How Does Minority Political Representation Affect School District Administration and Student Outcomes?

Author(s):  
Vladimir Kogan ◽  
Stéphane Lavertu ◽  
Zachary Peskowitz
2010 ◽  
Vol 103 (8) ◽  
pp. 557-561
Author(s):  
Heidi Rudolph

Heidi Rudolph teaches mathematics at Orange High School in Pepper Pike, Ohio, located across the street from the Orange City School District administration buildings (see photograph 1). The buildings' rooflines inspired her to develop questions related to the slopes of the roofs and to consider ways in which dynamic geometry software such as The Geometer's Sketchpad® (GSP) could be used to make measurements that would help answer her questions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 183 ◽  
pp. 104142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn Abott ◽  
Vladimir Kogan ◽  
Stéphane Lavertu ◽  
Zachary Peskowitz

Author(s):  
Chulpan Khamitovna Samatova ◽  
Ruslan Rustamovich Ibragimov ◽  
Aivaz Minnegosmanovich Fazliev

The paper is devoted to the study of the Kazan school district administration activities during one of the key periods in the Russian state history: the period of its socio-economic and political transformation. Liberal reforms of Alexander I, conservative course of Alexander III, revolutionary events of the early 20th century: all the peripetias of these epochs are reflected in the autocracy's policy on Tatar-Muslim schooling. The authors of the paper revealed the historical circumstances concerning establishment of the Kazan educational district, demonstrate its structure and place in the hierarchy of public education system structures available in the Russian Empire, trace the evolution of its functions, goals and objectives in a close relationship with the socio-economic and political processes in the country. The multi-confessional and multi-ethnic character of the population of the educational district considered in the paper is underlined. The authors focus on the activities of the tutors of the Kazan school district, who not only implemented the policy of the autocracy regarding the school education of Tatars-Muslims, but also submitted proposals to the higher authorities to improve the above mentioned policy. The place and role of Tatar, Bashkir and Kirghiz school inspectors, directors of public schools, and other officials in the implementation of the school policy regarding Muslim peoples are thoroughly analysed. The authors' conclusions are based on extensive archival sources.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 393-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Lynch ◽  
Richard Smith ◽  
Tony Yeigh ◽  
Steve Provost

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare measures of socio-economic status (Index of Community Socio-educational Advantage values (ICSEA)), school performance, school funding and school readiness in terms of their impact on student performance. In this respect, the paper tests the proposition – given research that suggests the teacher is the important ingredient in improved student learning performance – that a school principal who has strategical worked to “ready” their teachers for a whole of school teaching improvement agenda will generate increased student learning results than those who have not and further this improvement will occur irrespective of the circumstance of the socio-economic circumstance of the school. Design/methodology/approach In total, 22 Government schools from a single school district in Australia participated in the study, after having been involved in a system sponsored “teaching improvement program”. A survey, consisting of 30 seven-point Likert-style scale items, was administered to all teachers and school leaders in the school district. The survey was designed to rate levels of staff perceived alignment, capability and engagement to the programme as it was implemented by the Head in each school. The information regarding each school’s ICSEA value, funding per student and student learning performance, was obtained from the database provided by the relevant authority (ACARA). All statistical analysis was completed using SPSS Version 22. Findings The findings of this study indicate that high levels of organisational readiness, as defined by the alignment, capability and engagement (ACE) approach, are associated with effective teaching and improvement in student outcomes. In turn, the authors interpret this to mean that the internal organisation of a school has important effects on student achievement that are independent to external factors such as school funding or even the socio-educational positioning of the school. Research limitations/implications The findings of this study indicate that high levels of organisational readiness, as defined by the ACE approach, are associated with effective teaching and improvement in student outcomes. The implications are that the ACE provides a framework for what the school leader needs to focus on when whole of school teaching improvement is the goal. The study did not investigate what the school leader did in each school to ready their staff. Practical implications These findings indicate the importance of leadership in a school and provide an insight into what the school leader needs to focus on when whole of school teaching improvement is the intended goal. This focus can thus be understood as the leader working to ensure all staff members are ACE to the improvement agenda. Social implications The improvement of educational outcomes is a global goal of governments. In this respect, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) school systems in particular have linked education system performance and international competitiveness in ways that place pressure on the “black box” of individual schools. Reports, such as the Programme for International Student Assessment and local testing regimes testify that governments and communities are interested in the academic performance of students within and across schooling systems. The benefits of high performing schools contribute to the standard of living of citizens and the well-being of a society more generally. This paper investigates propositions that focus the work of the school leader to achieving such inherent goals. Originality/value The paper introduces the concept of school readiness. The premise is considered important to the current research because it represents the ability of schools to participate in reform agendas that are characteristic of government policy positions. The “school readiness” approach lies outside the education literature, motivated by the idea that the literature on turning around failing organisations in sectors outside of education provides clear guidelines for reforming schools. The implications for turnaround leadership are particularly encouraging and important particular organisational factors, in common with sectors outside of education, are of significant importance in enhancing teacher motivation, teacher learning and consequential improvements in student outcomes. This paper seeks to add empirical evidence in support of these approaches by adopting what the authors refer as organisational “readiness” for reform developed by Schiemann (2014).


2014 ◽  
Vol 104 (9) ◽  
pp. 2633-2679 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raj Chetty ◽  
John N. Friedman ◽  
Jonah E. Rockoff

Are teachers' impacts on students' test scores (value-added) a good measure of their quality? This question has sparked debate partly because of a lack of evidence on whether high value-added (VA) teachers improve students' long-term outcomes. Using school district and tax records for more than one million children, we find that students assigned to high-VA teachers are more likely to attend college, earn higher salaries, and are less likely to have children as teenagers. Replacing a teacher whose VA is in the bottom 5 percent with an average teacher would increase the present value of students' lifetime income by approximately $250,000 per classroom. (JEL H75, I21, J24, J45)


2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 174-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna Daughtry ◽  
Martha Keehner Engelke

This article describes how one very large, diverse school district developed a Student Acuity Tool for School Nurse Assignment and used a logic model to successfully advocate for additional school nurse positions. The logic model included three student outcomes that were evaluated: provide medications and procedures safely and accurately, increase the number of students with a medical home, and increase the number of students with chronic illness that receive case management. Pairing a staffing formula with an evaluation plan that focuses on student outcomes and the priorities of the school district provides a strong case that school nurses are essential and that they contribute to student success.


2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Lacoe ◽  
Matthew P. Steinberg

Discipline reformers claim that suspensions negatively affect suspended students, while others suggest reforms have unintended consequences for peers. Using student panel data from the School District of Philadelphia, we implement student fixed effects and instrumental variable (IV) strategies to examine the consequences of suspensions for offending students and their peers. A suspension decreases math and reading achievement for suspended students. The effects are robust to IV estimates leveraging a district-wide policy change in suspension use. Suspensions are more salient for students who personally experience suspension than for their peers. Exposure to suspensions for more serious misconduct has very small, negative spillovers onto peer achievement, but does not change peer absences.


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