Archives for category: Research
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Dobbie and Fryer: Charter Schools in Texas Have No Effect on Test Scores and Negative Effect on Earnings

By dianeravitch
August 4, 2016 //
29

I am reposting this because the earlier version lacked a link and the conclusion of the study.

The study is called “Charter Schools and Labor Market Outcomes.”

Click to access texas_charters.pdf

(Note: the source has been deleted. Google the title to find it. This seems to be the latest iteration: https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/fryer/files/charters_appendix_aej_11.26.2017.pdf)

This is an astonishing study, not just because of its findings but because of its authors. Will Dobbie and Roland Fryer are economists who have frequently studied charters, incentives and their effects on test scores. Fryer’s research institute at Harvard was started with several millions from the Broad Foundation. Fryer is a member of the Massachusetts State Board of Education.

Here is the abstract of their study of charter schools in Texas and labor market outcomes:

“We estimate the impact of charter schools on early-life labor market outcomes using administrative data from Texas. We find that, at the mean, charter schools have no impact on test scores and a negative impact on earnings. No Excuses charter schools increase test scores and four-year college enrollment, but have a small and statistically insignificant impact on earnings, while other types of charter schools decrease test scores, four-year college enrollment, and earn- ings. Moving to school-level estimates, we find that charter schools that decrease test scores also tend to decrease earnings, while charter schools that increase test scores have no discernible impact on earnings. In contrast, high school graduation effects are predictive of earnings effects throughout the distribution of school quality. The paper concludes with a speculative discussion of what might explain our set of facts.”

The paper concludes with this speculation:

“Charter schools, in particular No Excuses charter schools, are considered by many to be the most important education reform of the past quarter century. At the very least, however, this paper cautions that charter schools may not have the large effects on earnings many predicted. It is plausible this is due to the growing pains of an early charter sector that was “building the plane as they flew it.” This will be better known with the fullness of time. Much more troubling, it seems, is the possibility that what it takes to increase achievement among the poor in charter schools deprives them of other skills that are important for labor markets.”

Apparently, the obedience and conformity taught in No Excuses charter schools do not help people in jobs where initiative and independent thinking are valued.

Categories Charter Schools, Research, Texas

Bill Honig: A Good Site for Wisdom about Schools

By dianeravitch
August 3, 2016 //
18

Bill Honig was State Superintendent of Schools in California in the late 1980s. I came to know and admire him at that time. Bill Honig has spent many years dedicated to the improvement of education. He continues to work in schools, providing ideas and support.

He recently created a website to share what he has learned about education.

The site is designed to present the research and experience supporting the “build and support” approach and show why the more extreme measures of the “test and punish” approach haven’t worked. It has 16 short articles about the major issues in the debate including a piece about experience in California and is designed for educational and political policy makers and members of the media. The site provides accessible background, research, and evidence and could be a useful tool. If you read the home page and the introductory remarks you can get the flavor of the effort.

I urge you to read it. Bill is a staunch friend of public education.

Categories Education Reform, Research, Supporting public schools

Study: Students Who Learn Algebra I Online Fare Worse Than Peers in Traditional Classes

By dianeravitch
July 21, 2016 //
39

A new study conducted by Jennifer Heissel, a researcher at Northwestern’s School of Education and Social Policy, concludes that students who study Algebra I online do not perform as well on tests as their peers who learned the subject in traditional classes.

The study was published in the journal Economics of Education Review.

The study exploited a 2011 district policy change in North Carolina that allowed advanced eighth-graders to take Algebra 1 online. Prior to the change, none of the middle school students took Algebra 1; instead they waited until ninth grade to take it in a regular classroom.

North Carolina has developed one of the leading virtual education systems in the country, allowing rural middle school students the chance to take high school courses that would be otherwise unavailable. The virtual Algebra 1 middle school program increased equity in access at a lower cost than a traditional classroom, and most advanced students passed the course.

“However, equity in access does not guarantee equity in outcomes,” Heissel wrote in the study. “Policymakers should carefully weigh these tradeoffs.”

What surprised Heissel most was that the effect was seen in students who normally perform above average.

“Generally, no matter what you throw at high achievers, they end up fine,” Heissel said. “That’s what concerns me: If even the advanced students can’t do well, why would we think it would work well for all?”

Categories Online Learning, Research

National Education Policy Center: No Evidence for the Efficacy of Vouchers

By dianeravitch
July 11, 2016 //
4

Christopher Lubienski reviews two recent voucher studies on behalf of the National Education Policy Center in this post. (The post summarizes the findings and contains links to Lubienski’s report.)

The two studies under review purport to show the success of vouchers. One was prepared by the pro-voucher Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, whose role is to cheerlead for vouchers. The other comes from the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas. Lubienski concludes that neither proves the success of vouchers.

Categories Research, Vouchers

Why Class Size Matters: A Research Brief

By dianeravitch
June 29, 2016 //
17

William J. Mathis has drawn together the research on class size to explain why it matters.

It is costly to reduce class size, but it is very likely the most effective intervention to help students who are struggling.

