Changes In Student Achievement Research Articles

Large-Scale Assessment of Change in Student Achievement: Dutch Primary School Students’ Results on Written Division in 1997 and 2004 as an Example

This article discusses large-scale assessment of change in student achievement and takes the study by Hickendorff, Heiser, Van Putten, and Verhelst (2009) as an example. This study compared the achievement of students in the Netherlands in 1997 and 2004 on written division problems. Based on this comparison, they claim that there is a performance decline in this subdomain of mathematics, and that there is a move from applying the digit-based long division algorithm to a less accurate way of working without writing down anything. In our discussion of this study, we address methodological challenges that come in when investigating long-term trends in student achievements, such as the need for adequate operationalizations, the influence of the time of measurement and the necessity of the comparability of assessments, the effect of the assessment format, and the importance of inclusion relevant covariates in item response models. All these issues matter when assessing change in student achievement.

Initial Trends in MSP-Related Changes in Student Achievement With MIS Data

This substudy in the evaluation design of the Math and Science Partnership (MSP) Program Evaluation investigates changes in student mathematics and science achievement across three school years, 2002–03, 2003–04, and 2004–05, for MSP-related schools using Management Information System data with the Annual K-12 District Survey. First, changes in percentages of students (at or above) proficient on state assessments in math and science were investigated by gender, ethnicity, special education, and students with limited English proficiency using schools for which data were available for all three years. The results indicated that MSP schools continued to show improvement in student math and science proficiency over the three-year period. Second, schools were examined by frequency and effect size of increase, decrease, or no change in student math and science proficiency from the “start” (2002–03) to the “end” (2004–05) of the period for this study. The schools with positive changes were in much higher numbers and higher mean effect size of change compared to schools with negative (or no) changes in student math and science proficiency. Third, the relationship between the schools' targeted teacher participation in MSP-related activities over the entire period of three years and the student math and science proficiency at the “end” year of this period (2004–05) was also investigated. It was found that this relationship was positive and significant for the elementary and high schools, but there was no evidence for its significance at the middle school level.

An Investigation of the Effects of Variations in Mentor-Based Induction on the Performance of Students in California

Background/Context Policy makers are concerned about teacher shortages and the high rate of attrition among new teachers. Mentor-based induction has been shown to reduce the numbers of new teachers leaving schools or the profession. However, staying in the profession does not mean that new teachers are effective in helping students learn. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The purpose of the project was to study how variations in new teacher support programs are related to changes in student achievement. Research Design Three districts that had participated in the New Teacher Center training program were asked to be a part of a study about program effectiveness. Using data collected from interviews with district officials, the programs of the districts were categorized based on the mentor/novice ratio. This ratio was selected because it has implications for mentor selection, mentor training, and contact time between mentors and new teachers. Districts also provided achievement data for students taught by new teachers in Grades 2–6. Population/Participants/Subjects Three school districts in California agreed to participate in the study. The number of participants in the three districts included, respectively, 17 new teachers and 424 students; 31 new teachers and 709 students; and 51 new teachers and 1,288 students. Data Collection and Analysis Two types of data were used for the study. First, a numerical score was created for each program based on the mentor/novice ratio. Second, achievement scores from two consecutive spring testing periods were obtained from districts for students taught by new teachers in the elementary grades. Districts were treated as separate case studies, with student achievement being in terms of student and class variables. For one district, we also compared class level achievement for teachers with different years of experience. Conclusions/Recommendations Mentor-based induction may have a positive effect on student achievement if the program allows for weekly contact and mentor selectivity is high.

Short Run Impacts of Accountability on School Quality

In November of 2007, the New York City Department of Education assigned each elementary and middle school a letter grade (A to F) as part of a new accountability system. Grades were based on continuous numeric scores derived from levels and changes in student achievement and other school environmental factors such as attendance, and were linked to a system of rewards and consequences for schools and principals. We use the discontinuities in the assignment of letter grades to estimate the impact of accountability in the short run. Specifically, we examine student achievement in English Language Arts and mathematics (measured in January and March of 2008, respectively) using school level aggregate data. Despite the fact that schools had only a few months to respond to the release of accountability grades, we find that receipt of a low grade significantly increased student achievement in both subjects, with larger effects in math. We find no evidence that accountability grades were related to the percentage of students tested, implying that accountability systems can cause real changes in school quality that increase student achievement over even a short time horizon. We also find that parental evaluations of educational quality improved considerably for schools receiving low accountability grades. However, the increase in survey response rates was also larger among these schools, holding open the possibility of selection bias in these complementary results.

