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This paper provides an overview of the data collection, analysis, and reporting system of the British Columbia Ministry of Education, a system that is intended to improve the results obtained by the school system. The background of the system is described, and how it is used to assist in school improvement is outlined. The system's success to date is also evaluated. British Columbia, which has a long history of collecting information from its schools, began to collect basic information about each student in 1989, replacing the former paper-based system of summaries of school information. Case-by-case data collected year after year can be used to provide information about the performance of schools, even if there is little information about the performance of students. School dropout or completion rates can be used to see if programs are successful, and differences between schools and districts can be displayed. The data can be used in various ways to draw inferences about program effectiveness, and it is now becoming possible to do systematic analyses of student performance at earlier grades, making the information more useful in developing policies. The Ministry of Education now has 4 years of data on school completion and considerable data about the performance and progress of Canadian aboriginal students. Some school districts are beginning to use this information for school improvement, and the trends revealed by this data show that significant improvement is occurring in some districts. It is expected that further improvements will result from the introduction of even better evidence of school performance. (SLD)

This paper reports a model of the impact of teacher behavior on student achievement. Estimates of the model's efficiency are obtained and its utility tested on a second set of data. Methodological and theoretical frameworks are from sociologists interested in contextual affects phenomena. Data were collected from 374 students during 1971-73. Using standard regression procedures, a model was constructed of the relationship between teacher behavior and student outcomes for 1971-72. The model was verified on 1972-73 data. The findings are ambiguous. The first year model is satisfactory as a post hoc predictor. It is less satisfactory applied to the second year data. The methodology, however, is an advance for the study of the consequences of administrative behavior on the part of teachers. (Author)

This paper describes a study that was conducted in the St. Louis elementary schools to examine the effects of environmental changes accompanying the relocation of black students to new schools. Students' academic gain in the year prior to relocation was compared with their growth rate in the year following relocation. The study produced five major findings: (1) increases in classroom mean achievement levels had a positive impact on black students' academic growth patterns; (2) moves to majority black classrooms improved academic growth rates, while moves to majority white classrooms depressed academic growth rates; (3) the optimal move for a black student originating in a majority black classroom was one in which the receiving classroom was between 50 percent and 95 percent black and had a higher level of academic performance than the sending classroom; (4) high achieving students tended to experience larger academic gains in receiving schools than in their sending schools, while low achieving students has smaller gains in their receiving as opposed to their sending schools; and (5) changes in teachers' education and experience, and teacher pupil ratios did not appear to be strongly related to academic growth. Limitations of the research are discussed at length and implications for administrative policy are suggested. (Author/APM)

In an attempt to link public school expenditures to educational outputs, achievement test results of 6,605 elementary students in St. Louis, Missouri, were analyzed to see whether training and experience of teachers has an impact on student outcomes. The researchers matched individual students with teachers for five-year periods during grades three through eight. Variables examined include students' testscores and race, school enrollment and attendance, pupil-teacher ratios, percentage of non-white students and teachers, ratings of teachers' baccalaureate and graduate institutions, and eight factors relating to achievement levels of students' classmates. The study found that previous achievment levels and student intelligence are excellent predictors of achievement; that teacher experience is occasionally a factor in student achievement; and that the effect of teacher and school variables is larger for black students than for white students. The study concludes that school level variables explain virtually none of the variation in student achievement and that it is unlikely that such factors as administrator intensity, teacher and pupil attendance rates, and resource allocation will have much impact on student achievement. (JEH)

In the direct and indirect effects of teacher characteristics on educational production of students over time, this study indicates that teacher characteristics were not critical determinants of student achievement. Characteristics include: experience, educational level, recentness of degree and degree nature, college quality, and other background. Positive indicators across the student sample groups were that the percentage of non-white teachers was the only consistently performing characteristic. After a review of the literature of cross sectional and longitudinal analyses, the present longitudinal model of educational production is discussed. Data, empirical results and structural equation estimates for the 3 sample groups are presented. Results within the operational five-period model are followed by conclusions and implications for theory and practice. An appendix of eleven steps in the data procedures is included. (CM)

Three procedures are examined that educational researchers can use to analyze quantitatively the extent to which modifications of specific teacher behaviors lead to changes in student achievement. The task requires decent descriptions of the behaviors, appropriate statistical tools and measures of student outcomes that are worth while examining. The data, collected in the course of an evaluation of the relationship between the organizational structure of schools and student achievement, is not entirely appropriate for the issues dealt with here. Therefore, paths are suggested that this research might take in the future: (1) it is possible, using multiple regression analysis, to construct models of teacher behavior that reflect the view that some set of teacher behaviors affect student outcomes, and (2) these models can be applied at least three distinct ways, depending on the kinds of assumptions that one is willing to make about the data and the kinds of questions that one wishes to address. (Author/RC)