It also happens to be the single reform that parents want most. When class size was put on the ballot in Florida, it was overwhelmingly approved. Despite numerous attempts by Jeb Bush and his allies to get rid of it, the caps on class size have remained intact.

Reformers disregard the research on class size because they don’t want to spend more money to do what works. They prefer changes in governance, like charter schools, vouchers, mayoral control, state takeovers–anything but reducing class size. They claim that reducing class size benefits unions because it requires more teachers. But the biggest benefit of reducing class size is to the children, who get the attention and time they need to learn.

Categories Class size, Education Reform, Research

NEWSFLASH: Experience Matters!

By dianeravitch
June 13, 2016 //
13

Linda Darling-Hammond recently created a new institute to study teaching and learning, called the Learning Policy Institute. Given her scholarly background, you can be sure that anything LPI produces will be rigorously researched.

In one of its first research summaries, the LPI concluded that “Teachers Improve As They Gain Experience.”

This would seem to be common-sense, but the corporate reform movement has repeated again and again that teachers improve in the first three years, but then plateau and improve no more after the first three-five years. They use this claim to advocate for Teach for America and other fast-track programs and to ignore the exodus of highly experienced teachers. As a result of this counterintuitive and actually false belief, so-called “reformers” have advocated for and enacted state laws that encourage veteran teachers to leave the profession. For example, North Carolina raised entry salaries for teachers to $35,000 but capped salaries for experienced teachers at $50,000. Florida offers bonuses for new teachers who had high SAT scores in high school (!), but no bonuses to encourage the most experienced teachers to stay in the profession.

Thus, it is of the utmost importance that respected researchers have refuted the claim that teachers do not improve as they gain experience. This is one of the worst canards of the corporate reform movement, and one that is harming the teaching profession and the nation’s children.

Here is a summary of the research report.

Here is the report.

Here is the press release:


Teachers Improve as They Gain Experience

Comprehensive LPI review analyzes 30 studies on the effect of teaching experience on student achievement

Do teachers plateau early in their career or do they continue to grow and improve as they gain experience? It’s a critical question that has implications for local, state, and federal education leaders and policymakers. And it’s the subject of the latest report from the Learning Policy Institute (LPI), Does Teaching Experience Increase Teacher Effectiveness? A Review of the Research.

Based on their analysis of 30 recent, methodologically rigorous studies on the impact of teaching experience on student outcomes, authors Tara Kini and Anne Podolsky find that as teachers gain experience, they are more likely to positively impact student achievement and improve critical behaviors, including attendance. The steepest gains are in the first few years of teaching, but teachers gain in effectiveness throughout their careers, especially when they are in collegial work environments. Experienced teachers also have a positive impact on the performance of their peers.

“This report shows that what is widely accepted as true in the business world—that individuals improve their performance with experience—is also true in teaching,” says LPI Senior Policy Advisor Kini, who co-authored the report.

These findings come at an important time. Nationwide, we’re seeing a “greening” of the teacher workforce. But inexperienced teachers aren’t evenly distributed throughout schools. Black, Latino, American Indian, and Native-Alaskan students are three to four times more likely to attend schools with higher concentrations of first-year teachers than White students. New teachers are also more likely to be concentrated in high-poverty schools.

In addition to a detailed analysis of the research, the report includes recommendations to address these inequities—a requirement under the Every Student Succeeds Act—and offers program and investment strategies to attract, retain, and develop talented teachers who have opportunities to learn and grow throughout their careers.

Read the full report and the research brief, Does Teaching Experience Increase Teacher Effectiveness? A Review of the Research, both of which are available on our website.


###

About The Learning Policy Institute

The Learning Policy Institute conducts and communicates independent high-quality research to improve education. Working with policymakers, researchers, community groups, and others, we seek to advance evidence-based policies that support empowering and equitable learning for each and every child. For more information, please visit http://www.learningpolicyinstitute.org.

Learning Policy Institute
1530 Page Mill Road, Suite 200
Palo Alto, CA 94304

info@learningpolicyinstitute.org

Categories Accountability, Research, Teachers and Teaching

Mark Dynarski Explains Why Two Voucher Studies Reached Opposite Conclusions

By dianeravitch
June 10, 2016 //
8

I recently posted a link to a Brookings Brief by Mark Dynarski, which warned that vouchers had not been successful in two states, Louisiana and Indiana. About the same time, the University of Arkansas released a research review that lauded vouchers. Although I did not know Dynarski, I contacted him and asked if he would explain the discrepancy for the readers of the blog. He graciously agreed.

He wrote:

In a recent article for Brookings, I highlighted recent research on vouchers to attend private schools that had found negative effects on student achievement. The same day, May 26, the Wall Street Journal published an editorial pointing to positive effects of school vouchers on student achievement, citing a review of studies published by researchers at the University of Arkansas. You asked if I could help readers understand the discrepancy.

In its reading of the University of Arkansas review, the Wall Street Journal included the review’s findings for voucher programs that operated in the US and programs that operated in Colombia and India. The largest positive effects of vouchers were from the program in Colombia. Education systems are quite different in other countries, however, and findings from Colombia and India have little relevance to debates about vouchers in the US today. If we ask about voucher programs that have operated in the US, the review reports that average effects of those programs is about zero.

