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Publications
Baltimore City's High School Reform Initiative (Research Report) Author(s): Becky Smerdon, Jennifer Cohen This report presents findings from the first detailed study of Baltimore's 5 year high school reform. Using administrative data, Urban Institute researchers found that test scores and attendance rates were higher for students in Baltimore's innovation high schools than in the city's comprehensive or newly formed neighborhood high schools. Students in innovation and neighborhood schools also showed more stability in their enrollment than their counterparts in comprehensive schools. These findings remained after controlling for students' backgrounds and previous achievements even though students at innovation schools were more academically advantaged than their peers in other schools prior to entering high school.
Teacher Credentials and Student Achievement in High School (CALDER Working Paper) Author(s): Charles Clotfelter, Helen Ladd, Jacob Vigdor We use data on statewide end-of-course tests in North Carolina to examine the relationship between teacher credentials and student achievement at the high school level. The availability of test scores in multiple subjects for each student permits us to estimate a model with student fixed effects, which helps minimize any bias associated with the non-random distribution of teachers and students among classrooms within schools. We find compelling evidence that teacher credentials affect student achievement in systematic ways and that the magnitudes are large enough to be policy relevant. As a result, the uneven distribution of teacher credentials by race and socio-economic status of high school students--a pattern we also document--contributes to achievement gaps in high school. View the working paper PDF on the CALDER website.
The Narrowing Gap in New York City Teacher Qualifications and its Implications for Student Achievement in High-Poverty Schools (CALDER Working Paper) Author(s): Donald Boyd, Hamilton Lankford, Susanna Loeb, Jonah Rockoff, James Wyckoff In this research we explore the how the distribution of teacher qualifications and student achievement in New York City have changed from 2000 through 2005 using data on teachers and students. We find: the gap between the qualifications of New York City teachers in high-poverty schools and low-poverty schools has narrowed substantially over this period, the gap-narrowing associated with new hires has been driven almost entirely by the substitution of teachers entering through alternative certification routes, for uncertified teachers in high-poverty schools, these changes resulted from a direct policy intervention eliminating unlicensed teachers, and perhaps most intriguing, much larger gains could result if teachers with strong teacher qualifications could be recruited. View the working paper PDF on CALDER's website.
Trouble Even in Choice Paradise (Research Report) Author(s): Jane Hannaway, Sarah Cohodes This chapter discusses the implementation of the school transfer and supplemental educational services (SES) options as required by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS). While M-DCPS has 22 percent of its students enrolled in school choice programs, less than one percent of eligible students use NCLB school transfer and less than twelve percent of eligible students use SES. We explore the reasoning behind these low take up rates and utilize school transfer data provided by the district to suggest that, in the case of the school transfer option, the low participation is due to a restrictive timeline for choice and the inadequate signaling power of the AYP designations.
Gender Gaps in Math and Reading Gains During Elementary and High School by Race and Ethnicity (Research Report) Author(s): Laura LoGerfo, Austin Nichols, Duncan Chaplin Gender differences in academic achievement have long fascinated researchers and policy-makers alike. In this paper we analyze differences in math and reading test score growth rates by gender for four different race and ethnic groups -- white, black, Hispanic, and Asian students -- for six different time periods. Our data cover both the earliest years of education and the crucial years of adolescence. In addition, we have data bracketing one non-schooling period. Together these data enable us to get a very complete picture of how gender gaps evolve over the course of early elementary and high school years and how these trajectories differ by race and ethnicity. While the gender gaps are not always statistically significant, they are for 15 of 48 comparisons made, all during school. In addition, all of the statistically significant results suggest that males learn more math and females more reading during early elementary school and again during high school.
D.C. Mayor Fenty's School Governance Reform Plan (Testimony) Author(s): Jane Hannaway Governance reform is "no magic bullet" for boosting student achievement, Jane Hannaway told the District of Columbia City Council, because of the effects of other direct, indirect, and interactive factors. The director of the Urban Institute's Education Policy Center pointed out, however, that mayoral control of the school system may establish conditions that make it more likely that effective education policies and practices will be put in place.
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