Effective Schools Come From Teacher Feedback, Tutoring, Data Guided Instruction, More Instructional Time And High Expectations: Not Small Class Size, Not More Dollars Per Student, Not Teachers' Certifications, Not Teachers' Advance Degrees

A new research paper (abstract below), finds that neither teacher certification, teacher advance degree, class size, nor dollars spent per pupil are important for school effectiveness.

Instead, the researchers found that "five policies ... frequent teacher feedback, the use of data to guide instruction, high-dosage tutoring, increased instructional time, and high expectations" are the important criteria for school effectiveness.

From research paper abstract, "Getting Beneath the Veil of Effective Schools: Evidence from New York City" by Will Dobbie, Roland G. Fryer, Jr, NBER Working Paper No. 17632, Issued in December 2011:

We find that traditionally collected input measures -- class size, per pupil expenditure, the fraction of teachers with no certification, and the fraction of teachers with an advanced degree -- are not correlated with school effectiveness. In stark contrast, we show that an index of five policies suggested by over forty years of qualitative research -- frequent teacher feedback, the use of data to guide instruction, high-dosage tutoring, increased instructional time, and high expectations -- explains approximately 50 percent of the variation in school effectiveness.