Teaching with the Test : Experimental Evidence on Diagnostic Feedback and Capacity Building for Public Schools in Argentina

Despite the recent growth in the number of large-scale student assessments, there is little evidence on their potential to inform improvements in school management and classroom instruction in developing countries. This study conducted an experimen...

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Main Authors: de Hoyos, Rafael, Ganimian, Alejandro J., Holland, Peter
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/488751511886071513/Teaching-with-the-test-experimental-evidence-on-diagnostic-feedback-and-capacity-building-for-public-schools-in-Argentina
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28922
id okr-10986-28922
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-289222021-06-08T14:42:47Z Teaching with the Test : Experimental Evidence on Diagnostic Feedback and Capacity Building for Public Schools in Argentina de Hoyos, Rafael Ganimian, Alejandro J. Holland, Peter DIAGNOSTIC FEEDBACK CAPACITY BUILDING PUBLIC SCHOOLS TEACHER EFFECTIVENESS SCHOOL MANAGEMENT CLASSROOM CURRICULUM TESTING STANDARDIZED TESTS Despite the recent growth in the number of large-scale student assessments, there is little evidence on their potential to inform improvements in school management and classroom instruction in developing countries. This study conducted an experiment in the Province of La Rioja Argentina, that randomly assigned 105 public primary schools to: (a) a "diagnostic feedback" group in which standardized tests were administered in math and reading comprehension at baseline and two follow-ups and the results were made available to the schools through user-friendly reports; (b) a “capacity-building” group for which schools were provided with the reports and also workshops and school visits for supervisors, principals, and teachers; or (c) a control group, in which the tests were administered only at the second follow-up. After two years, diagnostic feedback schools outperformed control schools by .34 and .36 standard deviations (SD) in third grade math and reading, and by .28 and .38 SD in fifth grade math and reading. The principals at these schools were more likely to report using assessment results for management decisions, and students were more likely to report that their teachers engaged in more instructional activities and improved their interactions with them. Capacity-building schools saw more limited impacts due to lower achievement at baseline, low take up, and little value-added of workshops and visits. However, in most cases the results cannot discard the possibility that both interventions had the same impact. 2017-12-01T18:13:03Z 2017-12-01T18:13:03Z 2017-11 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/488751511886071513/Teaching-with-the-test-experimental-evidence-on-diagnostic-feedback-and-capacity-building-for-public-schools-in-Argentina http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28922 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8261 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Latin America & Caribbean Argentina
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic DIAGNOSTIC FEEDBACK
CAPACITY BUILDING
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
TEACHER EFFECTIVENESS
SCHOOL MANAGEMENT
CLASSROOM CURRICULUM
TESTING
STANDARDIZED TESTS
spellingShingle DIAGNOSTIC FEEDBACK
CAPACITY BUILDING
PUBLIC SCHOOLS
TEACHER EFFECTIVENESS
SCHOOL MANAGEMENT
CLASSROOM CURRICULUM
TESTING
STANDARDIZED TESTS
de Hoyos, Rafael
Ganimian, Alejandro J.
Holland, Peter
Teaching with the Test : Experimental Evidence on Diagnostic Feedback and Capacity Building for Public Schools in Argentina
geographic_facet Latin America & Caribbean
Argentina
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8261
description Despite the recent growth in the number of large-scale student assessments, there is little evidence on their potential to inform improvements in school management and classroom instruction in developing countries. This study conducted an experiment in the Province of La Rioja Argentina, that randomly assigned 105 public primary schools to: (a) a "diagnostic feedback" group in which standardized tests were administered in math and reading comprehension at baseline and two follow-ups and the results were made available to the schools through user-friendly reports; (b) a “capacity-building” group for which schools were provided with the reports and also workshops and school visits for supervisors, principals, and teachers; or (c) a control group, in which the tests were administered only at the second follow-up. After two years, diagnostic feedback schools outperformed control schools by .34 and .36 standard deviations (SD) in third grade math and reading, and by .28 and .38 SD in fifth grade math and reading. The principals at these schools were more likely to report using assessment results for management decisions, and students were more likely to report that their teachers engaged in more instructional activities and improved their interactions with them. Capacity-building schools saw more limited impacts due to lower achievement at baseline, low take up, and little value-added of workshops and visits. However, in most cases the results cannot discard the possibility that both interventions had the same impact.
format Working Paper
author de Hoyos, Rafael
Ganimian, Alejandro J.
Holland, Peter
author_facet de Hoyos, Rafael
Ganimian, Alejandro J.
Holland, Peter
author_sort de Hoyos, Rafael
title Teaching with the Test : Experimental Evidence on Diagnostic Feedback and Capacity Building for Public Schools in Argentina
title_short Teaching with the Test : Experimental Evidence on Diagnostic Feedback and Capacity Building for Public Schools in Argentina
title_full Teaching with the Test : Experimental Evidence on Diagnostic Feedback and Capacity Building for Public Schools in Argentina
title_fullStr Teaching with the Test : Experimental Evidence on Diagnostic Feedback and Capacity Building for Public Schools in Argentina
title_full_unstemmed Teaching with the Test : Experimental Evidence on Diagnostic Feedback and Capacity Building for Public Schools in Argentina
title_sort teaching with the test : experimental evidence on diagnostic feedback and capacity building for public schools in argentina
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2017
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/488751511886071513/Teaching-with-the-test-experimental-evidence-on-diagnostic-feedback-and-capacity-building-for-public-schools-in-Argentina
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28922
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