Selecting Growth Measures for School and Teacher Evaluations

Cory Koedel, Mark Ehlert (), Eric Parsons (), Michael Podgursky and Brett Xiang

No 1401, Working Papers from Department of Economics, University of Missouri

Abstract: There is increased policy interest in extending the test-based evaluation framework in K-12 education to include student achievement in high school. High school achievement is typically measured by performance on end-of-course exams (EOCs), which test course-specific standards in subjects including algebra, biology, English, geometry, and history, among others. However, unlike standardized tests in the early grades, students take EOCs at different points in their schooling careers. The timing of the test is a choice variable presumably determined by input from administrators, students and parents. Recent research indicates that school and district policies that determine when students take particular courses can have important consequences for achievement and subsequent outcomes, such as advanced course taking. The contribution of the present study is to develop an approach for modeling EOC test performance that disentangles the influence of school and district policies regarding the timing of course taking from other factors. After separating out the timing issue, better measures of the quality of instruction provided by districts, schools and teachers can be obtained. Our approach also offers diagnostic value because it explicitly separates out the influence of school and district course-taking policies from other factors that determine student achievement.

Keywords: value-added; end-of-course exam; end-of-course testing; course timing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pgs.
Date: 2014-01-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Selecting Growth Measures for School and Teacher Evaluations (2012)
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