DOES TEACHER‐FAMILY EXPERIENCE AFFECT TEST SCORES?

Since families play a pivotal role in elementary schools, student learning may be influenced by how well the teacher knows a family and how well the parents know the teacher. We test this hypothesis by evaluating whether assignment to a teacher who has previously taught an older sibling affects test scores. We refer to teachers who have previously taught the older sibling as having “teacher‐family experience” when teaching the younger sibling. Using a novel data set that includes administrative data on students and teachers matched to family identifiers, we find that when the older sibling's teacher is teaching in the younger sibling's grade, 40% of younger siblings are assigned their older sibling teachers. We find that teacher‐family experience does not have any significant effects on test scores and we can statistically rule out small effects. (JEL I20)     

Individual teacher incentives and student performance

This paper is the first to systematically document the relationship between individual teacher performance incentives and student achievement using the United States data. We combine data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey on schools, students, and their families with our own survey conducted in 2000 regarding the use of teacher incentives. This survey on teacher incentives has unique data on frequency and magnitude of merit raises and bonuses, teacher evaluation, and teacher termination. We find that test scores are higher in schools that offer individual financial incentives for good performance. Moreover, the estimated relationship between the presence of merit pay in teacher compensation and student test scores is strongest in schools that may have the least parental oversight. The association between teacher incentives and student performance could be due to better schools adopting teacher incentives or to teacher incentives eliciting more effort from teachers; it is impossible to rule out the former explanation with our cross sectional data.     

The Economics of School Quality

Abstract. Recent national concerns about student performance on PISA tests and similar assessments appear warranted because of the direct relationship between student cognitive skills and both individual earnings and national growth. The evidence on the impacts of school quality indicates very large economic effects. Available research shows, however, that improving school quality is difficult and not closely related to spending levels. One approach supported by research is improving teacher quality, which can yield sizable gains in student performance. Instituting appropriate policies to alter the teacher force will necessarily take significant time.     

人权的正当性追问

在人权的正当性问题上,先验式人权论证、经验式人权论证和康德关于"人是目的"的哲学判断,都不具有充分的说服力。论证人权的正当性需要另辟蹊径。由于人权是一个关系性概念,人权的正当性需要从人与人的关系、从人类社会共同体的角度来阐明。尊重和保障人权是维系社会共同体存续的需要。     

高师生教师职业情感缺失与对策探讨

高师生教师职业情感缺失,这既有师范生自身的主观原因,也有客观原因。而教师职业情感是教师素养的重要构成部分,对教育工作起着极其重要的支配作用。师范学校应结合学校和学生实际,从设置教师教育课程、改革教学方式方法、阅读教育著作、组织学生活动、教师榜样作用、建设校园文化等多方面加强对师范生教师职业情感的培养。     

International Differences in Student Achievement: An Economic Perspective

Abstract. International comparisons reveal large cross‐country differentials in average student performance. Although there is considerable public debate about these differences, their sources are hardly identified. Using school, teacher and student data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), the present paper attempts to explain what causes between‐country gaps in mathematics test score distributions. Following a three‐pronged strategy of micro‐level and cross‐country regressions as well as bilateral country comparisons, we show how these gaps are explained by differences in school, teacher and student characteristics, or financial resources devoted to the school system. Institutional characteristics, such as competition between schools and the composition of the faculty can also help to understand international differences in student achievement.     

The impact of teacher subject knowledge on student achievement: Evidence from within-teacher within-student variation

Teachers differ greatly in how much they teach their students, but little is known about which teacher attributes account for this. We estimate the causal effect of teacher subject knowledge on student achievement using within-teacher within-student variation, exploiting a unique Peruvian 6th-grade dataset that tested both students and their teachers in two subjects. Observing teachers teaching both subjects in one-classroom-per-grade schools, we circumvent omitted-variable and selection biases using a correlated random effects model that identifies from differences between the two subjects. After measurement-error correction, one standard deviation in subject-specific teacher achievement increases student achievement by about 9% of a standard deviation in math. Effects in reading are significantly smaller and mostly not significantly different from zero. Effects also depend on the teacher-student match in ability and gender.     

