High School End-of-Course Teacher Effectiveness Validity

In Simple Words

Evaluating high school subject specialist teachers (such as biology or algebra instructors) requires testing whether prior-year specialized teaching ratings remain predictive when students are reshuffled into specialized subject classes rather than self-contained elementary classrooms.

Research question

Validating teacher effectiveness measures in high school settings is complicated by departmentalized subject structures, subject-specific end-of-course exams, and elevated student mobility and attrition.

Participants

N = 3,877 randomized 9th grade students across 149 randomization blocks in math, ELA, and biology classrooms (from an initial randomized sample of N = 8,657).

Study Design

LIML IV estimation evaluating the causal effect of prior-year high school teacher ratings on student performance using ACT QualityCore standardized end-of-course assessments following random roster assignment.

Results

Prior-year teacher effectiveness predicted post-randomization high school achievement across stacked subjects (math, ELA, biology) with an IV coefficient of 0.828 (p < 0.01, SE = 0.292), confirming causal validity in secondary education despite a 53% student sample attrition rate.

Takeaway

Deploy standardized end-of-course subject assessments (such as ACT QualityCore) to evaluate and validate high school teacher effectiveness across departmentalized subject areas.

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