The effect of active teaching and subject content coverage on students' achievement: evidence from primary schools in Kenya

Abstract

There is a growing public concern in Kenya over the persistent gap between those schools that are consistently ranked at the top and those ranked at the bottom of the annual Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination league tables. This has raised the issue of inequality in educational opportunity. Our primary concern in this paper is to understand some of the classroom-school factors that may explain the persistent differences in achievement between the top and bottom schools. We focus on time-on-task (the length of exposure to any particular teaching and learning task) and curriculum content, and ask whether this explains the difference in performance. We test the following hypotheses: differences exist on teachers' time-on-task between low and high performing schools; greater teacher time-on-task has a positive effect on student gain score; and greater content coverage has a positive effect on student achievement. For the student achievement gains, we use item response theory test scores of 1889 Grade 6 pupils from 70 schools in Kenya. Data on time-on-task were generated from 70 maths lessons observed in these schools, while content coverage was developed from students' maths note books for the entire period they were in Grade 6. The study was conducted by a team of researchers at the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) with funding from Google.org. Using two level hierarchical modelling, we control for pupil, teacher and school factors. Results show that exposure to content is positively correlated with pupil gain scores (gain score is the difference in score between test at time t1 and test at time t2 of the same pupil taught by the same teacher). Maths teachers in both bottom and top performing schools spend the same proportion of time-on-task. However, we do not find that time-on-task is related to achievement in this sample.

How do Principals Assign Students to Teachers? Finding Evidence in Administrative Data and the Implications for Value Added

“…While not ubiquitous in the literature, gain‐score formulations of the achievement regression have been used in recent work (e.g., Jackson, ; Kinsler, ; Koedel, Leatherman, & Parson, ; Lefgren & Sims, ; Oketch et al., ; Subedi, Swan, & Hynes, ). The motivation for using the gain score rather than the lag score varies.…”

The role of schools in providing educational opportunity: An integrative review

“…OTL is a well‐established concept that considers learning as a function of the time students are exposed to the intended curriculum (Wilson et al, 2016). Some authors simply defined it as time‐on‐task and exposure to subject matter (Liu et al, 2015; Oketch et al, 2012; Wilson et al, 2016), whereas others considered resources and variety in teaching, grouping and learning activities (Azigwe, 2016; Heafner & Fitchett, 2015). Despite the different interpretations, it is a well‐established concept that recognises the importance of providing students with equitable access to the required content.…”

“…Concerning the final sub-category, material resources, Morningstar et al, (2015) noticed that classrooms where learning technologies were available and used by teachers had the greatest potential for learner participation (behavioural outcomes). Similarly, Oketch et al, (2012) found that the availability of non-basic learning material (e.g., visual aids, charts), in addition to smaller pupil-teacher ratios, positively affected cognitive outcomes.…”

How Do Principals Assign Students to Teachers? Finding Evidence in Administrative Data and the Implications for Value-Added

“…While not ubiquitous in the literature, gain score formulations of the achievement regression are still used in recent work (for example, Jackson 2009, Koedel et al 2012, Kinsler 2011, Lefgren & Sims 2012, Oketch et al 2012, Subedi et al, 2011. The motivation for using the gain score rather than the lag score specification often varies.…”