting…

Public schools with impressive records of serving lower-performing students are often overlooked because their average test scores, even when students are growing quickly, are lower than scores in schools that serve higher-performing students. Schools may appear to be doing poorly either because baseline achievement is not easily accounted for or…

This paper evaluates an online charter school that serves children in grades K-8 in a southern state in the United States. We compare growth in math and literacy learning on state standardized assessments between students enrolled in this school and "matched twin" students enrolled in traditional public school students statewide each…

The Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) framework, which uses a systems approach to promote school improvement and support all students in improving academics and behavior using data-based problem-solving, is a key part of the Wake County Public Schools System (WCPSS) Strategic Plan. As of 2017-18, MTSS schools were at the initial stages of MTSS…

States across the country are developing systems for evaluating school principals on the basis of student achievement growth. A common approach is to hold principals accountable for the value added of their schools--that is, schools' contributions to student achievement growth. In theory, school value added can reflect not only principals'…

The growing availability of data linking students to classroom teachers has made it possible to estimate the contribution teachers make to student achievement. While there is a growing consensus that teacher quality is important and current evaluation systems are inadequate, many have expressed concerns over the use of value-added measures (VAMs)…

In this report, the authors describe the value-added models used as part of teacher evaluation systems in the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) and in eligible DC charter schools participating in Race to the Top. They estimated (1) teacher effectiveness in DCPS and eligible DC charter schools during the 2011-2012 school year; and (2)…