Impact of the Teacher Advancement Program on Student Test Score Gains: Findings from an Independent Appraisal. Working Paper 2008-19

This article presents findings from the first independent, third-party appraisal on the impact of the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) on student test score gains in mathematics. TAP is a comprehensive school reform model designed to attract highly-effective teachers, improve instructional effectiv...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inNational Center on Performance Incentives
Main Authors Springer, Matthew G, Ballou, Dale, Peng, Art
Format Report
LanguageEnglish
Published National Center on Performance Incentives 01.02.2008
Subjects
Academic Achievement
Comparative Analysis
Educational Change
Elementary Secondary Education
Faculty Development
Incentives
Instructional Effectiveness
Least Squares Statistics
Mathematics Achievement
Merit Pay
Policy Analysis
Program Effectiveness
Scores
Teacher Effectiveness
Teacher Promotion
Teaching (Occupation)
Online AccessGet more information

Cover

More Information
Summary:This article presents findings from the first independent, third-party appraisal on the impact of the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) on student test score gains in mathematics. TAP is a comprehensive school reform model designed to attract highly-effective teachers, improve instructional effectiveness, and elevate student achievement. We use a panel data set to estimate a TAP treatment effect by comparing student test score gains in mathematics in schools that participated in TAP with student test score gains in non-TAP schools. Ordinary least squares estimation reveals a positive TAP treatment effect on student test score gains in elementary grades, with weaker but still positive point estimates in the secondary grades. When estimation methods control for selection bias, the positive effect remains at the elementary level, but most estimates for grades 6 through 10 turn negative. Our findings are qualified by the lack of information on the fidelity of implementation across TAP schools and on variation in features of TAP programs at the school level. A table of ordinary least squares models with "pre-tap" indicator is appended. (Contains 9 tables.) [An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 28th Annual Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Research Conference and at a research seminar at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in December 2007.]