13 results on '"Backes, Ben"'
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2. Teachers and Students' Postsecondary Outcomes: Testing the Predictive Power of Test and Nontest Teacher Quality Measures. Working Paper No. 270-1022
- Author
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National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) at American Institutes for Research, Backes, Ben, Cowan, James, Goldhaber, Dan, and Theobald, Roddy
- Abstract
We examine how different measures of teacher quality are related to students' long-run trajectories. Comparing teachers' "test-based" value-added to "nontest" value-added -- based on contributions to student absences and grades -- we find that test and nontest value-added have similar effects on the average quality of colleges that students attend. However, test-based teacher quality measures have more explanatory power for outcomes relevant for students at the top of the achievement distribution such as attending a more selective college, while nontest measures have more explanatory power for whether students graduate from high school and enroll in college at all.
- Published
- 2022
3. Leveling Up: A Behavioral Nudge to Increase Enrollment in Advanced Coursework. Working Paper No. 271-1022
- Author
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National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) at American Institutes for Research, Austin, Megan, Backes, Ben, Goldhaber, Dan, Li, Dory, and Streich, Francie
- Abstract
Taking advanced courses in high school predicts a broad array of positive postsecondary and labor market outcomes. Yet students from historically disadvantaged groups and low-income backgrounds have long been underrepresented in these courses. To address this problem, more than 60 districts in Washington state implemented a policy that automatically enrolled all qualified high school students in advanced coursework. The policy relied on a simple behavioral nudge: It made advanced courses "opt out" rather than "opt in" for all qualified students. The districts implemented the policy in waves, beginning in the 2014-15 school year. In this descriptive paper, we examine enrollment patterns by comparing districts that adopted the policy at different times. We found that students in districts that implemented the policy between 2014-15 and 2016-17 were more likely to enroll in at least one advanced course in any subject relative to students in districts without the policy. This was the case for students who "qualified" for advanced courses based on their test scores and for students whose scores did not qualify them for advanced courses. We also found that the policy was associated with a higher probability of enrollment in advanced mathematics courses but only for qualified students. Qualified students across demographic groups experienced similar changes in the probability of advanced course enrollments. But among all students--regardless of qualified status--enrollments in advanced mathematics and advanced English language arts/social studies courses increased more for students from racial/ethnic groups underrepresented in advanced courses and for students who were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch (FRPL) than for non-underrepresented students and students not eligible for FRPL. These across the board increases in advanced course enrollment for students who were historically underrepresented in these courses suggests that districts may have looked beyond standardized assessment scores to identify students for automatic enrollment.
- Published
- 2022
4. Linkage between Fields of Concentration in High School Career-Technical Education and College Majors. Working Paper No. 269-0722
- Author
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National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) at American Institutes for Research, Xu, Zeyu, and Backes, Ben
- Abstract
In this descriptive study, we use longitudinal student-level administrative records from 4 cohorts of high school graduates in Kentucky to examine the extent to which students persist and attain post-secondary credentials in the CTE fields of concentration they choose in high school. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to use student-level administrative data to examine how different fields of concentration in high school CTE are related to future postsecondary outcomes. We find that concentrating in a particular CTE field in high school is associated with both continuing on with that same field in college and obtaining a postsecondary credential in that field; this relationship is especially strong in health fields and especially for women in health. The secondary-postsecondary connection is the weakest among students concentrating in occupational fields in high school, who are also the most disadvantaged socioeconomically and academically before high school. Despite the existence of secondary-postsecondary pipelines of career interests, most students enroll and obtain credentials in fields that are "different" from the field of concentration in high school. In addition, relative to students with similar pre-high-school achievement as measured by grades and test scores, we find that CTE concentration in high school is strongly associated with being more likely to enroll in a two-year college and less likely to enroll in a four-year college.
- Published
- 2022
5. Transition Intervention in High School and Pathway through College. Working Paper No. 255-0821
- Author
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National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) at American Institutes for Research, Xu, Zeyu, Backes, Ben, and Goldhaber, Dan
- Abstract
A number of school districts and states have implemented transition intervention programs designed to help high school students graduate ready for college. This study estimates the effectiveness of a transition program implemented statewide in Kentucky for high school seniors called Targeted Interventions (TI). Using 11 years of linked panel data, this study tracks the college progression of seven cohorts of students as they move from high school into college. Using a difference-in-regression discontinuity design, we estimate the program's impact on college credit attainment and transfer as well as the extent to which the program has helped reshape pathways through college. We find that the TI program significantly increased the likelihood that students would take at least 15 credits during the first term in college, a key measure that has been shown to be predictive of college completion. These early effects, however, do not translate into statistically significant impacts on the likelihood of transfers from a 2-year to a 4-year college, or the likelihood of earning enough credits to graduate from college. We discuss some possible explanations for why the TI program did not lead to observable improvements in college transfer or credit accumulation.
