Assessing difference: examining Florida’s initial teacher preparation programs and exploring alternative specifications of value-added models

Mason, Patrick L. (2010): Assessing difference: examining Florida’s initial teacher preparation programs and exploring alternative specifications of value-added models.

Abstract

This study explores important statistical issues on the appropriate functional form and model specification of the value-added educational achievement equation. We also wish to estimate the causal effect of a teacher’s institution of academic preparation and pedagogical training. Standardized test scores, viz., the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Tests (FCAT), provide a measure of pupil academic achievement. Accordingly, this study uses a value-added regression model to establish whether there is a “college preparation effect” on the average pupil’s FCAT reading and mathematics scores. We find that value-added regression analysis fails to uncover robust and substantive college preparation effects. Regardless of race (African American, Hispanic, or white), male or female status, or FCAT mathematics versus FCAT reading, pupil academic achievement does not vary substantively according to a teacher’s college of preparation. Further, the statistical significance of teacher program effects also depends on the functional form and specification of the value-added model.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: teacher quality, value-added model, historically black colleges and universities, HBCU, teacher productivity, education and value-added
• Subjects: J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J4 - Particular Labor Markets > J45 - Public Sector Labor Markets; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I2 - Education and Research Institutions; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J4 - Particular Labor Markets > J44 - Professional Labor Markets ; Occupational Licensing; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J15 - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants ; Non-labor Discrimination; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J4 - Particular Labor Markets > J48 - Public Policy

References

Chingos, Matthew and Paul E. Peterson. (2010). “Do Schools Districts Get What They Pay For? Predicting Teacher Effectiveness by College Selectivity, Experience, Etc.” Harvard University Program on Education Policy and Governance Working Papers Series 10-08.

Corcoran, S. P., & Jennings, J. L. (2009). Review of “An Evaluation of Teachers Trained Through Different Routes to Certification: Final Report.” Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit.

Florida Department of Education. (2009). “Overall Performance of 2007-08 Teacher Preparation Program Completers Teaching Reading and Mathematics Grades 4-10 during 2008-09.” November.

Florida Department of Education. (2010a). “Teacher effectiveness in reading and mathematics 2008-2009.”

Florida Department of Education. (2010b). “Rule 6A-1.09981: Implementation of Florida’s System of School Improvement and Accountability,” Florida Administrative Weekly & Florida Administrative Code. https://www.flrules.org/gateway/RuleNo.asp?id=6A-1.09981 (April 12, 2010).

Florida Department of Education. (2004). “Fall Staff and Student Survey Data,” State Board of Education.

Harris, Douglas and Tim R. Sass. (2006). “Value-Added Models and the Measurement of Teacher Quality,” Florida State University, Working paper.

Harris, Douglas and Tim R. Sass. (2008). “Teacher training, teacher quality and student achievement,” Florida State University, Working paper.

Kane, Thomas J., Jonah E. Rockoff, and Douglas O. Staiger. (2006). “What does certification tell us about teacher effectives? Evidence from New York City,” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 12155. http://www.nber.org/papers/w12155.

Milton, Sande, Pamela Flood, Melinda Dukes, Fely Curva, Ryan Wilke, Eileen McDaniel, Kathryn S. Hebda, Genae Crump, and Rebecca Pfeiffer (2008). “Beginning Teachers from Florida Teacher Preparation Programs: A Report on State Approved Teacher Preparation Programs with Results of Surveys of Program Completers.” Florida Department of Education, The Florida Center for Interactive Media, College of Education, Florida State University. January.

Noell, George H., Bethany A. Porter, R. Maria Patt, Amanda Dahir. (2008). “Value Added Assessment of Teacher Preparation in Louisiana: 2004-2005 to 2006-2007,” Technical Report. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University.

Rockoff, Jonah E. (2004). “The impact of individual teachers on student achievement: evidence from panel data,” American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings.

Todd, Petra E. and Kenneth I. Wolpin. (2003). “On the specification and estimation of the production function for cognitive achievement,” Economic Journal, 113 (February):F3-F33.