Teacher Control and Student Achievement in New York City

• In Event: Leadership as the Negotiation of Autonomy and Control

Abstract

This paper investigates the association between teacher control and student achievement in New York City public elementary schools. I performed multiple OLS regressions to discern how much instructional control and achievement are related, how much budgetary control and achievement are related, whether the association differs for ELA and Math achievement, and whether schools with differing levels of poverty evince substantially different associations between control and achievement. I found that teacher control over instructional matters positively predicted ELA achievement, while control over budgetary matters negatively predicted ELA achievement. No significant associations were found between teacher control and Math. Further, control in curricular matters in high-poverty schools was negatively related to achievement, while the opposite was true regarding control in budgetary matters.

Author

• Crystal Spring, Johns Hopkins University