Measure for Measure: The Relationship between Measures of Instructional Practice in Middle School English Language Arts and Teachers' Value-Added Scores

39 Pages Posted: 4 Jun 2010 Last revised: 6 Apr 2023

See all articles by Pamela Grossman

Pamela Grossman

Stanford University - School of Education

Susanna Loeb

Stanford University; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Julia Cohen

Stanford University - School of Education

Karen M. Hammerness

Bard College

James Wyckoff

University of Virginia

Donald Boyd

SUNY at Albany

Hamilton Lankford

SUNY at Albany - College of Arts and Sciences

Date Written: May 2010

Abstract

Even as research has begun to document that teachers matter, there is less certainty about what attributes of teachers make the most difference in raising student achievement. Numerous studies have estimated the relationship between teachers' characteristics, such as work experience and academic performance, and their value-added to student achievement; but, few have explored whether instructional practices predict student test score gains. In this study, we ask what classroom practices, if any, differentiate teachers with high impact on student achievement in middle school English Language Arts from those with lower impact. In so doing, the study also explores to what extent value-added measures signal differences in instructional quality. Even with the small sample used in our analysis, we find consistent evidence that high value-added teachers have a different profile of instructional practices than do low value-added teachers. Teachers in the fourth (top) quartile according to value-added scores score higher than second-quartile teachers on all 16 elements of instruction that we measured, and the differences are statistically significant for a subset of practices including explicit strategy instruction.

Suggested Citation

Grossman, Pamela and Loeb, Susanna and Cohen, Julia and Hammerness, Karen M. and Wyckoff, James and Boyd, Donald and Lankford, Hamilton, Measure for Measure: The Relationship between Measures of Instructional Practice in Middle School English Language Arts and Teachers' Value-Added Scores (May 2010). NBER Working Paper No. w16015, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1612609

Pamela Grossman (Contact Author)

Stanford University - School of Education ( email )

Stanford, CA 94305-3096
United States

Susanna Loeb

Stanford University ( email )

School of Education 402P CERAS, 520 Galvez Mall
Stanford, CA 94305
United States
650-725-4262 (Phone)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Julia Cohen

Stanford University - School of Education ( email )

Stanford, CA
United States

Karen M. Hammerness

Bard College ( email )

Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504-5000
United States

James Wyckoff

University of Virginia ( email )

1400 University Ave
Charlottesville, VA 22903
United States

Donald Boyd

SUNY at Albany ( email )

1400 Washington Avenue
Albany, NY 12222
United States

Hamilton Lankford

SUNY at Albany - College of Arts and Sciences ( email )

1400 Washington Avenue
Albany, NY 12222
United States

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