This CALDER Center paper examines the value of strategically assigning disproportionately larger classes to the strongest teachers in order to optimize student learning in the face of differential teacher effectiveness.

Teachers’ individual contributions to student learning and schools’ contributions are typically intertwined. This paper explores the key issues related to strategies for identifying a value-added model to account for school and teacher contributions that create appropriate incentives for teachers. The authors recommend estimating between-school differences and then considering what part of those
differences should be attributed to teachers.

The use of student test-based measures of teacher effectiveness in personnel decisions, such as tenure, is controversial. It is a major bone of contention in the recent Chicago teacher strike. The conversation here focuses on the uses, value and limitations of these measures, often called value-added measures.

This report presents selected findings from the public school district data file of the 2007–08 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). SASS is a nationally representative sample survey of public, private, and Bureau of Indian Education-funded (BIE) K–12 schools, principals, and teachers in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

This report answers two basic sets of questions about children's knowledge and skill acquisition during the kindergarten year. What gains are children making from the fall of the kindergarten year to the spring of the kindergarten year in their overall reading and mathematics knowledge and skills? What gains are children making in specific knowledge and skills (e.g., recognizing letters, recognizing numbers)?

Using data from the final two rounds of the ECLS-B, a longitudinal study begun in 2001, this First Look provides a snapshot of the demographic characteristics, reading and mathematics knowledge, fine motor skills, school characteristics, and before- and after-school care arrangements of the cohort at the time they first began kindergarten.

This special analysis examines the performance of U.S. students in reading, mathematics, and science compared with the performance of their peers in other countries that participated in PIRLS, PISA, and TIMSS in terms of students’ average scores and the percentage of students reaching internationally benchmarked performance levels.

This First Look used data collected from the final round of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K) when most of the cohort was in the eighth grade. This project was intended to provide a snapshot of the eighth-grade round of the ECLS-K and make the data available to encourage more in-depth analysis using more sophisticated statistical methods.

This report provides descriptive information about children born in the United States in 2001. It presents information on certain child and family characteristics, on children’s mental and physical skills, on children’s first experiences in child care, and on the fathers of these children.

The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99 (ECLS-K) is following a nationally representative cohort of children from kindergarten and into the later grades. The ECLS-K focuses on children’s school experiences beginning with kindergarten.

This report describes kindergartners’ early education experiences in each of the four regions of the United States. Findings from this report indicate that kindergartners’ preschool experiences and kindergarten program type vary by the regions in which their schools are located and by the regional characteristics of these kindergartners, their families, and their schools.

This report summarizes key findings from the 2003 Massachusetts State Assessment of Adult Literacy.

This report summarizes key findings from the 2003 New York State Assessment of Adult Literacy.

This report summarizes key findings from the 2003 Kentucky State Assessment of Adult Literacy.