The effect of charter schools on traditional public school students in Texas: Are children who stay behind left behind?

Texas has been an important player in the emergence of the charter school industry. We test for a competitive effect of charters by looking for changes in student achievement in traditional public schools following charter market penetration. We use an eight-year panel of data on individual student test scores for public schools students in Texas in order to evaluate the achievement impact of charter schools. We estimate a model that includes student/campus spell fixed effects to control for campus demographic and peer group characteristics, and to control directly for student and student family background characteristics. We find a positive and significant effect of charter school penetration on traditional public school student outcomes.

Developing and Implementing an Assessment Method to Evaluate a Virtual Canine Anatomy Program

A computer-based anatomy program, Virtual Canine Anatomy: The Head, was incorporated into a first-year veterinary dissection laboratory two years ago to address challenges inherent in the traditional pedagogical approach. The program uses specimen photographs, QuickTime Virtual Reality, and interactive features to help students study the dissection, osteology, and radiology of the canine head. Photographs of each phase of dissection are displayed in the program, along with dissection instructions. Students can click on anatomical structures in each photograph to highlight the selected structure and display a complete description of it. Related structures and views are accessible through hyperlinks. This study was designed to measure student and faculty attitudes toward the instructional software, to gauge its effect on student achievement, and to propose evaluation methodology and instrumentation for similar projects. Observations, interviews, focus groups, surveys, and test results were used for this assessment. Results suggest positive student and faculty attitudes toward the program. Students felt the program met their needs, increased their confidence and efficiency, and was easy to use. Both students and instructors felt the program was beneficial during dissection. There was no significant change in student achievement on course tests. Future research will measure the program's effect on student-instructor interactions.

Closing the Gap: Enhancing Student Outcomes in an Urban Professional Development School

The purpose of this paper is to provide an account of changes in student achievement at one urban elementary school involved in an eight-year partnership with a University. The school first became involved with the University through a research project designed to support the school's efforts at restructuring and soon became a full-fledged Professional Development School (PDS). Students' scores on high-stakes assessment measures were the primary data sources. These scores are presented in descriptive form- no statistical analyses were applied. Students' test scores increased over the years and were higher than the scores of students in comparable schools. Individual interviews were also conducted to obtain teachers' and administrators' perceptions of the effects of the partnership on student achievement. Interviews revealed that teachers and administrators perceived that students benefited in academic, social/affective, and general domains. Furthermore, they attributed gains in student achievement to their partnership with the University.

Examining Relationships Between Where Students Start and how Rapidly they Progress: Using New Developments in Growth Modeling to Gain Insight into the Distribution of Achievement Within Schools

Studying change in student achievement is of central importance in numerous areas of educational research, including efforts to monitor school performance, investigations of the effects of educational interventions over time, and school effects studies focusing on how differences in school policies and practices relate to differences in student progress. In this article, we argue that in studying patterns of change, it is often important to consider the relationship between where students start (i.e., their initial status) and how rapidly they progress (i.e., their rates of change). Drawing on recent advances in growth modeling methodology, we illustrate the potential value of such an approach in the context of monitoring school performance. In particular, we highlight the ways in which attending to initial status in analyses of student progress can help draw attention to possible concerns regarding the distribution of achievement within schools. To convey the logic of our approach and illustrate various analysis possibilities, we fit a series of growth models to the time series data for students in several schools in the Longitudinal Study of American Youth (LSAY) sample. In a final section, we discuss some of the possibilities that arise in employing a modeling approach of this kind in evaluating educational programs and in conducting school effects research.

Understanding Achievement (And Other) Changes under Chicago School Reform

This article focuses on changes in student achievement in Chicago schools since the passage of the 1988 Chicago School Reform Act, and notes corresponding changes in funding, staffing, and leadership. At the center is a 5-year longitudinal study of 14 Chicago schools (10 elementary and 4 high schools) that were chosen through a stratified, random selection process. The schools were studied intensively, with particular concern for tracking the effects of changes in the governance structure of the schools resulting from the 1988 reforms. Changes in the principalship in these schools had a significant impact on achievement scores. The results of this study are linked to achievement changes that have occurred since the adoption of the 1995 amendments to the reform act that put primary responsibility for the administration of the school district in the hands of the city's mayor.

