Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

It is long-debated whether American education, especially its classroom management should follow an international model (e.g. the Finland model or the South Korea model). Recent US education policies have made the issue of teacher effectiveness a subject of public inquiry, and one of the major components of teacher effectiveness is effective classroom management (Marzano et al. 2001). National survey report show that classroom management is one of the biggest concerns that teachers share (Kizlik 2016).

However, despite the important role classroom management plays, the method of measuring effective classroom management is yet to be fully developed. Without a clear quantification of effective classroom management, it would be hard for both teachers and policies to make a substantial impact. Therefore, this paper builds upon Baumrind’s (1978, 1991) parenting typology and measures classroom management by conducting factor analyses with the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) dataset. Next, this paper empirically tests the association between classroom management and students’ school achievement in math and the effect of classroom management on math achievement conditioned on students’ economic status. Moreover, this paper draws upon the policy borrowing theory and tackles the long-running debate in education on whether American’s classroom management should follow an international model (e.g. the Finland model or the South Korea model) by conducting hierarchical regression modeling and comparing the different effects of classroom management on their students’ school performance in five individual country. The paper ends with policy implications in respect to classroom management and education in the US.