Research, Evaluation and Technical Assistance: Student Outcome Effects of the Appalachian Math and Science Partnership

学者和政策制定者越来越强调，提高美国教育成果的关键是提高教师的质量。虽然对职前教师教育的关注很重要，但今天的职前教师要成为教师队伍的大多数还需要很多年。因此，短期内提高教师素质的重点必须放在在职教师队伍的专业发展上。该项目正在研究阿巴拉契亚数学和科学伙伴关系（AMSP）对学生学习的影响。合作伙伴关系的一个目标是通过AMSP活动缩小学生数学和科学知识的成就差距。本研究提出一种统计方法来评估AMSP参与对学生学习的影响。本项目采用双方程模型的研究设计来估计教师参与AMSP对学生成绩的独立影响。由于教师和学校自愿选择参加AMSP的事实使估计变得复杂，因此使用双方程模型。模型的第一个方程校正了学校和教师进入AMSP的非随机性，如果不校正，也会对项目效果的估计产生偏差。第二个方程包含了第一阶段的选择估计，并包括了其他预计会影响考试成绩的独立变量。学生成绩的其他衡量标准也被采用。这个项目之所以重要，有两个原因。首先，该项目将直接解决AMSP是否改善了参与阿巴拉契亚地区教师和学校的学生成绩。本项目也为建立一个科学合理的方法来评估msp和其他专业发展计划的效果做出了重要贡献。在提高教师素质和学生学习数学和科学的全国运动中，发展统计学和其他方法论方法来研究这些项目的影响是很重要的。

Academics and policymakers increasingly emphasize that a key to improving educational outcomes in the United States is enhancing the quality of teachers. While the attention to preservice teacher education is important, it will be many years before today's pre-service teachers constitute a majority of the teaching workforce. Hence, the focus of teacher quality enhancement efforts in the near term must be in-service professional development for those already in the teacher workforce. This project is examining the Appalachian Math and Science Partnership (AMSP) effects on student learning. A goal of the partnership is to close the achievement gap in student math and science knowledge through AMSP activities. This study presents a statistical method for evaluating the effects of AMSP participation on student learning. This project employs a research design that involves a two equation model to estimate the independent effects of teacher participation in AMSP on student outcomes. A two equation model is used because estimation is complicated by the fact that teachers and schools voluntarily choose to participate in AMSP. The first equation of the model corrects for the nonrandom nature of selection of schools and teachers into AMSP which, when uncorrected, can also bias the estimates of the program effects. The second equation incorporates the first stage selection estimates and includes other independent variables that would be expected to influence test scores. Alternative measures of student achievement are used.This project is significant for two reasons. First,the project will directly address whether AMSP is improving student outcomes among participating Appalachian teachers and schools. This project also makes an important contribution in establishing a scientifically sound method for evaluating the effects of MSPs and other professional development programs. Developing statistical and other methodological approaches to studying the impact of the effects of these programs is important in the national movement to improve teacher quality and student learning in math and science.