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Eric.ed.gov – “Who Leaves?” Teacher Attrition and Student Achievement. Working Paper 23

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This paper analyzes attrition patterns among teachers in New York City public elementary and middle schools and explores whether teachers who transfer among schools, or leave teaching entirely, are more or less effective than those who remain. We find that the first-year teachers who are less effective in improving student math scores have higher attrition rates than do more effective teachers. The first-year differences are meaningful in size; however, the pattern is not consistent for teachers in their second and third years. Attrition patterns differ between schools having disproportionate numbers of low- vs. high-scoring students. A relatively high percentage of the ineffective first-year teachers in low-scoring schools leave teaching altogether; whereas inefficient first-year teachers in higher-scoring schools disproportionately transfer within NYC. In general, first-year teachers who transfer,… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Kindergarten Readiness in Wisconsin. WCER Working Paper No. 2017-3

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Wisconsin’s gaps between Black and White student high school graduation rates (Richards, 2016) and Black and White fourth-grade math and reading scores (U.S. Department of Education, 2015) are the largest in the nation. These inequalities have led to criticisms of Wisconsin’s schools and teachers as ineffective in bolstering the success of students of color and those who are economically disadvantaged. However, serious attention to disparities in school readiness has largely been absent from these conversations. The authors know that nationally, students of color and children who are poor enter Kindergarten substantially behind their peers (Reardon & Portilla, 2016) and that disparity can account for much, if not most, of the achievement gap seen later in primary and secondary school (Bradbury, Corak, Waldfogel, & Washbrook, 2015). This report… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Effectiveness of Interactive Satellite-Transmitted Instruction: Experimental Evidence from Ghanaian Primary Schools. CEPA Working Paper No. 17-08

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: In lower- and middle-income countries, including Ghana, students in rural areas dramatically underperform their urban peers. Rural schools struggle to attract and retain professionally trained teachers (GES 2012; World Bank 2012). We explore one potential solution to the problem of teacher recruitment: distance instruction. Through a cluster randomized controlled trial, we estimate the impact of a program that broadcasts live instruction via satellite to rural primary school students. The program equipped classrooms in 70 randomly selected Ghanaian schools with the technology required to connect to a studio in Accra. An additional 77 schools served as the control. Instructors in Accra provided math and English lessons to classrooms in the treatment group. The model is interactive, and students in satellite classes could communicate in real time with their… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – The Qualifications and Classroom Performance of Teachers Moving to Charter Schools. Working Paper 27

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Do charter schools draw good teachers from traditional, mainstream public schools? Using a panel dataset of all North Carolina public school teachers from 1997-2007, this research paper finds nuanced patterns of teacher quality flowing into charter schools. High rates of inexperienced and uncertified teachers moved to charter schools, but among certified teachers changing schools, the on-paper qualifications of charter movers were better or no different than the qualifications of teachers moving to comparable mainstream schools. Estimated measures of classroom performance for a subset of grade 3-5 teachers show that charter movers were more effective in math and reading instruction, relative to other mobile teachers. Charter movers compared less favorably, however, to non-mobile teachers and colleagues within their sending schools. The distribution of classroom performance among future charter… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Do Poor Kids Deserve Lower-Quality Education than Rich Kids? Evaluating School Privatization Proposals in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. EPI Briefing Paper #375

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: During the past year, Wisconsin state legislators debated a series of bills aimed at closing low-performing public schools and replacing them with privately run charter schools. These proposals were particularly targeted at Milwaukee, the state’s largest and poorest school district. Ultimately, the only legislation enacted was a bill that modestly increases school reporting requirements, without stipulating consequences for low performance. Nevertheless, the more ambitious proposals will likely remain at the core of Wisconsin’s debates over education policy, and legislative leaders have made clear their desire to revisit them in next year’s session. To help inform these deliberations, this report addresses the most comprehensive set of reforms put forward in the 2013-2014 legislative session. Backers of these reforms are particularly enamored of a new type of charter school… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Do More Effective Teachers Earn More outside of the Classroom? Working Paper Series. PEPG 10-02

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: We examine earnings records for more than 90,000 classroom teachers employed by Florida public schools between the 2001-02 and 2006-07 school years, roughly 20,000 of whom left the classroom during that time. A majority of those leaving the classroom remained employed by public school districts. Among teachers in grades 4-8 leaving for other industries, a 1 standard deviation increase in estimated value-added to student math and reading achievement is associated with 6-9 percent higher earnings outside of teaching. The relationship between effectiveness and earnings is stronger in other industries than it is for the same groups of teachers while in the classroom, suggesting that current compensation systems do not fully account for the higher opportunity wages of effective teachers. Tables are appended. (Contains 5 figures, 8 tables… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Assessing the Determinants and Implications of Teacher Layoffs. Working Paper 55

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Over 2000 teachers in the state of Washington received reduction-in-force (RIF) notices in the past two years. The authors link data on these RIF notices to a unique dataset that includes student, teacher, school, and district variables to determine the factors that predict the likelihood of a teacher receiving a RIF notice. They find a teacher’s seniority is the greatest predictor, but (all else equal) teachers with a master’s degree and teachers credentialed in the “high-needs areas” of math, science, and special education were less likely to receive a RIF notice. Value-added measures of teacher effectiveness can be calculated for a subset of the teachers and these show no relationship between effectiveness and the likelihood of receiving a RIF notice. Finally, simulations suggest that a very different… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – A Companion to the Film, “Putting Mathematics Education in Its Place”. Working Paper No. 41

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: A challenge for contemporary rural educators (especially teachers) is how to imagine rural education in a way that is not entirely focused on defining the rural as a problems space or as something simultaneously left behind by history and outmigration. Problems of community economic development come into the picture when we attempt to imagine rural schools that support and contribute to their communities rather than mostly serving as way-stations for outward bound youth. These are the kinds of questions raised by the ACCLAIM project, organized by the University of Tennessee Knoxville, Ohio University, West Virginia University, the University of Louisville, and the University of Kentucky. ACCLAIM is doing ground-breaking work in the United States simply by asking a number of key questions about the relationship between math… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Engaging Diverse Learners through the Provision of STEM Education Opportunities. Briefing Paper

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are viewed as fundamental elements in the preparation of our next generation. This is evidenced by President Obama’s goal of “moving our nation from the middle to the top of the pack in math and science education” and his focus on (a) hiring additional STEM teachers; (b) enhancing STEM literacy so students can think critically in key subjects; (c) improving the quality of instruction to help U.S. students perform competitively with those in other nations; and (d) expanding STEM education and career opportunities for women, minorities, and other underrepresented groups (The White House, 2010). To begin laying this foundation for students as they compete in the 21st century economy, educators and decision makers must continue to increase their understanding of various… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Teaching Assistants and Nonteaching Staff: Do They Improve Student Outcomes? Working Paper 169

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This paper examines the role of teaching assistants and other personnel on student outcomes in elementary schools during a period of recession-induced cutbacks in teachers and teaching assistants. Using panel data from North Carolina, we exploit the state’s unique system of financing its local public schools to identify the causal effects of teaching assistants and other staff on student test scores in math and reading and other outcomes. We find remarkably strong and consistent evidence of positive contributions of teaching assistants, an understudied staffing category, with larger effects on outcomes for minority students than for white students. A supplemental table is appended. Link til kilde