Expansion of the use of student test score data to measure teacher performance has fueled recent policy interest in using those data to measure the effects of school administrators as well. However, little research has considered the capacity of student performance data to uncover principal effects. Filling this gap, this article identifies…

Districts, states, and researchers are using value-added models with increasing frequency to evaluate educational policies and programs, as well as teachers and other educators individually. Despite their prevalence, little research assesses whether value-added measures (VAM) are consistent across student subgroups. Are teachers who are effective…

The authors use longitudinal data from one large school district to investigate the distribution of principals across schools. They find that schools serving many low-income, non-White, and low-achieving students have principals who have less experience and less education and who attended less selective colleges. This distribution of principals is…

There are fierce debates over the best way to prepare teachers. Some argue that easing entry into teaching is necessary to attract strong candidates, whereas others argue that investing in high quality teacher preparation is the most promising approach. Most agree, however, that we lack a strong research basis for understanding how to prepare…

In this article, the authors describe the state of teacher education in and around the large and diverse school district of New York City. Using multiple data sources, including program documents, interviews, and surveys of teachers, this study attempts to explore the characteristics of programs that prepare elementary teachers of New York City…

Developed a zero-to-five index of the strength of accountability in 50 states based on the use of high stakes testing to sanction and reward schools and analyzed whether that index is related to student gains on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics test in 1996-2000. Findings show that students in high accountability…

Used data on New York state teachers to determine how much variation in the average attributes of teachers exists across schools, identify schools with the least qualified teachers, assess changes in the distribution over time, and determine how the distribution of teachers is affected by attrition, transfer, and the matches between teachers and…

The relationship between preschool experience and the quality of schools subsequently attended as young adolescents was studied for 14,837 eighth graders from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988. The low quality of middle-grade schools attended by former Head Start participants explains, in part, why Head Start effects fail. (SLD)