Teacher unions, teacher pay and student performance in India: A pupil fixed effects approach

This paper examines the relationship between teacher unionization, student achievement and teachers' pay using a cross-section of data from private schools in India. We use differences in student mark across subjects to identify within-pupil variation in achievement and find that union membership of the teacher is associated with reduced pupil achievement. We find no evidence this could be due to the unobservables not controlled for by this procedure. A school fixed effects equation of teacher pay shows that union membership raises pay and in this case too we find that remaining unobservables are unlikely to explain this outcome. We discuss the policy implications of the findings and show that the effectiveness of teacher credentials in improving teacher performance is linked to unionization.     

Teachers and politics

I find that self-selection into teacher training programs in Germany is co-determined with ideology. Incoming teacher-trainees are more left-wing in ideology and political preferences than the average incoming university student. I find also that teacher training programs exert a socialization effect: as compared to the average student, teacher trainees’ views are reinforced and they become more left-wing as they progress in their studies. In a third step, I use the German Socio-Economic Panel to compare tenured teachers’ political attitudes with other university graduates and other civil servants, and find that tenured teachers are more left-wing than the average in the respective reference groups. I consider possible explanations for the left-wing orientation of teachers in the German educational system and implications of indoctrination and imbalance of views.     

Publications and papers

America’s elementary and secondary educational system is faced with an inefficiency stemming from a basic problem associated with unobservability: moral hazard. In this case, the teacher (agent) has an incentive to exert less effort (given cost associated with more work) if the school district (principal) cannot distinguish between low student performance due to a lack of teacher effort and low student performance due low student quality (random variable). This research develops an optimal incentive scheme that guarantees the teacher a fixed payment, plus a variable payment that would be a function of teacher ‘action’ variables thereby reducing moral hazard.     

论会计类课程课堂教学方式的改革

学生的学习动机越强,学习效果越好。教师应引导学生加深对会计专业的认识,了解会计专业的应用范围、会计人员的社会地位、社会贡献等,激发学生对会计专业的热爱。在会计课堂,教师应对学生持鼓励的态度,讲课应当庄重、从容、认真,讲授要有感染力,采用不同的教学方法以激发学生的学习热情,以生动的描绘、恰当的比喻引起学生的兴趣,使其集中注意力听课,从而提高效率。     

Teacher sorting, teacher quality, and student composition

Using panel data for Norwegian schools, we establish a two-equation supply and demand model for teachers with approved education. Taking into account nationally determined teacher pay and a strict teacher appointment rule, the data enable us to separately estimate supply and demand functions for certified teachers. The results clearly indicate that the student body composition, and in particular students belonging to ethnic minorities, influences both teacher supply and teacher demand. The implied negative relationship between excess demand for certified teachers and the share of minority students is likely to be important for teacher quality.     

联结强度与技术创新模式：企业间信任的中介作用

关于合作关系对合作创新的影响,现有研究大多局限于单一的社会网络视角,对网络层次的关系特征如何通过双边层次的关系质量影响技术创新模式的过程欠缺机理性认识。结合社会网络、社会资本和知识转移理论,分析网络联结强度、企业间信任以及技术创新模式三者间关系。利用327份来自全国多地的制造及高新技术企业数据,采用结构方程模型检验方法对研究假设进行检验。结果表明：相对于经济型信任,强联结会带来更多情感型信任;情感型信任更有利于渐进式创新,经济型信任更有利于突破式创新;联结强度对渐进式创新的作用是通过情感型信任传递的,而联结强度对突破式创新的作用是通过经济型信任传递的。     

Incentives and teacher effort

Few would contest that teachers are a very important determinant of how much students learn in school, and how to improve teacher performance has been the focus of lively policy debate in both rich and poor countries. This paper examines how teacher incentives, both pecuniary and non‐pecuniary, correlate with teacher effort. Using school survey data from Lao PDR, we estimate measures of teacher effort, including the number of hours that teachers spend preparing for classes and teacher provision of private tutoring outside of class hours, which are not the typical measures used in previous research. Estimation results fit well under the standard labour supply framework and indicate that greater teacher effort is associated with non‐pecuniary incentives such as more teacher autonomy over teaching materials and monitoring as measured by the existence of an active parent – teacher association and the ability of school principals to dismiss teachers. Methodologically, this paper provides a detailed derivation of a simultaneous OLS‐probit model with school random effects that can jointly estimate teacher work hours and tutoring provision.     

Resources and Student Achievement—Evidence from a Swedish Policy Reform*

A policy change is used to estimate the effect of teacher density on student performance. We find that an increase in teacher density has a positive effect on student achievement. The baseline estimate—obtained by using the grade‐point average as the outcome variable—implies that resource increases corresponding to the class‐size reduction in the STAR experiment (a reduction of seven students) improves performance by 2.6 percentile ranks (or 0.08 standard deviations). When we used test‐score data for men, potentially a more objective measure of student performance, the effect of resources appears to be twice as large.     

Student demographics,school working conditions,and teacher mobility

I analyse how the inclusion of working condition data influences the estimated marginal effects of student demographics on teacher mobility. Using detailed administrative data on public schools, combined with unique data describing teachers’ perceptions of working conditions, I estimate a model characterizing the multinomial outcomes of teachers choosing to work at different schools. By comparing the estimated marginal effects of student characteristics with and without incorporating detailed working conditions, I find that excluding these additional data results in overestimating the effect of student characteristics on the probability a teacher moves to a different school, but has no influence on estimated effects for the probability of leaving teaching altogether.     

“论文研习”实践教学模式初探

以＂论文研习＂的途径开展实践教学,不仅能藉由学生论文之选题,把握专业的发展走势,而且在老师的指导下,围绕专业论文所进行的选题、加工、研习、讲授、反思等环节,提高学生提出问题并运用所学知识分析、解决问题的能力。论文研习会上,通过学生与老师的角色互换,也使学生在表达思想、随机应变等方面得到了锻炼。     

知识相关性对创新绩效影响的实证研究

随着“创新、协调、绿色、开放、共享”发展理念的提出,中国经济发展进入新阶段,越来越多的企业希望通过技术并购方式获取核心技术和知识能力。基于中国高技术产业上市公司2010-2016年技术并购数据,利用负二项回归模型,探讨并购双方知识相关性与企业创新绩效间关系。研究结果表明,在技术并购情境下：知识相似性与企业创新绩效间存在倒U型关系;知识互补性与企业创新绩效间同样存在倒U型关系;而且二者存在协同作用,知识相似性水平提升能够放大知识互补性对创新绩效的影响作用。     

Detecting discrimination in the hiring process: evidence from an Internet-based search channel

This article uses data from an Internet-based CV database to study how job searchers?? ethnicity, employment status, age, and gender affect how often they are contacted by firms. Since we know which types of information that are available to the recruiting firms, we can handle some of the problems with unobserved heterogeneity better than many existing discrimination studies. We find that searchers who have non-Nordic names, are unemployed or old get significantly fewer firm contacts. Moreover, this matters for the hiring outcome: searchers who get more contacts have a higher probability of getting hired.     

面对高一新生数学教师应如何教

在＂面对高一新生数学教师应如何教＂这一问题上,教师要全面地了解初高中的教材,适时适度地补充内容;研究初中学生现有的知识基础,在教材处理上多下工夫;帮助刚刚生入高中的学生搭建好知识的阶梯,让学生不怕数学,不觉得数学难,帮助学生形成正确的数学观。