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The Park Place Economist

Abstract

This paper examines which major educational factors have a significant effect on standardized test scores as an objective measure of educational outcomes. The empirical model includes individual student, school, and teacher factors that can impact the quality of a student’s education. For the purposes of this paper, individual factors will be controlled for (e.g. living environment, socioeconomic status) and focus will be directed towards how teachers and schools themselves impact the quality of education. Since teachers and schools can mold themselves in the light of policies and new research, this paper will show what factors that teacher and schools have control over are beneficial to students. Quality of education will be measured through objective standardized test scores for reading, math, science, and history subjects as well as an average of the four subjects. This research can even be compelling even if certain factors have a significant positive impact on one or two subjects instead of all four of them thus sparking research into why these differences exist. This paper hypothesizes that the characteristics that are associated with teachers and the schools will have a significant impact on a student’s standardized test scores while controlling for individual characteristics.

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