Understanding Achievement (and Other) Changes Under Chicago School Reform

This article focuses on changes in student achievement in Chicago schools since the passage of the 1988 Chicago School Reform Act, and notes corresponding changes in funding, staffing, and leadership. At the center is a 5-year longitudinal study of 14 Chicago schools (10 elementary and 4 high schools) that were chosen through a stratified, random selection process. The schools were studied intensively, with particular concern for tracking the effects of changes in the governance structure of the schools resulting from the 1988 reforms. Changes in the principalship in these schools had a significant impact on achievement scores. The results of this study are linked to achievement changes that have occurred since the adoption of the 1995 amendments to the reform act that put primary responsibility for the administration of the school district in the hands of the city's mayor.

Site‐Based Management and School Success: Untangling the Variables

ABSTRACT Site‐based management (SBM) has received decidedly mixed reviews as a reform strategy. Although most scholars who have studied it note that this form of governance can be linked to some positive changes in culture or parent or teacher satisfaction, only a few have observed clear changes in student achievement that can be tied to site‐level autonomy and shared decision‐making within the school. The absence of learning effects may be due to problems in theories undergirding SBM, to weak or uneven implementation, or to methodological problems in evaluative studies. In this study, researchers set out, not to evaluate SBM, but rather to understand how it worked in a school that, by many criteria, could be considered a success. After engaging in a year long, intensive case study at one urban elementary school, the authors concluded that four commitments, deeply embedded in the minds of educators and, to a lesser extent, parents, drove successful reform at this site. The central and organizing commitment was a kind of “learning imperative.” Administrators and teachers were passionate and knowledgeable about learning and determined to do whatever it took to see that students and their families had optimal educational experiences. This imperative was buttressed and supported by three other “imperatives.” Educators viewed themselves as members of a community and felt an imperative to interact in supportive and respectful ways. Most teachers, all administrators, and a number of parents, responding to a leadership imperative, willingly and actively took responsibility for life at the school, and administrators and teachers were determined to be guided by a capacity‐building imperative which required that resources be aimed at promoting learning. Site‐based management facilitated the ability of persons at this site to act on these imperatives. It did not, however, influence the quality of decisions to any great degree.

Are UK degree standards going up, down or sideways?

ABSTRACT It is argued that the most likely explanation of the upward drift in degree results over the past two decades is that the assessment instrument has been changed, through the inclusion of coursework (so that it now does not measure what it measured before), although the degree boundaries have been left unchanged. If this is so, then the effect reflects bad practice on the part of examiners rather than changes in student achievement. To discover whether there have been changes in student achievement requires a comparison of student performance with fixed standards. This article discusses the extent to which this can be achieved in practice and proposes appropriate means for achieving it.

Teacher expectations: II. Construction and reflection of student achievement.

Hypotheses regarding self-fulfilling prophecies, perceptual biases, and accuracy were tested using longitudinal data relating 98 6th-grade math teachers' expectations to 1,731 students' performance. Consistent with the self-fulfilling prophecy hypothesis, teacher expectations predicted changes in student achievement beyond effects accounted for by previous achievement and motivation. Consistent with the perceptual bias hypothesis, teacher expectations predicted their own evaluations of students' performance more strongly than they predicted standardized test scores

Use of Restricted Item Response Theory Models for Examining the Stability of Item Parameter Estimates Over Time

Item parameter instability can threaten the validity of inferences about changes in student achievement when using Item Response Theory- (IRT) based test scores obtained on different occasions. This article illustrates a model-testing approach for evaluating the stability of IRT item parameter estimates in a pretest-posttest design. Stability of item parameter estimates was assessed for a random sample of pretest and posttest responses to a 19-item math test. Using MULTILOG (Thissen, 1986), IRT models were estimated in which item parameter estimates were constrained to be equal across samples (reflecting stability) and item parameter estimates were free to vary across samples (reflecting instability). These competing models were then compared statistically in order to test the invariance assumption. The results indicated a moderately high degree of stability in the item parameter estimates for a group of children assessed on two different occasions.

A Theory of School and Classroom Organization

This article describes a theory relating alterable elements of school and classroom organization to effects on student achievement. Four critical elements are proposed: quality of instruction, appropriate levels of instruction, incentive, and time (QAIT). Changes in each of these elements are held to be multiplicatively related to changes in student achievement, supporting a view that multiple elements may have to be addressed if innovative instructional methods are to produce substantial gains in student achievement. Research evidence on each of the four components is briefly reviewed, and the QAIT perspective is applied to a discussion of findings from two areas of research: individualized instruction and ability grouping.

