Consortium for Policy Research in Education

 

The Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) is a community of researchers from renowned research institutions and organizations committed to advancing educational policy and practice through evidence-based research.

 

 

Graduate School of Education

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Subject: Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research ×

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 95
  • Publication
    Recruiting and Retaining Teachers: Keys to Improving the Philadelphia Public Schools
    (2001-05-01) Watson, Susan
    In 1996 the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) at the University of Pennsylvania and its partner, Research for Action (RFA) were charged by the Children Achieving Challenge with the evaluation of Children Achieving. Between the 1995-1996 and 2000-2001 school years, CPRE and RFA researchers interviewed hundreds of teachers, principals, parents, students, District officials, and civic leaders; sat in on meetings where the plan was designed, debated, and revised; observed its implementation in classrooms and schools; conducted two system-wide surveys of teachers; and carried out independent analyses of the District’s test results and other indicators of system performance. An outline of the research methods used by CPRE and RFA is included in this report.
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    What Large-Scale, Survey Research Tells Us About Teacher Effects on Student Achievement: Insights From the Prospectus Study of Elementary Schools
    (2002-11-01) Rowan, Brian; Correnti, Richard; Miller, Robert J
    This report is about conceptual and methodological issues that arise when educational researchers use data from large-scale, survey research studies to investigate teacher effects on student achievement. In the report, we illustrate these issues by reporting on a series of analyses we conducted using data from Prospects: The Congressionally Mandated Study of Educational Opportunity. This large-scale, survey research effort gathered a rich store of data on instructional processes and student achievement in a large sample of U.S. elementary schools during the early 1990s as part of the federal government's evaluation of the Title I program. We use data from Prospects to estimate the "overall" size of teacher effects on student achievement and to test some specific hypotheses about why such effects occur. On the basis of these analyses, we draw some substantive conclusions about the magnitude and sources of teacher effects on student achievement and suggest some ways that survey-based research on teaching can be improved.
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    In Search of Leading Indicators in Education
    (2012-07-10) Supovitz, Jonathan A; Foley, Ellen; Mishook, Jacob
    Data have long been considered a key factor in organizational decision-making (Simon, 1955; Lindblom & Cohen, 1979). Data offer perspective, guidance, and insights that inform policy and practice (Newell & Simon, 1972; Kennedy, 1984). Recently, education policymakers have invested in the use of data for organizational improvement in states and districts with such initiatives as Race to The Top (United States Department of Education, 2010) and the development of statewide longitudinal data systems (Institute for Education Sciences, 2010). These and other initiatives focus attention on how data can be used to foster learning and improvement. In other fields, including economics and business, much work has been done to identify leading indicators that predict organizational outcomes. In this paper, we conceptualize how leading indicators might be used in education, using examples from a small sample of school districts with reputations as strong users of data. We define leading indicators as systematically collected data on an activity or condition that is related to a subsequent and valued outcome, as well as the processes surrounding the investigation of those data and the associated responses. Identifying leading indicators often prompts improvements in a district’s system of supports. To develop this concept, we describe four examples of how districts identified and used key indicators to anticipate learning problems and improve student outcomes. We also describe the infrastructure and other supports that districts need to sustain this ambitious form of data use. We conclude by discussing how leading indicators can bring about more intelligent use of data in education.
  • Publication
    The Linking Study: An Experiment to Strengthen Teachers' Engagement With Data on Teaching and Learning
    (2013-04-01) Supovitz, Jonathan A
    In this AERA 2013 paper, Dr. Jonathan Supovitz investigates what it means for teachers to fruitfully use data to enhance the teaching and learning process. Informed by research on the challenges teachers face to use data meaningfully, and clues from the rich literature on formative assessment, this paper reports on the design and effects of an intervention designed to help teachers connect data on their teaching with data on the learning of their students for the purpose of informing subsequent instruction which leads to better student outcomes. The hypothesis of this study, therefore, is that while examining data may be useful, the real value of data use is to examine the connection between data points – in this case the instructional choices that teachers make and the learning outcomes of students. Thus, ‘data use’ in this study means encouraging and facilitating teachers’ analytical experiences of linking data on teaching to data on the learning of their students.
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    A Randomized Evaluation of Ohio's Personalized Assessment Reporting System (PARS)
    (2007-12-01) May, Henry; Robinson, Marian A
