Teachers who are effective at improving academic behaviors and mindsets are often not the same teachers who raise math test scores¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r? · q3
Currency · newest study 2015 · checked against its sources 2026-10-10 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

Reading the evidence codes

q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.

This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.

q3 i? Teacher effectiveness at improving behaviors and mindsets often does not coincide with effectiveness at raising math test scores. → David Blazar 2015

Evidence¶

David Blazar 2015¶

David Blazar, Matthew A. Kraft. (2015). Teacher and Teaching Effects on Students' Academic Behaviors and Mindsets. Working Paper 41. Cambridge, MA: Mathematica Policy Research. https://www.mathematica.org/publications/teacher-and-teaching-effects-on-students-academic-behaviors-and-mindsets

q3 · i? · associational · r?

The paper's summary reports a dissociation between teacher effects on non-tested outcomes and on math test scores: "teachers who are effective at improving these outcomes often are not the same as those who raise math test scores." No correlation or effect size is printed on the page.

"However, teachers who are effective at improving these outcomes often are not the same as those who raise math test scores."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

Motivation — outcome: instruction changes it
Mindset — outcome: instruction changes it

The growth mindset intervention reduced fixed-mindset beliefs among lower-achieving adolescents, with no significant variation in this effect detected across schools — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
Non-tested outcomes are predicted by teaching practices most proximal to these measures, including teachers' emotional support and classroom organization — related
Upper-elementary teachers have large effects on students' self-reported behavior in class, self-efficacy in math, and happiness in class that are similar in magnitude to their effects on math test scores — reports the opposite
Growth-mindset interventions have weak average effects on achievement, including a negligible GPA gain (d = 0.11) for lower-achieving US ninth-graders in one preregistered national trial — related
Self-efficacy for learning is a meaningful index in academic settings where self-efficacy for performing is near zero — related
In Coach Wright, Asset-mindset participants noticed Jeremy's positive behaviors while Deficit-mindset participants framed behavior as rule compliance, and strength language sometimes appeared without referencing actual strengths — related
Growth mindset interventions improve math outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged and high-risk students, but effects depend on a supportive teacher-mindset context — related
Growth math mindset positively predicts academic grit in primary students — related
The same student can hold different mindsets in different classrooms, and grades rise or fall across classrooms as mindsets change, with differences traceable to teachers' practices — related

Page metadata

Field	Value
`type`	`claim`
`id`	`teacher-effectiveness-noncognitive-uncorrelated-test-scores`
`title`	`Teachers who are effective at improving academic behaviors and mindsets are often not the same teachers who raise math test scores`
`description`	`Teachers who are effective at improving academic behaviors and mindsets are often not the same teachers who raise math test scores`
`status`	`review`
`evidence_strength`	`moderate`
`newest_evidence`	`2015`
`source_checked`	`2026-10-10`
`generated`	by `process:wiki-ingest` on `2026-10-08`
`trust`	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
`sources`	1 — `david-blazar-2015`

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