How economic factors affect inequality in achievement

Assignment Help Microeconomics

Reference no: EM13991180

Detailed Question:

1. READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS.

2. Make sure that the word document does not pass the 3 pages.

3. Before submitting, check the project checklist.

4. The final answer must provide a word doc AND an excel sheet because I need to have the data with me.

Assignment

The superintendent of a Texas school district wishes to better understand how economic factors affect inequality in academic achievement across the district. Several web sites will be of use in finding out:

• Texas Academic Progress Reports (TAPR): https://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/tapr/index.html
• Texas School District Maps: https://tea.texas.gov/Texas_Schools/General_Information/School_District_Locator/School_Distric t_Locator/
• Individual School District Web Sites (look up on Google)
• FiveThirtyEight article "Are There Too Few Teachers, Or Too Few Good Ones?" Here is what to do:

1. The school district you select must have at least twenty elementary schools that include the 5th grade, and should have some variation in socioeconomic status across schools. See ANGEL for a list of possible large school districts. Check the individual school district's website to see a list of elementary schools. There may be schools on the list that no longer have 20 elementary schools. It's your responsibility to ensure you have enough data points.

2. You can use the District Map site to look at districts across the state. You will not need to study every school in your district, just twenty elementary schools, selected to maximize variation in the percentage of economically disadvantaged students (who receive free or reduced lunch) in the school.

3. You need to obtain a copy of the teacher salary schedule from your district and four surrounding districts. These are generally available on the district's web site, but occasionally you will have to call and have them email it to you.

4. Read the FiveThirtyEight article, focusing on the main points and not getting bogged down in details.

5. Go to the TAPR site and obtain, for each of the twenty schools you have chosen, the percent passing the 5th grade STAAR mathematics at a satisfactory level, the percent passing the 5th grade STAAR reading at a satisfactory level, the percentage of students on free or reduced lunch (economically disadvantaged), the percentage of teachers in the school with five years of experience or less, and the average total operating expenditures per student (by function) from the general fund. You can find the average total operating expenditures for the school by clicking the PEIMS Financial Standard Report at the bottom of the TAPR.

6. Each of these numbers should be for the most recent school year available. Record these numbers in a nicely organized spreadsheet. Your teacher salary schedules should come from the most recent year available. The years do not need to be the same.

7. Create nice-looking scatterplots of the percentage of economically disadvantaged students vs. math scores (% passing), economic disadvantage vs. reading scores, economic disadvantage vs. the percent of teachers with less than 5 yrs. experience, and economic disadvantage vs. average operating expenditures. Treat economic disadvantage as the independent, or X, variable, and the others as dependent, or Y, variables. Include a trend line in each.

8. Also create a graph of percent teachers with less than 5 yrs. experience vs. math scores, and another that replaces math scores with reading scores. Here, the percentage of inexperienced teachers is the independent variable and the test scores are the dependent variable. Again, include trend lines.

9. Write a memo to the superintendent of your district, organized around answers to the questions below, to explain how economic factors affect inequality in academic achievement across the district. Make the memo no longer than three typewritten pages maximum, with your data, graphs, and salaries attached to the back. Submit this packet online on due date. I will forward the packet to the superintendent for you.

Here are the questions!

1. Competitiveness of Markets. First, compare salaries across districts. What does it mean for teaching salaries to be competitive? Are they reasonably competitive across your market area? Why? Are they more competitive for beginning teachers or experienced teachers? Create a line-chart tracking teacher salary for each district by step-level.

2. Labor Demand. Carefully examine the teacher salary schedule for your district. Describe the patterns that it contains. Theory suggests that the amount employers are willing to pay workers reflects their productivity. If so, what does the salary schedule indicate school districts do, and do not, value in teachers? Does this make sense?

3. Labor Supply. Briefly summarize the FiveThirtyEight article. Then briefly summarize your graphs from above. Interpret the trend lines. Do your graphs suggest that teacher supply follows the patterns described in the article?

4. Equilibrium. Your teacher salary schedule has no compensating differentials of any kind. In this labor market, what does that mean?-what would it be like, instead, to have compensating differentials? Describe how the lack of compensating differentials affects the teacher supply patterns you described above. Does the lack of compensating differentials have any other repercussions in this market?

5. Output. Finally, let's look at performance, as measured by test scores. Based on your graphs above above, are these scores related to the percentage of inexperienced teachers? Quantify the relationship by interpreting the trend line. Do the pay policies of school districts appear to influence student achievement in the schools you studied?

One or two paragraphs should suffice to answer each set of questions (1-5). Conclude your write-up with brief concluding remarks that focus on the big picture.

Attachment:- Assignment.rar

Reference no: EM13991180

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