Impact of Teachers' Advanced Degree on Middle School Students' Mathematics Achievement

• In Event: 66.059 - Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: 66.059-2 - Mathematics in Teacher Education and Professional Development

Abstract

Using data from 78 school districts in a southeastern state in the United States, the author ran 78 hierarchical linear models with both student-level and teacher-level variables. The regression coefficients related to teacher’s advanced degree were synthesized using weighted least squares approach. The results show that the impact of teacher’s advanced degree on middle school students’ mathematics achievement is minimal. Teacher’s advanced degree also had minimal impacts on the gender gap and ethnicity gap for student’s mathematics achievement scores. The results needs to be interpreted with caution as teacher preparation programs are usually not targeted towards preparing students for standardized tests and student achievement scores are influenced by many other factors that are out of the control of the teachers.

Authors

• Chuang Wang, University of North Carolina - Charlotte

• Xitao Fan, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen)

• Barry Bai, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

• Huifang Zuo, University of Chicago