In a new article for Education Next, C. Kirabo Jackson of Northwestern University reports that teachers’ impact on student behavior is 10 times more predictive of students’ long-term academic success than their impact on test scores.
Further, teachers who are highly effective at improving student behavior cannot be identified by value-added ratings based on test scores alone.
Jackson analyzed data on all North Carolina public school 9th-grade students between 2005 and 2012. His measure of students’ non-tested skills, called the “behavior index,” includes a student’s number of absences and suspensions, grade point average, and on-time progression to 10th grade.
Among Jackson’s key findings:
• A student’s behavior index is a much stronger predictor of future success than test scores. A student whose 9th-grade behavior index is at the 85th percentile (one standard deviation above the median) is 15.8 percentage points more likely to graduate from high school on time than a student with an average behavior index score.
• When it comes to test scores, a student at the 85th percentile is only 1.9 percentage points more likely to graduate on time than a student whose score is at the median. The behavior index is also a better predictor than 9th-grade test scores of high-school GPA and the likelihood that a student takes the SAT and plans to attend college.
• Although teachers who are better at raising test scores tend to be better at raising the behavior index, on average, effectiveness along one dimension is a poor predictor of the other. Among the bottom third of teachers with the worst behavior value-added, nearly 40 percent are above average in test-score value-added.
• Similarly, among the top third of teachers with the best behavior value-added, only 58 percent of teachers are above average in test-score value-added. In other words, knowing a teacher’s skill at improving one dimension provides little insight into their impact on the other.
Teachers’ impact on behavior is about 10 times more predictive of students’ longer-term success than their impacts on test scores. Having a teacher at the 85th percentile of test-score value-added for a single 9th-grade class increases a student’s chances of graduating high school on time by about 0.12 percentage points compared to having an average teacher.
In contrast, having a teacher at the 85th percentile of behavior value-added would increase high-school graduation by about 1.46 percentage points compared to having an average teacher. This pattern holds true for other outcomes examined, including plans to attend college.
For more details, read “The Full Measure of a Teacher: Using value-added to assess effects on student behavior” by C. Kirabo Jackson. To speak to Jackson, contact Jackie Kerstetter at jackie.kerstetter@educationnext.org.
From Education Next
