Teach Effectively!

Writing in Contemporary Economic Policy John M. Kreig and Paul Storer of Western Washington University compared the characteristics of schools that did and did not meet standards for making adequate yearly progress (AYP) in the US state of Washington. In their paper, entitled “How Much Do Students Matter? Applying the Oaxaca Decomposition to Explain Determinants of Adequate Yearly Progress,” they report a study of 99% of 3rd-, 99% of 6th-, and 93% of 9th-grade students who took national, standardized achievement tests (the Iowa Test of Basic Skills for 3rd- and 6th-graders; the Iowa Test of Educational Developement for 9th-graders). They found that at least 59% and perhaps as high as 96% of the differences between students for overall achievement in schools that do and do not reach AYP standards is accounted for by factors outside the schools’ control (e.g., gender, ethnicity, availability of computers in homes, etc.).

The federal government and many state governments have recently passed legislation that punishes school districts for not showing consistent improvement in standardized test scores. This article measures the extent to which school performance reflects student characteristics. After splitting schools in the state of Washington based on adequate yearly progress, the authors find that an overwhelming percentage of the difference between high- and low-performing schools is explained by characteristics beyond the control of school administrators. Thus legislation designed to penalize poorly performing schools may hurt students who are most in need of academic aid.

That there are substantial effects for features beyond schools’ control is not news. It’s been known since at least the 1960s that many measures of educational inputs (teacher salaries, number of books in libraries, teacher-pupil ratios, etc.) are overwhelmed by the characteristics of children coming to the schools. This does not absolve educators of responsibility for doing as well as they can, however. In fact, in my view, it places an even greater emphasis on providing high-quality instruction: If we educators can only influence a small proportion of the outcomes for students, it behooves us to make the most of that small proportion.

Link to the article (pdf).