<p> Since the landmark Coleman Report was issued in 1966 and questioned whether School Practice, or inputs, may have any effects on student performance, there has been considerable debate in the educational community regarding the role that School Practice may play in learning. More contemporary research has suggested that such factors as teacher training and retention, class and school size, and spending per student, may all have impacts on student academic achievement. Many of the studies that have found School Practice to be influential on higher levels of achievement proficiency have been criticized by others in the professional community for not considering School Context. School Context includes those features of schools over which teachers and administrators have little decision-making authority, such as the socioeconomic, ethnic, and linguistic background of the students at that school, or the school's attendance rate. </p><p> Others have found that for disadvantaged minorities, School Practice may have greater effects than for the general population. This study provides evidence that for Hispanic students, School Practice contributes a small amount to explaining differences in English language arts and mathematics achievement, considering the much larger effects of School Context. </p><p> Additionally, this research suggests that School Practice may have different effects based on geography and subject area content. Specifically, the results of this study suggest that School Practice may be more meaningful for mathematics than for English language arts. School Practice may also have greater effects in schools that are not located in wealthy suburban counties, such as those that surround New York City. In spite of the aggregate small effects of School Practice, there were two variables that were particularly important for their effects on both ELA and mathematics achievement. These variables were the percentage of teachers at a school with advanced levels of training, which had a small positive effect; and the teacher turnover rate, which to a degree had a negative impact on student achievement.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:3630176 |
| Date | 20 September 2014 |
| Creators | Phillips, Joseph John |
| Publisher | Manhattanville College |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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