The effects of school board consolidation and financing on student performance

Over the last 20 years, states and provinces have become increasingly involved in the financing and administration of elementary and secondary education. Local school boards, however, still retain control over key aspects of the provision of education. Historically, these boards were organized at the community level so as to meet the wants of the local community. Today, states and provinces have become more interested in consolidating school boards and moving to a more centralized funding scheme. Do these changes result in improved student achievement? This paper attempts to answer these questions by examining the school board consolidation and funding changes instituted by the province of Ontario. We differentiate the effects of the policy changes based on observed differences in the school boards prior to consolidation. We show that students in previously high wealth school boards perform worse after the policy change compared to students in previously low wealth school boards.     

The effects of new science curricula on student performance

This study summarizes the results of a quantitative synthesis of the retrievable primary research dealing with the effects of new science curricula on student performance. This study synthesizes the results of 105 experimental studies involving more than 45,000 students and utilizes the quantitative synthesis perspective to research integration known as meta-analysis (Glass, 1976). A total of 27 different new science curricula involving one or more measures of student performance are included in this meta-analysis. Data were collected for 18 a priori selected student performance measures. The results of this meta-analysis reveal definite positive patterns of student performance in new science curricula. Across all new science curricula analyzed, students exposed to new science curricula performed better than students in traditional courses in general achievement, analytic skills, process skills, and related skills (reading, mathematics, social studies and communication), as well as developing a more positive attitude toward science. On a composite basis, the average student in new science curricula exceeded the performance of 63% of the students in traditional science courses.     

An intervention to improve school and student performance

Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement (GLISI) used ISPI's 10 Standards of Performance Technology to share the design, development, and implementation of an intervention striving to help Georgia districts and schools share their success stories in a clear and concise format. This intervention took the form of a PowerPoint presentation, GLISI Promising Practices, and has become a successful tool for districts to share and communicate their success.     

Blocking student performance in high school?

Block schedules have been used in several different high schools in various areas of the United States. Reasons for their use vary from better preparing students for college work to fewer disruptions of the school day. Several studies have examined the impact of changing from a semester system to a block system on the academic performance in specific areas with varying results. This paper examines the impact of a change of schedule on overall academic performance as measured by a student’s Grade Point Average. This study indicates that for the specific case studied, the change in systems did have a positive effect on performance.     

The effect of teacher vagueness terms on student performance in high school biology

High school biology students (n = 48) were each randomly assigned to one of four groups defined by possible combinations of two teacher vagueness conditions (high vagueness versus low vagueness) and two post-lesson conditions (test, then lesson evaluation versus lesson evaluation, then test). Each group was presented a lesson over the vascular system of angiosperms. After the lesson, each group was tested on comprehension of the material and each group completed a lesson evaluation. Teacher vagueness terms significantly affected student achievement and student perception of lesson effectiveness. These findings are discussed in relation to previous research on teaching clearly.     

Decomposing inequalities in performance scores: the role of student background, peer effects and school characteristics

This paper analyses the mechanisms of stratification and inequalities in educational achievements. The main objective is to determine how stratification leads to unequal educational outcomes and how inequalities are channelled through student characteristics, school characteristics and peer effects. This analysis is undertaken in five countries differentiated by their schooling systems. The countries are Japan, Finland, Germany, Italy and the UK, and the dataset used is PISA 2003. The analysis consists of a multilevel econometric model used to explain variations in performance scores. The explanatory variables are student, school and peer characteristics. The institutional context of each education system is used to interpret the results and to describe how inequalities arise. In the last section, policy implications, based on the regression results, are derived.     

Estimating peer effects in Swedish high school using school,teacher, and student fixed effects

In this paper I use a rich dataset in order to observe each student in different subjects and courses over time. Unlike most peer studies, I identify the peers and the teachers that each student has had in every classroom. This enables me to handle the simultaneity and selection problems, which are inherent in estimating peer effects in the educational production function. I use a value-added approach with lagged peer achievement to avoid simultaneity and extensive fixed effects to rule out selection. To be specific, it is within-student across-subject variation with additional controls for time-invariant teacher characteristics that is exploited. Moreover, I identify students that are attending classes in which they have no peers from previous education which otherwise might bias the result. I find positive peer effects for the average student but also that there is a non-linear dimension. Lower-achieving students benefit more from an increase in both mean peer achievement and the spread in peer achievement within the classroom than their higher-achieving peers.     

Math acceleration in elementary school: Access and effects on student outcomes

This paper examines curricular acceleration in mathematics during elementary school using administrative data from a large, diverse school district that recently implemented a targeted, test-based acceleration policy. We first characterize access to advanced math and then estimate effects of acceleration in math on measures of short-run academic achievement as well as non-test-score measures of grit, engagement with schoolwork, future plans, and continued participation in the accelerated track. Experiences and effects of math acceleration differ markedly for girls and boys. Girls are less likely to be nominated for math acceleration and perform worse on the qualifying test, relative to boys with equivalent baseline performance. We find negative effects of acceleration on short-run retention of math knowledge for girls, but no such performance decay for boys. After initial exposure to accelerated math, girls are less likely than boys to appear in the accelerated track during late elementary school and at the start of middle school.     

