Measures of teachers' "value added" to student achievement play an increasingly central role in k-12 teacher policy and practice, in part because they have been shown to predict teachers' long-term impacts on students' life outcomes. However, little research has examined variation in the long-term effects of teachers with similar…

Many elements of the basic education teachers' training performance are embedded in the training interaction and sharing, so the enhancement of the training performance needs a whole process management and control. Based on TTPM theory, this paper has put forward four measures that must be pay attention to during the management of the basic…

In higher education's environment of accountability, the development and assessment of student learning outcomes (SLOs) are driven by both external stakeholder requirements for accreditation and internal institutional pressures to demonstrate student learning as the core function of universities and colleges. This paper presents a framework to…

In the United States, policies in forty states and D.C. incorporate student growth measures--estimates of student progress attributed to educators--into educator evaluation. The federal government positions such policies as levers for ensuring that more students are taught by effective teachers and that effective educators are more equitably…

While most educators assume that not all students try their best on achievement tests, no current research examines if behaviors associated with low test effort, like rapidly guessing on test items, affect teacher value-added estimates. In this article, we examined the prevalence of rapid guessing to determine if this behavior varied by grade,…

We use panel data in Washington State to study the extent to which teacher assignments between fourth and eighth grade explain gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students--as defined by underrepresented minority status (URM) and eligibility for free or reduced price lunch (FRL)--in their eighth grade math test scores and high school course…

Recent federal policy initiatives are aimed at improving disadvantaged students' access to effective teaching. These efforts, including Race to the Top and the Teacher Incentive Fund, arise from concerns that disadvantaged students are taught by less effective teachers. A growing body of research uses value-added analysis to measure teacher…

The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study was to determine if student growth as measured by value-added measure of fourth grade 2011-2012 reading test scores was correlated with teacher observation ratings on the Teach and Cultivate Learning Environment domains of the Teaching and Learning Framework Rubric. A second purpose of the…

Little is known about the importance of instructional quality in American higher education because few recent studies have had access to direct measures of student learning that are comparable across sections of the same course. Using data from two developmental algebra courses at a large community college, I found that student learning varies…

Passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in December 2015 signaled a new era for teacher evaluation reform. Under ESSA, states and districts have greater autonomy to design and implement teacher evaluation systems independent of federal influence. This new flexibility brings with it new responsibilities and challenges for states and…

Notwithstanding dramatically low levels of professed religiosity in Western Europe, the religious school sector continues to thrive. One explanation for this paradox is that nowadays parents choose religious schools primarily for their higher academic reputation. Empirical evidence for this presumed denominational advantage is mixed. We examine…

High-performing teachers tend to seek out positions at more affluent or academically challenging schools, which tend to hire more experienced, effective educators. Consequently, low-income and minority students are more likely to attend schools with less experienced and less effective educators (see, for example, DeMonte & Hanna, 2014; Office…

Ohio is raising its expectations for what their students must learn and their schools must accomplish. Ohio's School Report Cards are one good way to determine if they are meeting their goals. There are many changes on this year's report card, changes that reflect the increased expectations Ohio has for its students and schools. So this year's…

This paper is the first summary of two studies and 10 years of evaluating the Milwaukee Parental Choice (voucher) Program (MPCP). This paper discusses school voucher evaluations in general terms and how these studies are carried out. The paper outlines the types of studies completed in "Study I" and "Study II" and the results…

Over a relatively short period of time, states and districts across the country have embraced reform surrounding teacher evaluation and compensation. Public concern over teacher evaluations, combined with federal initiatives designed to support teacher evaluation reform, led many states to adopt more comprehensive evaluation systems that draw on…