Eric.ed.gov – Use of a C-SITS Approach to Estimating the Impact of the Receipt of a Teacher Recruitment Incentive Grant on an IHE’s Production of Certified STEM Teachers–Problems and Solutions

Improving the quality of teacher preparation is an important national issue, because the quality of teaching plays such a large role in students’ learning. One key indicator of students’ academic success is the competence and capability of their teachers. However, the availability of well-prepared and effective teachers varies widely across the country, even within schools (Clotfelder, Ladd & Vigdor, 2007; Boyd, Grossman, Lankford & Wyckoff, 2006; Rivkin, Hanushek & Kain, 2005). Concerns about the highly variable quality of prospective teachers, coupled with teacher shortages, particularly in math and science-related fields, have generated both alternative pathways for entry into teaching and programs aimed at recruiting talented individuals to become teachers (e.g., Teach for America, Boston Teacher Residency, New York City Teaching Fellows, and the New Teacher Project). This presentation describes one component of a study that examined the impact of a program that awards grants to higher educational institutions to support talented individuals who commit to teaching mathematics or science in K-12 settings, particularly in high-need districts. The focus is on the design challenges and use of a comparative short interrupted time series (C-SITS) approach to conducting an assessment of program impact on teacher certification, and entry in high-need districts. The authors believe that the challenges faced in the current study are not unique to the current study and that their approaches to dealing with the challenges will be informative to other educational researchers as they seek design options for their evaluations. The impact analyses on teacher outcomes therefore attempted to address the following questions: (1) How does an IHE’s receipt of a teacher recruitment incentive grant affect its production of certified or licensed STEM teachers? (2) How does an IHE’s receipt of a teacher recruitment incentive grant affect its production of certified or licensed STEM teachers who take teaching jobs in high-need districts? The authors believe that the presentation will help evaluators identify appropriate strategies and models to address their problem. It will also help them to identify limitations and pitfalls to this or similar approaches.