- Published
- 2021
6. The Impact of Transition Intervention in High School on Pathways through College
- Author
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Xu, Zeyu, Backes, Ben, and Goldhaber, Dan
- Abstract
Objective: In 2009, the Kentucky General Assembly found unacceptable and costly the ongoing high numbers of high school students requiring remediation once they enter higher education. The state passed legislation to better align secondary and college education, establishing a diagnostic cycle that would become its Targeted Interventions (TI) program. Using 11 years of panel data, this study tracked college progression of seven cohorts of students in order to estimate the impacts of this program. Method: Using student-level administrative data from the state of Kentucky that tracks students from high school through college, a difference-in-regression-discontinuity design was used to compare how students just below college readiness benchmarks fared relative to those just above once TI was implemented. Results: The TI program significantly increased the likelihood that students took at least 15 credits during their first term, a key predictive measure for college completion. However, these early effects did not translate into detectable impacts on the likelihood of earning enough credits to graduate from college or likelihood of transfers from a 2-year to a 4-year college. One possible explanation for this pattern is that TI appears to have crowded out other core courses in high school, especially in math, without increasing total instructional time. Findings suggest that the standards used by high schools to judge student progress toward college readiness may be consistent with the skills needed to place out of developmental courses, but not sufficient to better prepare students for college-level instruction. Contributions: To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore how TI shapes longer term college outcomes. The transition curriculum, while helping students avoid the need for college developmental courses, did not help a measurable share of students develop necessary skills to progress through college relative to what they would have otherwise taken. A possible explanation for these findings is that high school-to-college transition interventions that do not increase total instruction time do not sufficiently move the needle on the college preparedness among high school graduates. For states concerned with the number of students entering college deemed not college ready, it appears that high school-to-college transition interventions that supplant instead of supplement regular high school curriculum have a limited scope for impact on long-run college success.
- Published
- 2023
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
7. Targeted Interventions in High School: Preparing Students for College. Working Paper No. 232-0220
- Author
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National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) at American Institutes for Research, Xu, Zeyu, Backes, Ben, Oliveira, Amanda, and Goldhaber, Dan
- Abstract
This study adds to the currently limited evidence base on the efficacy of interventions targeting non-college-ready high school students by examining the impact of Kentucky's Targeted Interventions (TI) program. We focus on interventions that students received under TI in the senior year of high school based on their 11th grade ACT test scores. Using difference-in-regression discontinuity and difference-in-difference designs with seven cohorts of 11th grade students, we find that, for an average per-student cost of about $600, TI significantly reduces the likelihood that students enroll in remedial course in both 2- and 4-year postsecondary institutions by 5-10 percentage points in math and 3-4 percentage points in English. These effects are similar among students who are eligible for free-or reduced-price lunch, Black and Hispanic students, students with remediation needs in multiple subjects, and students in lower-performing schools. Evidence also shows that TI increases the likelihood that students enroll in and pass college math before the end of the first year by four percentage points in 4-year universities. However, little evidence exists for TI affecting credit accumulation or persistence.
- Published
- 2020
8. Ready for College? Examining the Effectiveness of Targeted Interventions in High School
- Author
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Xu, Zeyu, Backes, Ben, Oliveira, Amanda, and Goldhaber, Dan
- Abstract
Kentucky's Targeted Interventions (TI) program is a statewide intervention intended to prepare non-college-ready high school students for college-level coursework. Using a difference-in-regression discontinuity design, we find that TI reduces the likelihood that students enroll in remedial courses by 8 to 10 percentage points in math. These effects are similar or stronger among students who are eligible for free/reduced-price lunch, students with remediation needs in multiple subjects, and students in lower performing schools. TI also increases the likelihood that students enroll in and pass college math before the end of the first year in 4-year universities by 4 percentage points and by 9 percentage points among free/reduced-price lunch eligible students. However, we do not find evidence of TI affecting credit accumulation or persistence.
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
9. Can UTeach? Assessing the Relative Effectiveness of STEM Teachers. Working Paper 173
- Author
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National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) at American Institutes for Research, Backes, Ben, Goldhaber, Dan, Cade, Whitney, Sullivan, Kate, and Dodson, Melissa
- Abstract
UTeach is a well-known, university-based program designed to increase the number of high-quality science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teachers in the workforce. The UTeach program was originally developed by faculty at the University of Texas at Austin but has rapidly spread and is now available at 44 universities in 21 states; it is expected to produce more than 9,000 math and science teachers by 2020. Despite substantial investment and rapid program diffusion, there is little evidence to date about the effectiveness of UTeach graduates. Using administrative data from the state of Texas, we measure UTeach impacts on student test scores in math and science in middle schools and high schools. We find that students taught by UTeach teachers perform significantly better on end-of-grade tests in math and end-of-course tests in math and science by 5% to 12% of a standard deviation on the test, depending on grade and subject. The effect is larger for the founding site at the University of Texas at Austin than for replication UTeach sites, with estimated upper bounds of additional months of learning for students taught by UTeach Austin graduates of 4.0 months in high school math and 5.7 months in high school science. Controlling for the selectivity of the undergraduate institution appears to explain the differential between Austin and replication UTeach sites, but not the overall difference between UTeach and non-UTeach teachers.
