Coming to Grips with the Achievement Divide and the Distribution of Effective Teachers
Author: Lela Streeter Hester
Publisher:
Published: 2006
Total Pages:
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"This study explored the significance of deploying effective teachers to schools most heavily impacted by poverty as a strategy for reducing the achievement divide. The degree to which teacher assignments affect students' performance on Algebra I End-of-Course and Eighth Grade Math End-of-Grade tests was examined. Estimates of the effect of a series of effective or ineffective teachers on the students' scores were generated. Achievement scores of all students who participated in Algebra I and eighth grade math testing in Guilford County Schools, Greensboro, North Carolina in 2005 were matched with records in the value added databases maintained by SAS Institute. A variety of descriptive analyses were conducted to demonstrate the relationship between the cumulative effects of teacher quality and student achievement as measured by students' performance on Eighth Grade Math End-of-Grade and Algebra I tests. Even after adjusting for the entering achievement of the students in fourth grade, the impact of the previous fifth, sixth and seventh grade teachers, was quite significant on how eighth grade students performed on the Algebra I End-of-Course and the End-of-Grade tests. Further, the study investigated the relationship between teacher effectiveness scores and teacher years of experience. The study confirmed that teachers with more years of experience tended to be more effective than non-experienced teachers. The poorer schools were also more likely to have a higher percentage of less experienced teachers. In addition, the distribution of teachers based on their teacher effectiveness estimates was examined across the Guilford County public school system. Generally, the highest percentage of effective teachers were assigned to schools that were least impacted by poverty. The results of the study should serve as a necessary catalyst for policy makers and personnel of Guilford County Schools and other districts across the nation to make decisions regarding the equitable deployment of effective teachers as a viable means of reducing the achievement gap."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.
