Kraft MA, Falken GT.
A Blueprint for Scaling Tutoring Across Public Schools. [Internet]. Working Paper.
Publisher's VersionAbstract
In this thought experiment, we explore how tutoring could be scaled nationally to address COVID-19 learning loss and become a permanent feature of the U.S. public education system. We outline a blueprint centered on ten core principles and a federal architecture to support adoption, while providing for local ownership over key implementation features. High school students would tutor in elementary schools via an elective class, college students in middle schools via federal work-study, and full time 2- and 4-year college graduates in high schools via AmeriCorps. We envision an incremental, demand-driven expansion process with priority given to high-needs schools. Our blueprint highlights a range of design tradeoffs and implementation challenges as well as estimates of program costs. Our estimates suggest that targeted approaches to scaling school-wide tutoring nationally, such as focusing on K-8 Title I schools, would cost between $5 and $15 billion annually.
Download pdf here Kraft MA, Simon N, Lyon M.
Sustaining a Sense of Success: The Importance of Teacher Working Conditions During the COVID-19 Pandemic. [Internet]. Working Paper.
Publisher's VersionAbstractCOVID-19 shuttered schools across the United States, upending traditional approaches to education. We examine teachers’ experiences during emergency remote teaching in the spring of 2020 using responses to a working conditions survey from a sample of 7,841 teachers across 206 schools and 9 states. Teachers reported a range of challenges related to engaging students in remote learning and balancing their professional and personal responsibilities. Teachers in high-poverty and majority Black schools perceived these challenges to be the most severe, suggesting the pandemic further increased existing educational inequities. Using data from both pre-post and retrospective surveys, we find that the pandemic and pivot to emergency remote teaching resulted in a sudden, large drop in teachers’ sense of success. We also demonstrate how supportive working conditions in schools played a critical role in helping teachers to sustain their sense of success. Teachers who could depend on their district and school-based leadership for strong communication, targeted training, meaningful collaboration, fair expectations, and recognition of their efforts were least likely to experience declines in their sense of success.
download_pdf_here.pdf Wedenoja L, Papay JP, Kraft MA.
Second Time's the Charm? How Repeat Student-Teacher Matches Build Academic and Behavioral Skills. Working Paper.
AbstractWe examine the dynamic nature of student-teacher match quality by studying the eect of having a teacher for more than one year. Using state-wide data from Tennessee and panel methods, we nd that having a repeat teacher improves achievement and decreases absences, truancy, and suspensions. These results are robust to a range of tests for teacher and student sorting. White girls benet most academically from repeat teachers and boys of color benet most behaviorally. Effects increase with the share of repeat students in a teachers class suggesting that intentional classroom assignments policies such as looping may have even larger benets.
Download pdf here Papay JP, Kraft MA, James JK.
Operator versus Partner: A Case Study of Blueprint School Network’s Model for School Turnaround. Working Paper.
AbstractNumerous high-profile efforts have sought to “turn around” low-performing schools. Evidence of these programs’ effectiveness, however, is mixed, and research offers little guidance on which types of turnaround models are more likely to succeed. We present a case study of turnaround efforts led by the Blueprint Schools Network in three schools in Boston. Using a difference-in-differences framework, we find that Blueprint raised student achievement in mathematics and ELA by at least a quarter of a standard deviation, on average. We document qualitatively how differential impacts across the three Blueprint schools relate to contextual and implementation factors. In particular, Blueprint’s role as a turnaround partner (in two schools) versus school operator (in one school) shaped its ability to implement its model. As a partner, Blueprint provided expertise and guidance but had limited ability to fully implement its model. In its role as an operator, Blueprint had full authority to implement its turnaround model, but was also responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the school, a role for which it had limited prior experience.
Download pdf here Kraft MA, Monti-Nussbaum M.
The Big Problem with Little Interruptions to Classroom Learning. Working Paper.
Abstract
Narrative accounts of classroom instruction suggest that external interruptions, such as intercom announcements and visits from staff, are a regular occurrence in U.S. public schools. We study the frequency, nature, and duration of external interruptions in the Providence Public School District (PPSD) using original data from a district-wide survey and classroom observations. We estimate that a typical classroom in PPSD is interrupted over 2,000 times per year, and that these interruptions and the disruptions they cause result in the loss of between 10 to 20 days of instructional time. Administrators appear to systematically underestimate the frequency and negative consequences of these interruptions. We propose several organizational approaches schools might adopt to reduce external interruptions to classroom instruction.
Download pdf here Kraft MA, Bolves A.
Can Technology Transform Teacher-Parent Communication? Evidence from a Randomized Field Trial. Working Paper.
AbstractWe explore the potential for mobile technology to facilitate more frequent and higher-quality teacher-parent communication among a sample of 132 New York City public schools. We provide participating schools with free access to a mobile communication app and randomize schools to receive intensive training and guidance for maximizing the efficacy of the app. User supports led to substantially higher levels of communication within the app in the treatment year, but had few subsequent effects on perceptions of communication quality or student outcomes. Treatment teachers used the app less frequently the following year when they no longer received communication tips and reminders. We analyze internal user data to suggest organizational policies schools might adopt to increase the take-up and impacts of mobile communication technology.
Download pdf here Kraft MA, Christian A.
In Search of High-Quality Evaluation Feedback: An Administrator Training Field Experiment. Working Paper.
AbstractStarting in 2011, Boston Public Schools (BPS) implemented major reforms to its teacher evaluation system with a focus on promoting teacher development. We administered independent district-wide surveys in 2014 and 2015 to capture BPS teachers’ perceptions of the evaluation feedback they receive. Teachers generally reported that evaluators were fair and accurate, but that they struggled to provide high-quality feedback. We conduct a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the district’s efforts to improve this feedback through an intensive training program for evaluators. We find little evidence the program affected evaluators’ feedback, teacher retention, or student achievement. Our results suggest that improving the quality of evaluation feedback may require more fundamental changes to the design and implementation of teacher evaluation systems.
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