- Published
- 2016
10. Examining Spillover Effects From Teach For America Corps Members in Miami-Dade County Public Schools
- Author
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Backes, Ben, Hansen, Michael, Xu, Zeyu, and Brady, Victoria
- Subjects
Miami-Dade County, Florida. Public Schools ,Teachers ,Education ,High schools ,Teaching ,Education - Abstract
This article examines Teach For America's (TFA) placement strategy in Miami-Dade County Public Schools, in which large numbers of TFA corps members are placed as clusters into a targeted set of disadvantaged schools, to investigate whether the large-scale infusion of TFA corps members into these schools induced broader improvements across the school. Using 6 years of administrative data from the district, we exploit variation in TFA density over time within schools to measure the extent to which increases in density were associated with improvements in student test scores. We find that many of the schools chosen to participate in the cluster strategy experienced large subsequent gains in mathematics achievement. These gains were driven in part by the direct effect of having larger numbers of classrooms staffed by effective TFA teachers. However, we do not find any evidence that the clustering strategy led to any spillovers on schoolwide performance. Keywords alternative certification, urban teacher education, school/teacher effectiveness, quantitative research, Motivation and Background Teach For America (TFA) is an alternative certification program that places intensively selected recent college graduates and midcareer professionals into classrooms serving high-need students (Feeney, 2015). Many [...]
- Published
- 2019
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
11. The Effect of Banning Affirmative Action on College Admissions Policies and Student Quality
- Author
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Antonovics, Kate and Backes, Ben
- Published
- 2014
12. The Impact of Transition Intervention in High School on Pathways Through College.
- Author
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Xu, Zeyu, Backes, Ben, and Goldhaber, Dan
- Subjects
- *
PREPAREDNESS , *HIGH school curriculum , *COLLEGE curriculum , *HIGH schools , *HIGH school graduates , *HIGH school students - Abstract
Objective: In 2009, the Kentucky General Assembly found unacceptable and costly the ongoing high numbers of high school students requiring remediation once they enter higher education. The state passed legislation to better align secondary and college education, establishing a diagnostic cycle that would become its Targeted Interventions (TI) program. Using 11 years of panel data, this study tracked college progression of seven cohorts of students in order to estimate the impacts of this program. Method: Using student-level administrative data from the state of Kentucky that tracks students from high school through college, a difference-in-regression-discontinuity design was used to compare how students just below college readiness benchmarks fared relative to those just above once TI was implemented. Results: The TI program significantly increased the likelihood that students took at least 15 credits during their first term, a key predictive measure for college completion. However, these early effects did not translate into detectable impacts on the likelihood of earning enough credits to graduate from college or likelihood of transfers from a 2-year to a 4-year college. One possible explanation for this pattern is that TI appears to have crowded out other core courses in high school, especially in math, without increasing total instructional time. Findings suggest that the standards used by high schools to judge student progress toward college readiness may be consistent with the skills needed to place out of developmental courses, but not sufficient to better prepare students for college-level instruction. Contributions: To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore how TI shapes longer term college outcomes. The transition curriculum, while helping students avoid the need for college developmental courses, did not help a measurable share of students develop necessary skills to progress through college relative to what they would have otherwise taken. A possible explanation for these findings is that high school-to-college transition interventions that do not increase total instruction time do not sufficiently move the needle on the college preparedness among high school graduates. For states concerned with the number of students entering college deemed not college ready, it appears that high school-to-college transition interventions that supplant instead of supplement regular high school curriculum have a limited scope for impact on long-run college success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
13. Ready for College? Examining the Effectiveness of Targeted Interventions in High School.
- Author
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Xu, Zeyu, Backes, Ben, Oliveira, Amanda, and Goldhaber, Dan
- Subjects
NATIONAL school lunch program ,HIGH schools ,HIGH school students - Abstract
Kentucky's Targeted Interventions (TI) program is a statewide intervention intended to prepare non-college-ready high school students for college-level coursework. Using a difference-in-regression discontinuity design, we find that TI reduces the likelihood that students enroll in remedial courses by 8 to 10 percentage points in math. These effects are similar or stronger among students who are eligible for free/reduced-price lunch, students with remediation needs in multiple subjects, and students in lower performing schools. TI also increases the likelihood that students enroll in and pass college math before the end of the first year in 4-year universities by 4 percentage points and by 9 percentage points among free/reduced-price lunch eligible students. However, we do not find evidence of TI affecting credit accumulation or persistence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
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