What Matters for Student Achievement? Exploring Teacher Instructional Practices and the Role of School-Level and Student-Level Characteristics

The purpose of this exploratory study is to provide evidence on how teaching practices might contribute to student learning in different ways for different groups of students or in different kinds of schools. Two overarching research questions guide the study: (1) What instructional practices used b...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inMathematica
Main Authors Richman, Scott, Demers, Alicia, Poznyak, Dmitriy
Format Report
LanguageEnglish
Published Mathematica 27.08.2019
Subjects
Academic Achievement
Classroom Techniques
Correlation
Diversity (Institutional)
Elementary School Students
English Teachers
Enrollment
Ethnicity
Institutional Characteristics
Language Arts
Learner Engagement
Middle School Students
Program Effectiveness
Race
Reading Instruction
Socioeconomic Status
Student Characteristics
Teacher Effectiveness
Teacher Student Ratio
Teaching Methods
Writing Instruction
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:The purpose of this exploratory study is to provide evidence on how teaching practices might contribute to student learning in different ways for different groups of students or in different kinds of schools. Two overarching research questions guide the study: (1) What instructional practices used by ELA teachers are related to higher levels of student achievement?; and (2) To what extent are the relationships between teacher instructional practices and student achievement influenced by school-level and student-level characteristics? In this study, the authors used the data collected from 10,716 students taught by 214 ELA teachers in 63 schools that participated in their first year of the Teacher Potential Project evaluation (during the 2015-2016 or 2016-2017 school years). Findings from this study include the following: (1) Among the 32 teacher instructional practice measures examined in this analysis, aspects of teachers' general instruction and classroom management, and not reading and writing instruction, had statistically significant associations with student achievement after controlling for other school-level and student-level characteristics; (2) Specifically, fostering student engagement, having students participate in discussion, experiencing fewer class period disruptions, and instilling a classroom climate conducive to instruction each was associated with higher levels of student achievement; and (3) The moderation analysis showed that schools' racial and ethnic diversity, student-teacher ratios, and total number of students influence how teacher instructional practices are associated with student achievement. [This report was submitted to EL Education.]