Teacher Characteristics on Student Achievement

MARTIN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION

Teacher Characteristics on Student Achievement

An Examination of High Schools in Ohio

Rockstroh, Angela H

Capstone Project

Spring 2013

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

2

Introduction

3

Literature Review

5

Data Description

11

Model

14

Analysis and Results

15

Discussion

20

Limitations

Recommendations

Conclusion

23

References

25

1

Executive Summary Teachers are the most important school-based factor in affecting student achievement

levels. Knowing what teacher characteristics influence student achievement and whether or not schools in different locations have dissimilar student achievement levels will help administrators prioritize who to hire, retain, and assign to classes. The purpose of this paper is to answer two questions. The first question is whether teacher characteristics are related to student achievement; the second is whether there are differences in student achievement based on school location. A review of teacher quality, teacher incentives, teacher background, the ability of a school to attract teachers, and differences in school location provides some background of the relationship between teacher characteristics and student achievement.

I use data from the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) and the Census Bureau. All data is collected at the school level. From this I develop two models. The first is a fixed effects model that allows me to examine the relationship between teacher characteristics and student achievement with a county fixed effect. The second model is similar to the first except I substitute the country fixed effect variable for school location as an explanatory variable. The location variable is sorted into three categories by county population, and defined as large, medium and small. In both models the dependent variable is student achievement, which is measured by the high school's percentage-passing rate on the Ohio Graduation Test (OGT), a standardized test administered to all potential graduates. I estimate each model five times, once for each section of the OGT.

Based the on results of this analysis it appears that schools' average levels of teacher education, student-to-teacher ratio, and enrollment are related to student achievement. The extent to which these variables affect student achievement is open to interpretation. Since the study is conducted at the school level the evidence is only suggestive of individual student-toteacher relationships.

2

Introduction Many variables affect student achievement. They include family life, community, diet,

involvement in extracurricular activities, and the school environment. Teachers, however, have a direct responsibility to shape a student's academic achievement, and are the most important school-based factor in their education (e.g. Rockoff 2004; Rivkin, Hanushek and Kain 2005; Aaronson, Barrow and Sander 2007). This is why it is important to examine which teacher characteristics may be related to student achievement. Every school has a different mix of teacher experience, education, teacher attendance, and student-teacher ratio, among other readily available measures. Considering which teacher characteristics produce the best student achievement at the school level can help the school in identifying unique ways to increase student achievement with the teacher resources available to them.

Examining the relationship between teacher characteristics and student achievement at the school-level allows me to look at the school and examine if there are certain teacher qualities that increase the school's overall student achievement. This is important for education administrators because knowing what teacher characteristics influence student achievement will help the school's administration make adjustments in order to increase student achievement. This does not necessarily mean that all students will benefit, but it will help identify teacher characteristics that are correlated with increasing the school's overall student achievement.

The location of a school is another factor that not only may help determine student achievement, but the school's access to teachers. Looking at the breakdown of schools by location is beneficial because different areas have different community demographics, and are attractive to different types of teachers. The case study "Defining Equity: Implementing the Weighted Student Formulation in Chicago Public Schools," (2006) discusses a budget overhaul

3

to the Chicago Public School System. The budget director of the Chicago Public School system wanted to create an innovative budget scheme to balance out the funding inadequacies across Chicago Public Schools. One reason for making this change was that teacher experience allowed experienced teachers to select out of schools in underprivileged areas with less money, in favor of teaching in a better-off school district with more money to pay. Knowing what teacher characteristics influence student achievement is valuable to education policy makers in finding unique ways to attract teachers with certain characteristics in order to increase student achievement.

In this study I examine high schools in Ohio. I specifically look at a high school's average years of teaching experience, percentage of teachers with a master's degree, average teacher attendance, student to teacher ratio, and enrollment's effects on a school's percentage of students passing the Ohio Graduation Test (OGT). All high schools in Ohio require each student to pass all five sections of the OGT (reading, math, writing, social studies, science) before graduation. In order to receive a passing, grade a student must answer at least 40% of the questions correct in each section. A student can retake sections of the OGT multiple times as long as they pass each section before graduation. I then examine if there are any differences in a school's OGT percentage-passing rates based on a high school's location. I determine the school's location by large, medium, and small based on county population data.

I am interested both in the relationship between teacher characteristics and student achievement and between school location and student achievement. Specifically, I ask:

Research Question One: Are the characteristics of schools' teachers related to its passing rates on the OGT?

4

Research Question Two: Is there a difference in student achievement based on a high school's location?

Literature Review A substantial amount of research has been conducted on the relationship between

teachers and student achievement. The literature has identified several aspects that affect student achievement: teacher quality, teacher incentives, background, the ability of a school to attract teachers, and differences in school location. The importance of teacher quality:

The article "Teacher Quality and Student Achievement: A Review of State Policy Evidence" by Linda Darling-Hammond (1999), examined a fifty state survey on teacher policies, case analyses, and the National Assessment of Educational Progress. It specifically looked at teacher qualifications and how other school inputs are related to student achievement across all fifty states. Darling-Hammond found that teacher quality relates to increased student achievement, and that at the state level, teacher quality is more important than other factors such as class size and overall school spending. Similar to my study, this article is conducted at a higher level than the individual student teacher relationship. With these results researchers may be able to make inferences about the individual student teacher relationship, but it is a much weaker argument than if conducted on the individual level.

"How and Why Do Teacher Credentials Matter for Student Achievement" by Charles Clotfelter, Ellen F. Ladd, and Jacob L. Vigor (2007a) collected administrative data from North Carolina over a ten year period to explore questions involving the relationship between teacher characteristics and student achievement. Clotfelter, et al. explain that the question is not

5

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download