Panel or grouped data are often used to allow for unobserved individual heterogeneity in econometric models via fixed effects. In this paper, we discuss identification of a panel data model in which the unobserved heterogeneity both enters additively and interacts with treatment variables. We present identification and estimation methods for…

The traditional approach to estimating the consistency of school effects across subject areas and the stability of school effects across time is to fit separate value-added multilevel models to each subject or cohort and to correlate the resulting empirical Bayes predictions. We show that this gives biased correlations and these biases cannot be…

The consensus among education researchers is that value-added models are most appropriate for assessing the relative effectiveness of schools, teachers, or programmes for student learning. The preferred value-added model adjusts for prior achievement, but there is a variety of other specifications that may or may not include prior achievement.…

The purpose of this study is to explore the correlation between state-recorded value- added (VA) scores and academic optimism (AO) scores, which measure teacher self-efficacy, trust, and academic emphasis. The sample for this study is 87 third through eighth grade Reading teachers, from fifty-five schools, in an urban school district in Ohio who…

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the number of charter schools in New Orleans has rapidly expanded. During the 2012/13 school year--the period covered by this study--of the 85 public schools in New Orleans, 75 were chartered, enrolling more than 84 percent of all public school students in the city in 92 different school campuses. This study…

Value-added assessment methods have been criticized by researchers and policy makers for a number of reasons. One issue includes the sensitivity of model results across different outcome measures. This study examined the utility of incorporating multivariate latent variable approaches within a traditional value-added framework. We evaluated the…

Student peer effects are well documented; however, we know far less about peer effects among teachers. We hypothesize that a relatively effective teacher can positively affect the performance of his or her peers, whereas a relatively ineffective teacher may negatively affect the performance of other teachers with whom he or she works closely.…

The current study explored the size, stability, and consistency of school effects, using 2 effectiveness indicators: achievements of students at the end of primary school and growth in achievement across 3 years of schooling. The sample consisted of the scores of 25,269 students on 3 subjects, taken in Grades 4 to 6 among 3 cohorts in 319 primary…

Currently, a significant number of states are in the process of implementing a high-stakes teacher evaluation (HSTE) system. In many ways, Louisiana's teacher evaluation system, "Compass," is typical of the models that many states have adopted. This article reports the experiences of 37 elementary teachers from five districts across…

This study examines the accuracy of performance ratings from the Framework for Leadership (FFL), Pennsylvania's tool for evaluating the leadership practices of principals and assistant principals. The study analyzed four key properties of the FFL: score variation, internal consistency, year-to-year stability, and concurrent validity. Score…

This "Stated Briefly" report is a companion piece that summarizes the results of another report of the same name. This study examines the accuracy of performance ratings from the Framework for Leadership (FFL), Pennsylvania's tool for evaluating the leadership practices of principals and assistant principals. The study analyzed four key…

This study investigates school effects on primary school students' language and mathematics achievement trajectories in Chile, a context of particular interest given its large between-school variability in educational outcomes. The sample features an accelerated longitudinal design (3 time points, 4 cohorts) together spanning Grades 3 to 8…

Are equal educational opportunities sufficient to narrow long-standing economic and racial inequalities in achievement? In this article, I test the hypothesis that poor and minority students benefit less from effective elementary school teachers than do their nonpoor and white peers, thus exacerbating inequalities. I use administrative data from…

Are equal educational opportunities sufficient to narrow long-standing economic and racial inequalities in achievement? In this paper, I test the hypothesis that poor and minority students benefit less from effective elementary school teachers than their non-poor and White peers, thus exacerbating inequalities. I use administrative data from…

Curriculum-based measurement of oral reading (CBM-R) progress monitoring data is used to measure student response to instruction. Federal legislation permits educators to use CBM-R progress monitoring data as a basis for determining the presence of specific learning disabilities. However, decision making frameworks originally developed for CBM-R…