Accountability
Investing in Schools: Capital Spending, Facility Conditions and Student Achievement
Martorell, P., Stange, K., McFarlin, I. 2016. “Investing in Schools: Capital Spending, Facility Conditions, and Student Achievement.” Journal of Public Economics, 140 (August 2016): 13-29.
Abstract
Public investments in repairs, modernization, and construction of schools cost billions. However, little is known about the nature of school facility investments, whether it actually changes the physical condition of public schools, and the subsequent causal impacts on student achievement. We study the achievement effects of nearly 1,400 capital campaigns initiated and financed by local school districts, comparing districts where school capital bonds were either narrowly approved or defeated by district voters. Overall, we find little evidence that school capital campaigns improve student achievement. Our event-study analyses focusing on students that attend targeted schools and therefore exposed to major campus renovations also generate very precise zero estimates of achievement effects. Thus, locally financed school capital campaigns – the predominant method through which facility investments are made – may represent a limited tool for realizing substantial gains in student achievement or closing achievement gaps.
- Manipulation in the Grading of New York’s Regents Examinations
- The Gap within the Gap: Using Longitudinal Data to Understand Income Differences in Student Achievement
- The Impact of No Child Left Behind on Student Achievement
- The Impact of No Child Left Behind on Students, Teachers, and Schools
- Evaluating NCLB
- Test-Based Accountability and Student Achievement: An Investigation of Differential Performance on NAEP and State Assessments
- Accountability, Incentives and Behavior: The Impact of High-Stakes Testing in the Chicago Public Schools
- The Changing Federal Role in School Accountability
Curriculum and Instruction
- Dual-Credit Courses and the Road to College: Experimental Evidence from Tennessee
- When Evidence is Not Enough: Findings from a Randomized Evaluation of Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction
- Are Expectations Alone Enough? Estimating the Effect of a Mandatory College-Prep Curriculum in Michigan
- Can Technology Help Promote Equality of Educational Opportunities?
- Experimental Evidence on the Effect of Childhood Investments on Postsecondary Attainment and Degree Completion
- Organizing Schools to Improve Student Achievement: Start Times, Grade Configurations, and Teacher Assignments
- Do High School Exit Exams Influence Educational Attainment or Labor Market Performance?
The Impact of Grade Retention on Student Outcomes
Educational Choice
Charter Schools
- Estimating the Effects of a Large Network of Charter Schools Managed by a For-profit Operator
- Charter Schools and the Road to College Readiness: The Effects on College Preparation, Attendance and Choice
- Stand and Deliver: Effects of Boston’s Charter Schools on College Preparation, Entry and Choice
- Who Benefits from KIPP?
- Student Achievement in Massachusetts’ Charter Schools
- Charter Schools: A Report on Rethinking the Federal Role in Education
- Accountability and Flexibility in Public Schools: Evidence from Boston's Charters and Pilots
- Inputs and Impacts in Charter Schools: KIPP Lynn
- Informing the Debate: Comparing Boston's Charter, Pilot, and Traditional Schools
Other Selective Public Schools
- Is Gaining Access to Selective Elementary Schools Gaining Ground? Evidence From Randomized Lotteries
- The Effect of School Choice on Student Outcomes: Evidence from Randomized Lotteries
- The Impact of School Choice on Student Outcomes: An Analysis of the Chicago Public Schools
Private Schools: Understanding the Market and Effect on Student Outcomes
Leadership and Teacher Policy
Teacher Effectiveness and Human Resource Policies in K-12
- Teacher Applicant Hiring and Teacher Performance: Evidence from DC Public Schools
- The Effect of Employment Protection on Worker Effort: Evidence from Public Schooling
- Do Principals Fire the Worst Teachers?
- Principled Principals
- New Evidence on Teacher Labor Supply
- Can You Recognize an Effective Teacher When You Recruit One?
- The Persistence of Teacher-Induced Learning Gains
- Principals as Agents: Subjective Performance Measurement in Education
- Teacher Attitudes on Pay for Performance: A Pilot Study
- The Challenges of Staffing Urban Schools with Effective Teachers
- When Principals Rate Teachers
- The Impact of Teacher Training on Student Achievement: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from School Reform Efforts in Chicago
Catching Cheating Teachers: The Results of an Unusual Experiment in Implementing Theory
Jacob, B. and Levitt S. (2003). "Catching Cheating Teachers: The Results of an Unusual Experiment in Implementing Theory." In William G. Gale and Janet Rothenberg Pack, eds., Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs 2003. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.
Abstract
This paper reports on the results of a prospective implementation of methods for detecting teacher cheating. In Spring 2002, over 100 Chicago Public Schools elementary classrooms were selected for retesting based on the cheating detection algorithm. Classrooms prospectively identified as likely cheaters experienced large test score declines. In contrast, classes that had large test score gains on the original test, but were prospectively identified as being unlikely to have cheated, maintained their original gains. Randomly selected classrooms also maintained their gains. The cheating detection tools were thus demonstrated to be effective in distinguishing between classrooms that achieved large test-score gains as a consequence of cheating versus those whose gains were the result of outstanding teaching. In addition, the data generated by the implementation experiment highlight numerous ways in which the original cheating detection methods can be improved in the future.
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Rotten Apples: An Investigation of the Prevalence and Predictors of Teacher Cheating