Book Description

United States policymakers have taken measures to improve learning for all students emphasizing the use of scientifically based research in choosing educational programs to promote school improvement and student learning. However, educators, researchers and policymakers debate about which factors are most important in affecting student achievement. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) places major emphasis upon teacher quality as a factor in improving achievement for all students. This emphasis grows out of research showing that teachers' mastery of the academic content they teach is critical to engaging students and is a significant factor in raising levels of student achievement. Middle or secondary school teachers must possess the equivalent of an academic major in the core academic area (107th U.S. Congress, 2002). To meet this need, a key goal of the Cleveland MSP was to increase middle school teacher content knowledge in mathematics through teacher participation in graduate coursework. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the degree of impact that this program had on middle grades student mathematics achievement. In addition, the stability of teaching assignment was investigated. A two- level hierarchical linear model was used to explore the relationship between the teacher and student variables. Over 2500 student cases and over 90 teacher cases per grade level were used for analysis. Results indicated that teacher MSP participation, as a main effect, was significantly and negatively associated with student achievement on the sixth grade OAT-M. In addition, there was a significant positive relationship between teacher MSP participation and student achievement on the OAT-M when students had additional instructional time for sixth and eighth grades. Teacher assignment stability, as a main effect, was significantly and positively associated with sixth grade student achievement on the OAT-M and was significantly and negatively associated with eighth grades student achievement in mathematics when students had additional instructional time. Finally, the main effect of classroom mean prior achievement was significantly and negatively associated with eighth grade mathematics achievement, and classroom mean prior achievement was positively associated with student prior achievement for seventh grade students. As shown in this study, teacher participation in graduate level content coursework can enhance other teacher and student characteristics and thereby contribute to middle grades student achievement in mathematics.