View Research by Author - Matthew G. Springer

Publications

Under the No Child Left Behind Act, states have been required to set minimum proficiency standards that virtually all students must meet by 2014. Using longitudinal, student-level test score data from seven states between 2002-03 and 2005-06 this paper addresses the following research questions: (1) Has NCLB increased achievement among lower-performing students? ; (2) Have these gains come at the expense of students who are already proficient or far below the proficiency target? Identification is achieved by exploiting the fact that in the early years of NCLB, not all grades counted for purposes of determining AYP. Thus the estimate of the NCLB effect is based on a comparison of outcomes in high-stakes vs. low-stakes years. The authors find consistent evidence of an achievement trade-off in the hypothesized direction, though the effects on any given student are not large. They find mixed evidence that students far below the proficient level have been harmed by NCLB; in fact at higher grade levels they appear to have benefitted. Effects of NCLB on efficiency, while positive, appear to be modest.

This study examines the effect of SES on student test score gains and whether subgroups of students benefit more from NCLB tutoring services, using information about students enrolled in 3rd through 8th grades in 121 elementary and middle schools from 2003-04 to 2007-08. A total of 17 elementary and middle schools were required to offer SES at some point during the period under study, and 9,861 student-year pairings in the sample were eligible to receive SES. The authors find consistently significant and positive average effects of SES on test score gains in mathematics. Results in reading tend to be insignificant. SES tutoring does not appear to disproportionately benefit a particular racial/ethnic group or ability level. Female students and students with disabilities appear to benefit more from participating in SES. SES has a significant, cumulative effect on students in both mathematics and reading. They also demonstrate that not accounting for content area of tutoring can cause downward bias in estimates of the SES treatment effect. These findings are qualified on a couple of dimensions.

Return to list of authors