This paper examines the relationship between teacher pay and students' academic achievement, using nationally representative, district-level linked data between districts' performance on standardized tests and average teacher base salary. By employing state fixed effects and multilevel mixed effects models, we find that both mathematics and…

Physical activity can meaningfully influence educational outcomes. However, physical activity among youth remains insufficient (World Health Organization, 2018).Youth who are not physically active are more likely to encounter chronic health issues including obesity, depression, and anxiety (Bartelink et al., 2019, Bélair et al., 2018, Krebs,…

In 2011, Indiana lawmakers established a system to evaluate teachers using existing standardized assessments as an indicator of student learning. In this study we examined one component of Indiana's evaluation system to determine whether student knowledge of the test's consequences is predictive of test performance. Using an experimental design,…

This dissertation addresses two research questions: 1. Do states misrepresent their progress on their own state assessments? 2. If states do distort their progress, are their predictors to suggest why this distortion occurs? The first research question requires that distortion be defined. For the purposes of this dissertation I calculated the…

This report shows the impact of various school funding measures on student outcomes measured by NAEP, ACT, and SAT scores, the four-year cohort graduation rate, and percent of the population ages 18-24 with at least a high school diploma. State-level data for the United States from 2005 through 2014 as available is utilized to establish the nature…

The authors examined curricular effectiveness in high schools that offered parallel paths in which students were free to study mathematics using 1 of 2 content organizational structures, an integrated approach or a (traditional) subject-specific approach. The study involved 3,258 high school students, enrolled in either Course 2 or Geometry, in 11…

Opportunity to Learn (OTL) stems from the basic premise that there is an important relationship between the quality and intensity of classroom instruction and students' levels of academic success. For many students with disabilities, an emphasis on OTL has become national priority, yet measuring its impact is a complex challenge. The first purpose…