This important research explores the effects of district policy interventions on the distribution of teacher qualifications and student achievement. Authors use a 5-year span of individual teacher- and student-level longitudinal data from New York City (NYC) from 2000 through 2005 to estimate the differences in the effectiveness of teachers entering NYC schools through different pathways to teaching. The study finds that the gap between the qualifications of NYC teachers in high-poverty and low-poverty NYC schools has narrowed substantially since 2000, mostly ensuing from the city's concentrated effort to match exceptionally capable teachers with very needy students and the virtual substitution of newly hired uncertified teachers in high-poverty schools with new hires from alternative certification routes: NYC Teaching Fellows and Teach for America.
Using individual teacher and student-level longitudinal data from North Carolina, this research brief presents selected findings from work examining the stability of value-added model estimates of teacher effectiveness, focusing on their implication for teacher tenure policies and making high stakes personnel decisions. Findings show year-to-year correlations in teacher effects are modest, but pre-tenure estimates of teacher job performance do predict estimated post-tenure performance in both math and reading, and would therefore seem to be a reasonable metric to use as a factor in making substantive teacher selection decisions.
Education Secretary Duncan is outlining priorities for the "Race to the Top" Fund. Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, states must offer assurances that they are making progress in adopting rigorous standards; recruiting and retaining effective teachers where they are needed most; turning around low-performing schools; and building data systems to track student achievement and teacher effectiveness.
This study examined whether having a Teach For America (TFA) teacher instead of a
non-TFA teacher affects the academic performance of high school students. The study
analyzed data from 23 North Carolina school districts that hired at least one TFA
teacher from 2000 to 2005. The sample included 69 TFA teachers.
"If teaching remains a second-rate profession, America's economy will be driven by second-rate skills." These were the words of Lou Gerstner, former head of IBM and founder of the Teaching Commission, at the release of the Commission's final report, which calls on state and local leaders to do much more to reform the way American teachers are trained, licensed, supported, and paid. The report outlines the status of our nation's schools and students, and looks at promising reform strategies. The final section of the report outlines specific steps for federal and state governments, school districts and schools, and communities and parents.
The Hassels, husband and wife, brought their experiences as parents, education policy wonks, and consultants on management and school leadership to the job of developing this "Picky Parent Guide" to choosing an elementary school.
That's the word from a new study of eight high-performing Kentucky elementary schools with large numbers of poor children, conducted by the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. The review focused on eight elementary schools that had 50 percent or more low-income students, moderately high state test scores that had improved over time, and a slim -- fewer than 15 points -- difference in achievement levels between white and African-American students, and between low- and middle-income students. Auditors witnessed caring and respectful relationships between adults and students, and principals and faculty collaborated on decisions.
The last in the Department of Education's Office of Innovation and Improvement's six-booklet series on promising practices examines the growing movement to create rigorous routes toward becoming a school principal or administrator and highlights practices of six programs already underway.
The nonprofit Center for School District Effectiveness works to help teachers keep moving forward by examining the professional development techniques at work in districts across the country.
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