| Yihua Hong
University of Toronto
Why does teacher capacity matter? Re-examining the effects of grade-3 test-based retention policy on student academic performance, instructional resource allocation, and student motivation
This study examines the impact of grade-3 test-based retention policy on student academic performance, teaching practices, and student motivation as a function of teacher capacity. I hypothesize that the policy impact on student performance may differ between tested and nontested subjects, vary among different skills within a tested subject, and may not be uniform to individuals. These differential effects of the policy are expected to be more pronounced for teachers who hold relatively low expectations of their students' learning capabilities. Furthermore, I aim to reveal the mechanism explaining the complex relationships between the test-based retention policy and student performance. I hypothesize that teachers holding low expectations may respond to the test-based retention policy by shifting instructional time away from nontested subjects to tested subjects and by providing extra after-school instruction only to students at moderate risk of being retained. Students whose promotion or retention is contingent on performance in tested subjects are tentatively motivated by the high-stakes incentives during the promotional gate year and will likely lose motivation in the later years. I propose to analyze the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten cohort (ECLS-K) dataset. In order to remove selection bias in estimating the policy effects, I will apply a propensity score-based causal inference procedure that combines multilevel modeling with the marginal mean weighting through stratification (MMW-S) method. The results are expected to portray a comprehensive picture of the impact of test-based retention policy with a focus on explaining the variation among teachers in their responses to high-stakes testing.
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