Education inputs,student performance and school finance reform in Michigan

This paper estimates the impact of the Michigan school finance reform, Proposal A, on education inputs and test scores. Using a difference-in-difference estimation strategy, I find that school districts in Michigan used the increase in educational spending generated through Proposal A to increase teacher salaries and reduce class size to a smaller extent. Then, using the foundation allowance created by Proposal A as an instrument, I estimate the causal effect of increased spending on 4th and 7th grade math scores for two test measures – a scaled score and a percent satisfactory measure – and find positive effects of increased spending on 4th grade test scores. A 60% increase in spending increases the percent satisfactory score by one standard deviation. The positive impact of expenditures on test performance seems largely due to higher teacher salaries.     

Factors influencing student academic performance in online high school algebra

This paper describes the effect of teacher comments, students’ demographic information and learning management system utilisation on student final scores in algebra courses in a K–12 virtual learning environment. Students taking algebra courses in a state virtual school in the Midwestern US region during 2007–2008 participated in this study. Student final scores on these courses were collected using tests administered at the end of semester in the virtual school courses. The hierarchical linear modelling technique was used for data analysis to account for the influence of school characteristics on student final scores. The results show these factors have different influences on student final scores in different algebra courses. The discussion of the findings addresses the implications for teaching.     

The effects of classroom and school environments on student engagement: the case of high school students in Abu Dhabi public schools

Drawing on data from a merged data set from a student survey and a parent survey that were conducted in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in 2013, this article uses a multilevel framework to investigate the effects of individual characteristics and the classroom and school environments on high school students’ school engagement in a modernising education system that is different from Western ones. The results of the three-level model revealed that while students’ attributes remained strong predictors of their school engagement, the social and organisational environment of classrooms and school also greatly shaped the extent to which students emotionally and cognitively engaged with their school and learning. This study provided evidence to support the interactive nature of the impact of multilevel environments on student engagement. The policy and research implications were also discussed in the empirical context of Abu Dhabi.     

The effects of various mastery criteria on student performance and attitude in a mastery-oriented course

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of various mastery criteria on student performance and attitude in a course in which mastery learning strategies were employed. Undergraduates in an introductory course in educational psychology were randomly assigned to one of three treatments—one in which mastery criteria gradually increased from 70% to 90%, a second in which mastery criteria gradually decreased from 90% to 70%, or a third in which mastery criteria remained constant at 80%. Results indicated that although the high mastery criterion (90%) had a positive effect on some aspects of quiz performance, it did not have an effect on final examination performance. Results also indicated that students preferred that mastery criteria remain constant during a semester. These findings, when examined in light of previous research, call into question some prior notions regarding the levels at which mastery criteria should be set.     

Teacher effects on student attrition and performance in mass-market tertiary education

Tertiary education is now accessible even to those who appear unlikely ex ante to succeed in jobs requiring post-high school education. Institutions that have broadened access to their programs must rely on two things to protect the quality of the degrees they award: selection mechanisms operating during students’ tenure, and effective teaching. This paper explores the relative strength of these two forces in a broad-spectrum, first-year undergraduate course. Using detailed data from the University of South Australia on student background, tutors, performance, and enrollment across 15 weeks in a first-year core course, I explore the extent to which teachers impact upon the success of their students directly (through effective teaching) and indirectly (through facilitating the dropping out of more poorly-prepared students). Results indicate that teachers vary widely in their influence on attrition and performance, and that none is robustly effective in facilitating both the disproportionate out-selection of students with poor initial preparation, and the disproportionate achievement of this group. Performance at neither of these tasks is predictable based on teachers’ formal university affiliation.     

The effects of expectancy-incongruent feedback and self-affirmation on task performance of secondary school students

In the present study, the assumption was tested that expectancy-incongruent feedback in conjunction with explicit self-affirmation directs attention away from the task and to the self. As a result, performance should decrease in resource-sensitive text/picture comprehension tasks as compared to resource-insensitive tasks. Three hundred and thirty-seven fifth graders first completed either easy or difficult text/picture comprehension tasks and then rated their learning outcome. After that, they received bogus feedback that had been congruent or incongruent with their expectations. In addition, half of the participants were given the opportunity for self-affirmation before they completed additional easy or difficult text/picture tasks. As predicted, feedback better than expected or worse than expected impaired performance in the resource-sensitive tasks but only in the self-affirmation condition. The results are discussed with regard to central assumptions of the feedback intervention theory (Kluger and DeNisi, Psychological Bulletin, 119: 254–284, 1996) and practical implications for the provision of feedback.     

The influence of performance-based management on teaching and research performance of Finnish senior academics

Despite the widespread use of performance-based management in higher education, empirical research on its actual impact has remained scarce, particularly in Europe. With agency theory as a framework, our study utilised survey data collected from Finnish universities in order to explore the influence of performance management on perceived teaching and research performance of senior academics. Our findings suggest that, although academics hold a quite positive view of performance measurement as such, this attitude does not correlate with perceived high performance in either teaching or research. Moreover, our results suggest that perceived high performance among academics still relates primarily to acknowledgement from the academic community and academic achievement rather than to measurement and financial incentives.