The Institute for Policy Research
at Northwestern University

Inside the Black Box of Schools:
Classrooms, Teachers, and School Leaders

Presentations and Panelists:

“Does School Leadership Make a Difference in Improving Schools?”
by James P. Spillane

Spillane’s work explores the policy implementation process at the state, school district, school, and classroom levels, focusing on issues that include intergovernmental relations and policy-practice relations. While building on the policy implementation research tradition, Spillane has worked to develop a cognitive perspective on the implementation process, exploring substantive ideas about reforming instruction. He is principal investigator of the $1 million Distributed Leadership Project, funded by the National Science Foundation and the Spencer Foundation. The researchers are empirically investigating school leadership in urban elementary schools that are working to improve mathematics, science, and literacy instruction. Spillane authored Standards Deviation: How Schools Misunderstand Education Policy (Harvard University Press, 2004).

Spillane is professor of human development, social policy, and learning sciences, School of Education and Social Policy, and a faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University.

“Do Teachers Matter? Examining How Teacher Qualifications and Charac-teristics Affect Student Performance”
by Kim Rueben

Rueben examines issues of state and local public finance and the economics of education. She has examined the effects of tax limits on teacher quality and issues of teacher recruitment and retention in California. In addition, she is currently investigating California infrastructure financing and the distribution of facilities financing in California school districts. Recent publications include “Equal resources and equal outcomes? The distribution of school resources and student achievement in California” (2000) and “Fiscal rules and state borrowing costs: Evidence from California and other states” (1999).

Rueben is a visiting scholar at the Urban Institute while on leave from the Public Policy Institute of California.

“Immediate and Long-Term Effects of Small Classes on Academic Achievement”
by Spyros Konstantopoulos

A research methodologist by training, Konstantopoulos’ research interests include the extension and application of statistical methods to issues in education, social science, and policy studies. In particular, he is investigating mixed-effects models; the effects of teachers, schools, and class size; and group differences in achievement. He is the co-author of the following journal articles: “Do minorities experience larger lasting benefits from small classes? Evidence from a five-year follow-up of the Tennessee class-size experiment” (2004), “How large are teacher effects?” (2004), and “Do low achieving students benefit more from small classes? Evidence from the Tennessee class-size experiment” (2002).

Konstantopoulos is assistant professor of human development, social policy, and learning sciences, School of Education and Social Policy, and a faculty associate at the Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University.