Choices, Incentives, Accountability, Professionalism: The Latest Innovations in Education Reform

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Choices, Incentives, Accountability,
ProfessionalismThe Latest Innovations in
Education Reform

• Caroline M. Hoxby
• Harvard University
• June 2005

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The Latest Evidence on Choice Reforms
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The Latest Evidence on Choice Reforms

• Charter Schools Effects on Student Achievement

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Chicagos Charter Schools and Regular State
Schools

• Chicago Charter Schools
• 74 black
• 22 Hispanic
• 4 white, Asian, other
• 81 free/reduced price lunch
• 10 special ed
• 16 bilingual ed
• Initial math 37th ile
• Initial reading 39th ile

• Chicagos Regular State Schools
• 51 black
• 36 Hispanic
• 13 white, Asian, other
• 78 free/reduced price lunch
• 12 special ed
• 14 bilingual ed
• Initial math 46th ile
• Initial reading 43rd ile

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Lotteried-In Out Students are Nearly Identical
Ex Ante
Approximately 2 standard deviations
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Students in the Charter Schools Have Higher
Achievement After 2 Years
Approximately 2 standard deviations
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Better communication with parents has helped
charter schools achieve results

• 1-800 number facilitates parent-teacher
  interaction
• Families access schools intranet

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Charter schools have also pioneered the rapid
diagnosis of learning problems

• Schools have cut time between testing and
  teachers receipt of reports to a day.
• Computer-assisted testing gives teachers tools to
  identify specific types of reading math
  learning problems.

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The Latest Evidence on Choice Reforms

• The Effect of Vouchers on State Schools
  Performance

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Milwaukee, Number of Vouchers Used and Limit on
Number of Vouchers Allowed
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Milwaukee, Voucher Amount Compared to Per-Pupil
Funding in Regular Public Schools
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School Choice Innovations

• Part-online charter schools for rural children
• Computerized allocation of students to schools
  when students (and in some cases, schools) submit
  preference lists
• Vouchers for the disabled to attend private or
  state schools outside their zone

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Rewards for teachers

• State longitudinal data are the key to
  understanding teachers effects

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Sophisticated Teacher Incentive Systems

• Key calculation is teachers systematic
  value-added for those with about 4 years of
  experience.
• Systems can factor in
• individual teachers value-added (at least 50)
• group or schools average value-added
• extra value of value-added in schools for
  disadvantaged or hard-to-staff subjects
• long-term outcomes
• principals evaluations
• parent ratings

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Are Teacher Rewards Practical?

• Value-added calculations have been made for whole
  states
• Teachers can expect reasonably stable rewards
  once they are experienced
• A reward system based on absolute value-added can
  lift all boats in terms of teacher performance
  and pay

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Professionalism

• professions combine limited gate-keeping (to
  prevent incompetence) and pay that rewards
  performance
• as more non-teaching professions become open to
  women, teaching needs to move toward more
  professional entry and pay structures, just to
  attract women of similar aptitude as in past

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But it is possible to reverse the trend

• Charter schools are, by trial and error, creating
  more flexible pay

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Assessment Accountability

• Even crude assessment accountability systems
  drive reforms and raise achievement

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The Costs of Assessment
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And the benefits of Accountability
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Still, assessment accountability would better
if they were more sophisticated

• computer-assisted tests can challenge students
  throughout the spectrum of achievement
• computer assistance also speeds diagnosis and
  communication with parents
• links to long-term outcomes will improve
  legitimacy and provide check on tests

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All in all

• An exciting time for school reform
• ideas
• choice idea has been refined to address concerns
• technology
• speeds and improves diagnosis of learning
• improves communication with parents
• makes choice more efficient
• data
• can design sound rewards for teachers
• aids policy evaluation