Which Teaching Practices Improve Student Performance on High-Stakes Exams? Evidence from Russia

23 Pages Posted: 3 Oct 2013

See all articles by Andrey Zakharov

Andrey Zakharov

National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow)

Martin Carnoy

Stanford University; National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow)

Prashant Kumar Loyalka

Stanford University - Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies

Date Written: October 1, 2013

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between teaching practices aimed at raising student performance on a high stakes college entrance examination — the Russian Unified State Exam (USE) — and student performance on that test. The study uses data from a school/classroom survey of almost 3,000 students conducted in 2010 in three Russian regions. The analysis employs a student fixed effects method that estimates the impact of teaching practices used by students’ mathematics and Russian language teachers on students’ exam results. To test for possible heterogeneous effects of practices in different academic tracks, the study estimates the practices’ effect on USE scores for students in advanced and basic level tracks. The study finds that the only strategy with positive effects on test outcomes is greater amounts of subject-specific homework geared to different types of test items, and that the most effective type of homework differs across tracks.

Keywords: teaching practices, curriculum, student achievement, selection bias, student fixed effect, high-stakes examinations

JEL Classification: I21

Suggested Citation

Zakharov, Andrey and Carnoy, Martin and Loyalka, Prashant, Which Teaching Practices Improve Student Performance on High-Stakes Exams? Evidence from Russia (October 1, 2013). Higher School of Economics Research Paper No. WP BRP 13/EDU/2013, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2334223 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2334223

Andrey Zakharov (Contact Author)

National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow) ( email )

Myasnitskaya street, 20
Moscow, Moscow 119017
Russia

Martin Carnoy

Stanford University ( email )

Stanford, CA 94305
United States
650-725-1254 (Phone)

National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow) ( email )

Myasnitskaya street, 20
Moscow, Moscow 119017
Russia

Prashant Loyalka

Stanford University - Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies ( email )

Stanford, CA 94305
United States

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