The Louisiana and Indiana programs I focused on operated statewide. The negative effects reported for these programs could be a result of private schools being compared to higher-quality public schools in suburban and rural areas. Earlier voucher programs that reported positive results often operated in single cities—Milwaukee, New York City, Dayton, DC—which means studies of them essentially are comparing private schools only to urban public schools.

The Louisiana and Indiana programs also are recent, and my piece notes another possible explanation for their negative effects. Public schools have been under pressure for the last fifteen years to improve student achievement, which may have caused them to up their game. Recent research I cited concluded that public schools have substantially caught up with private schools. The National Assessment of Education Progress reports that private schools still have higher test scores than public schools, but those score differences could arise because of differences between private school students and public school students. The research approaches used in the Louisiana and Indiana studies allow for ‘apples to apples’ comparisons. Essentially the same students are compared in public and private schools and the test-score results favor public schools.

Vouchers will continue to be an important topic for discussion and debate, and we need to be open to new evidence and let our understanding of the world and of education be affected by it. I emphasized in my piece that our historical understanding that private schools perform better than public schools may be flawed. The University of Arkansas review is valuable for synthesizing a large amount of research on vouchers since the nineties into quantitative findings. The recent studies in Louisiana and Indiana are valuable for asking what the effects of vouchers might be today if a state were to begin a program or continue one. That the findings are negative means policymakers should proceed with caution—the relative positions of public and private schools may have changed.

I hope the discussion is useful for your readers, who rightly might feel a sense of whiplash from having different findings about vouchers released on the same day.

Kind regards,

Mark

http://www.brookings.edu/experts/dynarskim?view=bio

Categories Education Reform, Indiana, Louisiana, Research, Vouchers

More Than You Ever Wanted to Know about Grit

By dianeravitch
May 31, 2016 //
33

I hope the day comes when I will never again type the four-letter word G-R-I-T.

 

But that day has not yet arrived.

 

Here is a meta-analysis of everything that scholars have written about grit. Yes, there actually is a “Grit Literature.”

 

Personally I prefer grits. But this is serious. The National Assessment of Educational Progress has been stampeded into assessing grit on national tests.

 

Surely there are now programs and consultants selling their advice about how to incorporate grit into school lessons.

 

So maybe you might want to look over the meta-analysis, so you can discuss grit in the faculty lounge or at home.

Categories Education Reform, Grit, Research

Brookings Study: Voucher Students in Louisiana and Indiana Perform Worse than Peers in Public Schools

By dianeravitch
May 27, 2016 //
23

Mark Dynarski of the Brookings Institution has published a research review in which he concluded that public schools definitely have the advantage over private schools that receive vouchers. This is especially good news because rightwing ideologues continue to argue the (non-existent) benefits of vouchers, and because Brookings had become an advocacy platform for school choice since the appointment of George W. Bush’s education research director, Grover Whitehurst to run its education center  (Whitehurst no longer runs the Brown center program at Brookings).

 

Here is the executive summary. Open the link to read the full study.

 

 

Recent research on statewide voucher programs in Louisiana and Indiana has found that public school students that received vouchers to attend private schools subsequently scored lower on reading and math tests compared to similar students that remained in public schools. The magnitudes of the negative impacts were large. These studies used rigorous research designs that allow for strong causal conclusions. And they showed that the results were not explained by the particular tests that were used or the possibility that students receiving vouchers transferred out of above-average public schools.

 

 

Another explanation is that our historical understanding of the superior performance of private schools is no longer accurate. Since the nineties, public schools have been under heavy pressure to improve test scores. Private schools were exempt from these accountability requirements. A recent study showed that public schools closed the score gap with private schools. That study did not look specifically at Louisiana and Indiana, but trends in scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress for public school students in those states are similar to national trends.

 

 

In education as in medicine, ‘first, do no harm’ is a powerful guiding principle. A case to use taxpayer funds to send children of low-income parents to private schools is based on an expectation that the outcome will be positive. These recent findings point in the other direction. More needs to be known about long-term outcomes from these recently implemented voucher programs to make the case that they are a good investment of public funds. As well, we need to know if private schools would up their game in a scenario in which their performance with voucher students is reported publicly and subject to both regulatory and market accountability.

 

 

Categories Research, School Choice, Vouchers

Julian Vasquez Heilig Assigns a Lesson on Testing and Censorship

By dianeravitch
May 18, 2016 //
7

The executives at PARCC continue to delete Tweets (and possibly my post about the deletions, which disappeared in the middle of the night of Friday the 13, between 10:46 pm, when it was posted, and 4:45 am, when a reader informed me that it was gone).

 

Julian Vasquez Heilig decided that it would be a useful exercise for his education policy students to study these issues. He posts the disputed posts and challenges his students to examine the issues

 

Here is his assignment.

 

The question:

 

Is the analysis of PARCC tests fair use for research and scholarly purposes?

 

Categories Accountability, Freedom of Speech, Research, Standardized Testing
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »