Includes bibliographical references.

Online Credit Recovery and the Path to On-Time High School Graduation -- Rater Performance Standards for Classroom Observation Instruments -- Teachers’ Perspectives on the Learning and Work Environments Under the New Orleans School Reforms.

[Article Title : Online Credit Recovery and the Path to On-Time High School Graduation / Jordan Rickles, Jessica B. Heppen, Elaine Allensworth, Nicholas Sorensen, and Kirk Walters, p. 481-491]

Abstract : Many high schools use online courses to allow students to retake failed classes in an effort to help get students back on track and graduate. However, there is limited evidence available on the effectiveness of online credit recovery in improving students’ long-term outcomes compared with traditional face-to-face credit recovery courses. In this paper, we examine longer term outcomes for ninth graders who failed Algebra I and were randomly assigned to an online or face-to-face algebra credit recovery course. In particular, we look at math credits earned through four years of high school and rates of on-time graduation. We find no statistically significant differences in longer term outcomes between students in the online and face-to-face courses. Implications of these null findings are discussed.

https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X18788054

[Article Title : Rater Performance Standards for Classroom Observation Instruments / Mark C. White, p. 492-501]

Abstract : Raters must score accurately and consistently for classroom observation scores to be valid. This requires (a) a standard defining when scoring is accurate and consistent enough and (b) measuring and remediating rater performance against that standard. Current practice has focused on this second problem to the exclusion of the first. My goal here is to start a discussion about identifying a clear, explicit standard that ensures observation scores reflect a consistent view of teaching quality, rather than raters’ idiosyncratic perspectives. In doing so, I connect current certification test cut-scores, the current practice most analogous to a standard, to explicit rater standards, highlighting both the inadequacy of cut-scores and the low standards implicit to current practice.

https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X1878562

[Article Title : Teachers’ Perspectives on the Learning and Work Environments Under the New Orleans School Reforms / Lindsay Bell Weixler, Douglas N. Harris, and Nathan Barrett, p. 502-515]

Abstract : New Orleans schools experienced drastic reforms after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. To examine teachers’ perspectives on these reforms, we surveyed 323 teachers who taught in New Orleans public schools before 2005 and in 2013–2014. Teachers directly compared the learning and work environments and student and teacher outcomes of their current schools to those of their pre-Katrina schools. Returning teachers perceived significant and generally positive changes in learning environments and student outcomes but mixed positive and negative changes in work environments. Despite improvements in school environments, the net result is that teachers became less satisfied with their jobs. These results show that intensive, sustained school reform can lead to significant changes, but these changes can have negative impacts on teachers.

https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X18787806