Pygmalion in the Prison Classroom

A marked change in student achievement due to teachers' expectations and corresponding favorable treatment is called the "pygmalion effect. " An example of the Pygmalion effect on student interest and comprehension to produce a successful learning experience is demonstrated in a prison classroom at a college-level course on social deviance. This paper illustrates the extent to which the researcher-teacher's prophecy regarding the success of the inmate-students can fulfill itself against seemingly overwhelming odds of contradictory expectations held by the institution staff and, initially, by the students themselves. The contradictory expectations were apparent in the unsolicited statements of staff teacher, and students. Student interest and comprehension were assessed in terms of course completion, classroom discussion, outside of class work, and correct use and personalization of theoretical concepts. The results indicate that the teacher's expectations in combination with subject matter relevant to the students' life experience explains the successful learning experience.

Research for School Improvement: An Appraisal of Some Recent Trends

umentation of a school improvement program. Paper presented at the Joint Meeting of Evaluation Network and Evaluation Research Society, Baltimore, Md., October 1982. Brookover, W. B., & Lezotte, L. W. Changes in school characteristics coincident with changes in student achievement. East Lansing, Mich.: Institute for Research on Teaching, Michigan University, 1979. Clark, D. L., Lotto, L. S., & McCarthy, M. M. Secondary source study of exceptionality in urban elementary schools. In Phi Delta Kappa, Why do some urban schools succeed? The Phi Delta Kappa study of exceptional urban elementary schools. Bloomington, Ind.: Phi Delta Kappa and Indiana University, 1980. Cohen, M. Effective schools, accumulating research findings. American Education, January-February 1982, pp. 13-16. Coleman, J. S., Campbell, E. Q., Hobson, C. J., McPartland, J., Mood, A. M., Weinfield, F D., & York, R. L. Equality of educational opportunity. Washington, D.C.: Office of Education, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, 1966. Edmonds, R. R. Some schools work and more can. Social Policy, 1979, 9, 28-32. Edmonds, R. R. Programs of school improvement: An overview. Educational Leadership, 1982, 40(3), 4-11. Frederickson, J. R. School effectiveness and equality of educational opportunity. N.Y.: Carnegie Corporation, 1975. MacKenzie, D. E. Resources for leadership: A structured bibliography of school effectiveness literature. Unpublished manuscript, Marquette University, June 1982.

Guided study student achievement

The purpose of this study was to measure change in student achievement, in a National League for Nursing accredited Associate Degree Nursing Program for Guided Study nursing students from 1971 to 1974, as this was contrasted to other Associate Degree nursing students in the same program. The study suggested that the grouping of students admitted with Scholastic Aptitude Test Verbal scores below 400 or High School Rank below 50 percentile or both of these scores would be appreciably enhanced if they were included in the group receiving remediation treatment.

Design for an education system cost-effectiveness model

The purpose of the overall education cost-effectiveness model is to evaluate the relative school, student, and community effects and associated costs of alternative U.S. Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 Title I programs for the disadvantaged. Since such programs are directed toward increasing learning, the model focuses strongly on the changes in student achievement, the attitudes and environmental factors influencing achievement, and the social behaviors and community impacts of improved achievement in the target population. The model may be described as a partly micro-educational model, because of its representation of some of the detailed components of the education process. However, the model does not pretend to be a micro-analysis of learning and influence processes, although these processes are represented by whatever objective correlatives are available in the form of qualitative numerical indices. Refinement of the model design is continuing. This description is current for November 1967. The model also does not pretend to be an exhaustive representation of what leads to changed student achievement, attitudes, earning potential, and equality of educational opportunity. The attempt was to emphasize those aspects of the education process that seem most relevant to achievement increases in students affected by Title I programs, and for which quantitative data is widely available. Some attitudinal variables believed decisive for the learning process are not yet quantitatively defined, and there is only qualitative, impressionistic data available on them. Rather than simply omit such troublesome but significant variables, and thus falsely imply insignificance by omission, the qualitative variables are sometimes given numerical index ratings roughly corresponding to such qualitative distinctions as are offered by empirical but impressionistic data. In other cases, qualitative variables are built up numerically from components for which better data is available, or assigned index values by user judgment. In all cases, the attempt has been made to achieve a useful balance among the demands for compact data input, limited model complexity and validity of output.