This paper studies the effect of same-sex teachers on students attending Economics A at Uppsala University from 2013 to 2018. Having a female teacher has no significant effect on female students’ exam performance but a significant and positive effect on the likelihood of attending the subsequent course in Economics. Certain types of female teachers have negative effects on male students’ exam performance in certain specifications and no effect on the likelihood of them attending the subsequent course. It was not possible to identify the underlying mechanism behind these results.

Teachers and schools both play important roles in students' education. Yet, the unique contribution of each to students' growth has rarely been explored. In this dissertation, a Bayesian multilevel model was applied in each of Grades 3 to 5, with students' growth estimated across three seasonal (fall, winter, spring) administrations of a mathematics assessment. Variance in students' within-year growth was then partitioned into student-, classroom-, and school-level components. The expected differences in students' growth between classrooms and schools were treated as indicators of the teacher or school "effect" on students' mathematics growth. Results provided evidence that meaningful differences in students' growth lies both between classrooms within schools, and between schools. The distribution of teacher effects between schools was also examined through the lens of access and equity with systematic sorting of teachers to schools leading to disproportional student access to classrooms where the average growth was above the norm. Further, previous research has documented persistent and compounding teacher effects over time. Systematic teacher sorting results in students' having differential probabilities of being enrolled in multiple "high" or "low" growth classrooms in a row. While clear evidence of teacher sorting was found, the demographic composition of schools did not relate to the sorting, contrary to previous research. The persistence of teacher and school effects was also examined from a previously unexplored angle by examining the effect of students' previous teacher(s) on their subsequent rate of within-year growth during the school year. These effects were found to be small and teacher effects overall were found to decay quite rapidly.

Using measures of student growth has become more popular in recent years—especially in the context of high stakes testing and accountability. While these methods have advantages over historical status measures, there is still much evidence to be gathered on patterns of growth generally and in student subgroups. To date, most research studies dealing with student growth focus on the effectiveness of specific interventions or examine growth in a few urban areas. This project explored math, reading, and English language arts (ELA) growth in the students of two rural school districts in Utah. The study incorporated hierarchical and latent growth methods to describe and compare these students’ growth in third, fourth and fifth grades. Additionally, student characteristics were tested as predictors of growth. Results showed student growth as complex and patterns varied across grade levels, subjects and student subgroups. Growth generally declined after third grade and students experienced summer loss in the second summer more than the first. Females began third grade ahead of their male peers in ELA and reading and began at a similar level in math. Male students narrowed the gap in reading and ELA in fourth and fifth grade and pulled ahead of their female peers in math in third grade. Low SES students were the most similar to their peers in math and ELA growth but were ahead of their peers in reading. Hispanic and Native American students started consistently behind white students in all subjects. Hispanic students tended to grow faster during the school year but lost more over the summer months. Native American students had more shallow growth than white students with a gradual decline in growth in fourth and fifth grades. ELA and reading growth were more closely related to each other than with math growth. Initial achievement estimates were more highly correlated with subsequent growth than previous years’ growth. A cross-classified model for teacher-level effects was attempted to account for students changing class groupings each school year but computational limits were reached. After estimating subjects and grade levels separately, results showed variance in test scores was primarily due to student differences. In ELA and reading, school differences accounted for a larger portion of the overall variance than teacher differences.

Submitted by Gabriela Moriconi (gabi.moriconi@gmail.com) on 2012-04-12T17:31:57Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese_versão_para_impressão.pdf: 319623 bytes, checksum: 2442d3de6ad04399d9e4a9579d3017cd (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Gisele Isaura Hannickel (gisele.hannickel@fgv.br) on 2012-04-12T18:21:23Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese_versão_para_impressão.pdf: 319623 bytes, checksum: 2442d3de6ad04399d9e4a9579d3017cd (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2012-04-12T18:22:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese_versão_para_impressão.pdf: 319623 bytes, checksum: 2442d3de6ad04399d9e4a9579d3017cd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-21 / Given the importante of teachers to the educational process and availability of data for estimating measures of teacher effectiveness, understood as the ability to produce results in terms of student learning, this study sought to apply a value-added model to estimate and analyse the effectiveness of a sample of teachers who taught fourth grade in São Paulo’s municipal schools. We obtained evidence that variation in teacher effectiveness explains about 9% of the variation in students scores from the analysed sample, less than the variation in student background variables, aorund 15%, but more than variation in school variables, around 5%. For estimating teacher individual effects, results indicate that an increase of one standard-deviation in teacher effects would lead to a minimum increase of 0,062 standard deviation on student scores on Portuguese and 0,049 standard deviation on Mathematics, which represent 2,79 points in Portuguese and 2,20 points in Mathematics. In the analysis of factors associated to the teacher effects were found positive associations between the following variables and teacher effects: time devoted to teaching job out of the school, how often the teacher asks homework, and use of Learning and Support Workbooks. The analysis of reliability and stability of estimated teacher effect measurements indicate that this data have a limited capacity to support recommendations regarding personnel policies, but allow to identify that about 13% of the teachers had different effects from the estimated average. Given this distinction, these teachers are the ideal target to future research on their teaching practices, especially on the factors for which we observed a positive association with the estimated teacher effects. / Dadas a importância dos professores para o processo educacional e a disponibilidade de dados para a estimação de medidas de eficácia dos professores, entendida como a capacidade em produzir resultados em termos da aprendizagem dos alunos, este trabalho buscou aplicar um modelo de valor agregado para estimar e analisar a eficácia de uma amostra dos professores que lecionaram para a 4ª série da rede municipal de ensino de São Paulo no ano de 2010. Obtivemos evidências de que a variação na eficácia dos professores explicaria cerca de 9% da variação nas notas dos alunos da amostra analisada, menos do que a variação nas variáveis de background dos alunos, em torno de 15%, mas mais do que a variação nas variáveis de escola, em torno de 5%. Na estimação dos efeitos professor individuais, os resultados indicam que um aumento de um desvio-padrão nos efeitos professor levaria a um aumento de, no mínimo, 0,062 desvio-padrão na proficiência dos alunos em Língua Portuguesa e 0,049 desvio-padrão em Matemática, que correspondem a, 2,79 pontos em Língua Portuguesa e 2,20 pontos em Matemática. Na análise dos fatores associados aos efeitos professor estimados, foram encontradas associações positivas entre as seguintes variáveis e os efeitos professor: o tempo dedicado ao trabalho pedagógico fora da escola, a freqüência com que o professor passa lição de casa e o uso dos Cadernos de Apoio e Aprendizagem. As análises acerca da confiabilidade e da estabilidade das medidas de efeito professor estimadas indicam que os dados utilizados têm uma capacidade limitada para subsidiar recomendações em relação às políticas de pessoal, porém permitem identificar que cerca de 13% dos professores tiveram efeitos estimados distintos da média. Dada essa distinção, esses professores são o público ideal para pesquisas futuras sobre suas práticas docentes, em especial sobre os fatores para os quais foi observada uma associação positiva com os efeitos professor estimados.