Improving Teaching Effectiveness: Impact on Student Outcomes, The Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching Through 20132014

This interim report presents estimates of the overall effect that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching initiative has had on student outcomes through the 2013– 2014 school year. The aim of the initiative is to encourage and support strategic human-capital reforms that are intended to improve the ways in which "teachers are recruited, evaluated, supported, retained, and rewarded" (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2011). The cornerstone of the reform is the development and implementation of teacherevaluation systems that are based on student achievement growth; structured classroom observations by principals or trained peers; and other inputs, such as student or parent surveys. These evaluations are used to guide personnel practices in three broad areas—staffing, professional development, and compensation and career-ladder decisions—with the goal of giving every student access to highly effective teachers. Staffing practices include such activities as expedited recruiting and incentivizing effective teachers to work in high-need schools; professionaldevelopment practices include feedback, coaching, and mentoring related to teachers' identified strengths and weaknesses; and compensation practices include monetary rewards for effective teachers and incentives for teaching in high-need positions.This initiative is being implemented in sites that the foundation chose, including three large urban districts and four charter management organizations (CMOs) that are a part of the College-Ready Promise. The districts are Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS) in Florida, Memphis City Schools (MCS) in Tennessee,2 and Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) in Pennsylvania. The CMOs are the Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, Aspire Public Schools, Green Dot Public Schools, and Partnerships to Uplift Communities Schools. All sites have implemented most of the elements of the initiative to some degree, although there is variation by site. Enough change has occurred that it is reasonable to test whether there is evidence of improved students' outcomes. This report does not include results for any of the CMOs because student achievement data for the 2013–2014 school year are not available in California, where most of these schools are located

Using a Merit-Based Scholarship Program to Increase Rates of College Enrollment in an Urban School District: The Case of the Pittsburgh Promise

The Pittsburgh Promise is a scholarship program that provides $5,000 per year toward college tuition for public high school graduates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who earned a 2.5 GPA and a 90% attendance record. This study used a difference-in-difference design to assess whether the introduction of the Promise scholarship program directly influenced changes in rates of college enrollment among students graduating from Pittsburgh public high schools in years immediately following the launch of the program. Becker’s (1964) standard human capital investment model, which predicts that youth make cost-benefit calculations to guide their college enrollment decisions, provides the framework for the analysis. Our analysis of data on two graduating classes prior to the scholarship’s implementation (2005-06 and 2006-07) and three years following the scholarship’s implementation (2007-08, 2008-09, and 2009-10) yielded mixed results. Findings showed that the scholarship had no direct effect on the overall rate of college enrollment. However, scholarship-eligible graduates were more likely to attend four-year schools in the years in which the scholarship was available

Disentangling Disadvantage: Can We Distinguish Good Teaching from Classroom Composition?

This paper focuses on the use of teacher value-added estimates to assess the distribution of effective teaching across students of varying socioeconomic disadvantage. We use simulation methods to examine the extent to which different commonly used teacher-value added estimators accurately capture both the rank correlation between true and estimated teacher effects and the distribution of effective teaching across student characteristics in the presence of classroom composition effects. Varying the amount of teacher sorting by student characteristics, the withinteacher variability in classroom composition, and the amount of student learning decay, we compare aggregated residuals, teacher random effects, and teacher fixed effects models estimated in both levels and gains, with and without controls for classroom composition. We find that models estimated in levels more accurately capture the rank correlation between true and estimated teacher effects than models estimated in gains, but levels are not always preferable for recovering the correlation between teacher value-added and student achievement. For recovering that correlation, aggregated residuals models appear preferable when sorting is not present, though fixed effects models perform better in the presence of sorting. Because the true amount of sorting is never known, we recommend that analysts incorporate contextual information into their decisions about model choice

Piezoelectric Sensor Evaluation for Structural Health Monitoring of Cryogenic Structures

This viewgraph presentation provides an overview of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), and profiles piezoelectric sensors useful for SHM of cryogenic structures. The presentation also profiles impedance tests and other SHM tests conducted at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC)

Estimation of Causal Effects in Experiments with Multiple Sources of Noncompliance

The purpose of this paper is to study identification and estimation of causal effects in experiments with multiple sources of noncompliance. This research design arises in many applications in education when access to oversubscribed programs is partially determined by randomization. Eligible households decide whether or not to comply with the intended treatment. The paper treats program participation as the outcome of a decision process with five latent household types. We show that the parameters of the underlying model of program participation are identified. Our proofs of identification are constructive and can be used to design a GMM estimator for all parameters of interest. We apply our new methods to study the effectiveness of magnet programs in a large urban school district. Our findings show that magnet programs help the district to attract and retain students from households that are at risk of leaving the district. These households have higher incomes, are more educated, and have children that score higher on standardized tests than households that stay in district regardless of the outcome of the lottery.

Evaluating the Gifted Program of an Urban School District using a Modified Regression Discontinuity Design

This paper examines the impact of a gifted program on retention in an urban school district using a regression discontinuity design. Gifted programs often employ IQ thresholds for admission, with those above the threshold being admitted. One common problem with the RD design arises if the forcing variable (the IQ score) is manipulated, thus invalidating the standard research design. We proposed a modified RD estimator that deals with manipulation in the forcing variable. Once we properly correct for manipulation of test scores around the cut-off points, we find evidence that the gifted program offered by the district has a positive effect on retention of higher income students.

Fluoroquinolone Resistance in Campylobacter Absent from Isolates, Australia

Fluoroquinolone resistance was detected in 12 of 370 Australian human Campylobacter isolates; 10 of these were travel-associated, and for 2 isolates travel status was unknown. No resistance was found in isolates known to be locally acquired. In Australia, fluoroquinolones have not been licensed for use in food production animals, a policy that may have relevance for countries with fluoroquinolone-resistant Campylobacter

Cerebrospinal fluid kynurenine and kynurenic acid concentrations are associated with coma duration and long-term neurocognitive impairment in Ugandan children with cerebral malaria

Background: One-fourth of children with cerebral malaria (CM) retain cognitive sequelae up to 2 years after acute disease. The kynurenine pathway of the brain, forming neuroactive metabolites, e.g. the NMDA-receptor antagonist kynurenic acid (KYNA), has been implicated in long-term cognitive dysfunction in other CNS infections. In the present study, the association between the kynurenine pathway and neurologic/cognitive complications in children with CM was investigated. Methods: Cerebrospinal fuid (CSF) concentrations of KYNA and its precursor kynurenine in 69 Ugandan children admitted for CM to Mulago Hospital, Kampala, Uganda, between 2008 and 2013 were assessed. CSF kynurenine and KYNA were compared to CSF cytokine levels, acute and long-term neurologic complications, and long-term cogni‑ tive impairments. CSF kynurenine and KYNA from eight Swedish children without neurological or infectious disease admitted to Astrid Lindgren’s Children’s Hospital were quantifed and used for comparison. Results: Children with CM had signifcantly higher CSF concentration of kynurenine and KYNA than Swedish children (P \u3c 0.0001 for both), and CSF kynurenine and KYNA were positively correlated. In children with CM, CSF kynurenine and KYNA concentrations were associated with coma duration in children of all ages (P = 0.003 and 0.04, respec‑ tively), and CSF kynurenine concentrations were associated with worse overall cognition (P = 0.056) and attention (P = 0.003) at 12-month follow-up in children ≥5 years old. Conclusions: CSF KYNA and kynurenine are elevated in children with CM, indicating an inhibition of glutamatergic and cholinergic signaling. This inhibition may lead acutely to prolonged coma and long-term to impairment of atten‑ tion and cognition