    In the 2006–07 school year, the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) launched a pilot of its Personalized Assessment Reporting System (PARS) for the Ohio Graduation Tests (OGT). The PARS program included several new OGT test score reports for teachers, administrators, students, and parents along with two new websites for educators and students. The new PARS test score reports and associated websites are designed to provide teachers, administrators, students and parents with more detailed information about student performance as well as numerous suggestions and resources for improving performance. One of the primary goals of PARS is to increase student motivation to pass the OGT and graduate high school. ODE hopes that by providing clear and detailed information to each student about his or her performance relative to the state standards, along with resources for improving performance and planning for the future, PARS may lead to improvements in student attitudes and behaviors that are fundamental to success in high school and beyond. Research suggests that grades or scores in the absence of constructive feedback can have a detrimental effect on student achievement (Butler 1987; 1988). The PARS reports are designed to provide this kind of detailed constructive feedback. Furthermore, by providing clear and detailed information to teachers and administrators about student performance, along with tools for making sense of the data and resources for improving and targeting instruction, PARS has the potential to inform numerous aspects of instruction. This research report presents program evaluation findings from the first-year pilot of PARS. The primary goals for the evaluation were to (a) document the implementation of the program and (b) provide scientifically based evidence of potential impacts on instruction and student learning. The evaluation involved a district random assignment design and a mixed-methods approach to measuring program implementation and impacts. A total of 100 high schools in 60 school districts participated in this research, with 51 schools in 30 districts randomly assigned to participate in the PARS pilot during the 2006–07 school year. A subsample of 5 schools agreed to site visits during which researchers conducted interviews with teachers and students to learn more about PARS.
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    TASK: A Measure of Learning Trajectory-Oriented Formative Assessment
    (2013-06-01) Supovitz, Jonathan A; Ebby, Caroline Brayer; Sirinides, Philip M
    This interactive electronic report provides an overview of an innovative new instrument developed by CPRE researchers to authentically measure teachers’ formative assessment practices in mathematics. The Teacher Analysis of Student Knowledge, or TASK, instrument assesses mathematics teachers’ knowledge of formative assessment and learning trajectories, important components of the instructional knowledge necessary to teach to the high expectations of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Researchers found that the majority of teachers of mathematics in grades K-10 in urban and urban fringe districts focused on their students' procedural skills rather than their conceptual understandings, indicating that there is significant room for growth in teacher capacity to identify, interpret, and respond to students' conceptual understanding.
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    Learning About Assessment: An Evaluation of a Ten-State Effort to Build Assessment Capacity in High Schools
    (2009-02-01) Weinbaum, Elliot H
    In 2006, the State of Delaware and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) partnered with the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) to conduct an evaluation of a ten-state initiative that sought to enhance assessment practices at the high school level. This effort aimed to help states, districts, and schools build familiarity with instruction that uses assessment as part of the learning process, a practice known as assessment for learning. This report focuses primarily on the third goal of this project, the creation and function of teacher learning teams focused on assessment for learning.
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    Instructional Leadership in a Standards-Based Reform
    (2001-12-01) Supovitz, Jonathan A; Poglinco, Susan M
    The spotlight of educational leadership is on instructional leadership. As pressure for improving student performance in the current standards-based accountability environment swells and test results are increasingly scrutinized, school principals are being urged to focus their efforts on the core business of schooling--teaching and learning. But what does it mean to be an instructional leader? What do principals that are instructional leaders do differently than other principals? How do they spend their time? How do they shape the cultures of their schools? How knowledgeable are they of subject-matter content? How do they work with, and develop, other leaders in their schools? In this study we sought to find answers to these questions by exploring the collective wisdom of several effective instructional leaders. Instructional leadership, not just by the principal but by a wider cast of individuals in both formal and informal leadership roles, can play a central role in shifting the emphasis of school activity more directly onto instructional improvements that lead to enhanced student learning and performance. By contrast, the status quo in most schools is diffuse attention to instruction scattered amidst a variety of environmental, social, and organizational distracters that lead to fragmented and uneven instructional focus. Principals are typically engrossed in organizational care-taking and the responsibility for instructional decisions falls to individual teachers. When individual teachers independently determine the kind and type of instruction in their classrooms, three things tend to occur. First, the instructional culture of the school tends to splinter, as there is no overriding instructional guidance and no coherent glue to tie instruction to a larger whole. Second, the quality of instruction varies widely, as teachers bring different experiences and have different notions of what is good teaching. Third, the content that students receive, even in the same grade, differs from classroom to classroom, as each teacher prioritizes what students ought to know.
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    Teacher Learning and Instructional Change: How Formal and On-the-Job Learning Opportunities Predict Change in Elementary School Teachers' Practice
    (2010-03-01) Parise, Leigh Mesler; Spillane, James P
    Recent education reform has emphasized the importance of teacher learning in improving classroom instruction and raising student achievement. This article focuses on teachers' learning opportunities, including formal professional development and on-the-job learning that occurs through interactions with colleagues. Using data from 30 elementary schools in a mid-sized urban school district, the authors concurrently explore the relationships between teachers' formal professional development and on-the-job learning opportunities and instructional change. Results suggest that formal professional development and on-the-job opportunities to learn are both significantly associated with changes in teachers' instructional practice in mathematics and English language arts.