Abstract #302120

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JSM 2003 Abstract #302120
Activity Number: 53
Type: Contributed
Date/Time: Sunday, August 3, 2003 : 4:00 PM to 5:50 PM
Sponsor: Section on Bayesian Stat. Sciences
Abstract - #302120
Title: Bayesian Analysis of Teacher Effectiveness
Author(s): Stephen Ponisciak*+ and Valen E. Johnson
Companies: Consortium on Chicago School Research and University of Michigan
Address: 2048 N Cleveland Ave. Apt. 300, Chicago, IL, 60614-4562,
Keywords: Bayesian methods ; latent variables ; teacher quality ; student achievement
Abstract:

The quality of education is a popular and important issue. Many authors have discussed the propriety of using students' standardized test scores to evaluate students', teachers', or schools' performance. Others advocate a value-added approach, determining teachers' and schools' quality by the magnitude of the increase in students' test scores. Do we really want a student's or teacher's future to depend only on the outcome of one day out of a 180-day school year? Some school districts have begun to respond negatively to that question, by taking into account other factors when making decisions about student promotion. We take this movement one step further, measuring teachers according to their students' subsequent actual course grades. We include student and teacher effects in an ordinal probit model with latent variables, and study only the subjects in which each course builds on the previous one. We step back from earlier models by focusing our attention only on the form and extent of the teacher effects. We conclude that the existence and extent of teachers' effects can be determined, and that teachers have measurable effects on students' subsequent achievement.

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