Nathan C. Jensen

TEACHERS SAY THE MOST INTERESTING THINGS-AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW OF TESTING

In spite of the barrage of anti-testing news, some teachers say tests have not sapped their creativity or hindered collaboration and that they appreciate having useful data, a road map for instruction, and a sense of accountability for all educators.

The Delicate Task of Developing an Attractive Merit Pay Plan for Teachers

Successful implementation of any merit pay scheme requires attending to some basics of sound school improvement, including developing relationships and encouraging collaboration.

Urban School Choice and Integration: The Effect of Charter Schools in Little Rock

We examine the impact of charter schools on school integration in the Little Rock, Arkansas metropolitan area. We find that charters are less likely to be hyper-segregated than traditional public schools (TPS), but TPS have compositions more closely reflecting the region. However, differences in each case are slight. Using student-level data to follow students who left TPS for charters, we find that most transfers improve integration levels at the schools they left. This finding is attributed to the fact that most transfers involve minority students leaving predominately minority schools or White students leaving predominantly White schools.

Does classroom technology make a difference? A random assignment study in US classrooms

In the 2006–2007 school year, a suburban school district in northwest Arkansas installed state-of-the-art Interwrite educational technology in a randomly selected number of the districts classrooms. This project was designed to explore the benefits of educational technology on student achievement and assess the changes in attitudes and perceptions of participating teachers and students. Although research is emerging about the use of interactive educational technologies at the high school and college levels, the literature is limited regarding the effectiveness of these tools with younger students. In particular, there is little work in the USA in this growing area employing rigorous evaluation methods to assess the effectiveness of technology-based school interventions, particularly of interactive whiteboard programs. Thus, this randomized controlled trial of educational technology supplements this expanding literature base by providing insight into the use of interactive technology in elementary and mid...