Education systems focus on issues related to school effects and differences. School effects are used as a basis for accountability in various countries including China. This study investigated the stability and cross-disciplinary consistency of value-added estimates based on student scores in selected schools in a city in central China. The…

Many prior studies have explored average differences in initial levels of teaching effectiveness among graduates from different teacher preparation programs (TPPs) and the features of preparation that predict these differences. We focus on another important dimension of effectiveness--how graduates from different TPPs improve over time. Examining…

How to best utilize curriculum time has long been a question for England's schools, which are free to vary time between subjects or to extend the school day/week. This question has now risen to national prominence as policymakers consider ways to help support students catch up lost learning after the COVID-19 pandemic. This article explores the…

Background/Context: Closing achievement gaps is a major concern in U.S. education. These gaps can develop in a wide range of ways over the course of a student's schooling. Yet, research on school effectiveness and accountability policies for schools often focuses on rank orderings of schools based on value-added models, which could mask those…

Since the inception of the guided pathways model in 2015, most related research has focused on the interconnecting processes and practices that lead to student persistence and completion. While the processes and practices are the basis of the model, scholars acknowledge that the model's human capital and change management components are just as…

Teachers are among the most important school-provided determinants of student success. Effective teachers improve students' test scores as well as their attendance, behavior, and earnings as adults. However, students do not enjoy equal access to effective teachers. This article reviews some of the key challenges associated with teacher policy…

The Every Students Succeeds Act (ESSA) loosened the federal policy grip over states' teacher accountability systems. We present information, collected via surveys sent to state department of education personnel, about all states' teacher evaluation systems post-ESSA, while also highlighting differences before and after ESSA. We found that states…

At least sixteen US states have taken steps toward holding teacher preparation programs (TPPs) accountable for teacher value-added to student test scores. Yet it is unclear whether teacher quality differences between TPPs are large enough to make an accountability system worthwhile. Several statistical practices can make differences between TPPs…

Value-added (VA) modeling can be used to quantify teacher and school effectiveness by estimating the effect of pedagogical actions on students' achievement. It is gaining increasing importance in educational evaluation, teacher accountability, and high-stakes decisions. We analyzed 370 empirical studies on VA modeling, focusing on modeling and…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of equated and non-equated data on value-added assessment analyses. Several models have been proposed in the literature to apply the value-added assessment approach. This study compared two different value-added models: the unadjusted hierarchical linear model and the generalized persistence…

School closings displace thousands of teachers in the United States every year. This paper explores how elementary school teachers in North Carolina respond to this labor market shock. After documenting in our study that declining enrollment is a key driver of school closings, we find that whereas most displaced teachers move to new schools in the…

Educational success is often measured using short-term metrics such as exam results and league tables. While these offer snapshots in time, they also provide an incomplete and misleading picture. Success is about more than short-term achievements -- it's also about individuals' long-term goals, career success, personal fulfilment and contribution…

Extending conventional value-added models (VAM) of teacher effects that focus on the estimation of average effects for excellence, this study examines "distributive" effects for equity. Using multilevel regression models, the study addresses two research questions to inform educational policy for teacher improvement and accountability.…

This program evaluation study sought to discern if a preparation pathway offered by Texas Tech University (TTU), one that leverages community college graduates, was yielding desirable outcomes. The Teacher Education Department at Texas Tech University is committed to producing quality teachers that can immediately impact children upon entering the…

Post-qualification Master's level programs in Israeli teacher education colleges were launched in 2004 under the governance of two nationwide policy bodies -- the Council for Higher Education and the Ministry of Education -- each holding different ideologies regarding the nature of these studies: one in accordance with a 'transmissive' and the…