eric.ed.gov har udgivet: School performance pressures apply disproportionately to tested grades and subjects. Using longitudinal administrative data–including achievement data from untested grades–and teacher survey data from a large urban district, we examine schools’ responses to those pressures in assigning teachers to high-stakes and low-stakes classrooms. We find that teachers with more positive performance measures in both tested and untested classrooms are more likely to be placed in a tested classroom in the following year. Performance measures even more strongly predict a high-stakes teaching assignment in schools with low state accountability grades and where principals exercise more assignment influence. In elementary schools, we show that such “strategic” teacher assignment disadvantages early grades, concentrating less effective teachers in K-2 classrooms. Reassignment of ineffective upper-grades teachers to early grades systematically results in lower… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: State laws and regulations can either help or hinder the ability of school districts to hire effective teachers for STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects. State officials wanting to tackle this critical problem need to begin with a thorough review of relevant policies, asking themselves: “Are we part of the problem, and how do we become part of the solution?” This report presents five steps that states can take to improve the quality and quantity of its K12 math and science teachers: (1) raise standards for what it takes to get into an education school; (2) improve the quality of undergraduate preparation; (3) recognize the need for creative and diverse solutions; (4) send qualified teachers to the schools that most need them; and (5) remember it… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Both Ohio’s state leadership and its foundation community recognized that, to move forward in a global economy, Ohio would need a highly trained workforce that would attract high tech companies to the state. Though STEM shortages have been a pervasive problem for decades, with the election of a new Governor in 2008, there was call to action from state higher education executive officers to address the STEM shortage areas as well as the growing achievement gap. In the years leading up to 2010, the state had significant teacher shortages in ten subject areas, with the greatest need in mathematics, sciences, and special education. These shortages, already severe, were projected to worsen as the state looked to adopt new rules for additional math and science courses required for… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: We examine how teachers from two alternative preparation programs–Teach for America (TFA) and Kansas City Teacher Residency (KCTR)–contribute to the teacher labor market in and around Kansas City, Missouri. We show that TFA and KCTR teachers are more likely than other teachers to work in charter schools, and more broadly, in schools with high concentrations of low-income, low-performing, and underrepresented minority (Black and Hispanic) students. TFA and KCTR teachers are themselves more racial/ethnically diverse than the larger local-area teaching workforce, but only KCTR teachers are more diverse than teachers in the same districts in which they work. In math in grades 4-8 we find sizeable, positive impacts of TFA and KCTR teachers on test-score growth relative to non-program teachers. We also estimate positive impacts on test-score growth… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The National Executive Service Corps, an organization which uses the skills and experiences of senior professionals, responded to the perceived shortage of qualified mathematics and science teachers in New York City. This paper describes a project designed to tap the skills and talents of retired scientists, engineers, and mathematicians who wished to enter teaching as a second career. The program consisted of five major parts: recruitment, orientation, training, placement, and support. These activities are described in the main body of this report. A project summary points out that second career teachers bring something current, real, and relevant to lessons. However, while they recognized the content area knowledge of this group of new teachers, supervisors also noted weaknesses in classroom management skills and urged the inclusion of a… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Teach For America (TFA) and the Teaching Fellows programs are an important and growing source of teachers of hard-to-staff subjects in high-poverty schools, but comprehensive evidence of their effectiveness has been limited. This report presents findings from the first large-scale random assignment study of secondary math teachers from these programs. The study separately examined the effectiveness of TFA and Teaching Fellows teachers, comparing secondary math teachers from each program with other secondary math teachers teaching the same math courses in the same schools. The study focused on secondary math because this is a subject in which schools face particular staffing difficulties. The study had two main findings, one for each program studied: (1) TFA teachers were more effective than the teachers with whom they were compared. On… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: We exploit within-teacher variation in the years that teachers host an apprentice (“student teacher”) in Washington State to estimate the causal effect of these apprenticeships on student achievement, both during the apprenticeship and afterwards. The average causal effect of hosting a student teacher on student performance in the year of the apprenticeship is precisely estimated and indistinguishable from zero in both math and reading, though effects are large and negative in math when ineffective teachers host an apprentice. Hosting a student teacher is also found to have modest positive impacts on student math and reading achievement in a teacher’s classroom in following years. Link til kilde
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Teach For America (TFA) and the Teaching Fellows programs are an important and growing source of teachers of hard-to-staff subjects in high-poverty schools, but comprehensive evidence of their effectiveness has been limited. This report presents findings from the first large-scale random assignment study of secondary math teachers from these programs. The study separately examined the effectiveness of TFA and Teaching Fellows teachers, comparing secondary math teachers from each program with other secondary math teachers teaching the same math courses in the same schools. The study focused on secondary math because this is a subject in which schools face particular staffing difficulties.The study had two main findings, one for each program studied: (1) TFA teachers were more effective than the teachers with whom they were compared. On average,… Continue Reading →
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