Educator preparation, professional development, performance and evaluation
- .Categories: Standards, Assessment, and Curriculum
Tags: Covid-19 recovery, Instructional coachingThe effect of remote learning on student performance has been a frequent topic of research and discussion in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, yet little is known about the impact of remote instruction on the performance of teachers. This study documents how relative effectiveness of… more →
- .Categories: Teacher and Leader Development
Tags: Human capital, Race, ethnicity, and education, Teacher hiring and retentionTeacher evaluation systems and their associated incentives have produced fairly mixed results. Our analyses are motivated by theory and descriptive evidence that accountability systems are highly racialized, and that individuals are less likely to respond to incentives when they have low… more →
- .Categories: Policy, Politics, and Governance
Tags: Class size, College readiness, Culturally responsive schoolingCounselors are a common school resource for students navigating complicated and consequential education choices. However, most students have limited access to school counselors. We study one of the largest U.S. policies to increase access to school counselors - California's Supplemental School… more →
- .Categories: Methods
Tags: Instructional design, Instructional practicesTeacher expectations and judgments about student capabilities are predictive of student achievement, yet such judgments may be influenced by salient dimensions of student identity and invite biases. Moreover, ambitious math teaching may also invite teacher biases due to the emphasis on student-… more →
- .Categories: Student Learning
Tags: Instructional technology, Professional developmentMastery learning – the process by which students must demonstrate proficiency with a single topic before moving on – is well recognized as one of the best ways to learn, yet many teachers struggle or remain unsure about how to implement it into a classroom setting. This study leverages two field… more →
- .Categories: Staffing, Finance, and Operations
Tags: Educator perceptions, Teacher well-being, Professional developmentParaeducators are among the largest categories of public education employees and are increasingly seen as a pool of potential teachers. However, little is known about paraeducator-to-teacher transitions. Using statewide administrative data, we show that while paraeducators may be more racially/… more →
- .Categories: Methods
Tags: Child development, Elementary schools, Mathematics educationThis study provides the first large-scale quantitative exploration of mathematical language use in upper elementary U.S. classrooms. Our approach employs natural language processing techniques to describe variation in teachers’ and students’ use of mathematical language in 1,657 fourth and fifth… more →
- .Categories: Methods
Tags: Mathematics educationDespite well-designed curriculum materials, teachers often face challenges in their implementation due to diverse classroom needs. This paper investigates whether Large Language Models (LLMs) can support middle-school math teachers by helping create high-quality curriculum scaffolds, which we… more →
- .Categories: Student Learning
Tags: Curriculum, Returns to education and skills, Teacher hiring and retentionDespite evidence that teacher professional development interventions in mathematics and science can increase student achievement, our understanding of the mechanisms by which this occurs – particularly how these interventions affect teachers themselves, and whether teacher-level changes predict… more →
- .Categories: Standards, Assessment, and Curriculum
Tags: Class size, CurriculumInconsistent reporting of critical facets of classroom interventions and their related impact evaluations hinders the field’s ability to describe and synthesize the existing evidence base. In this essay, we present a set of reporting guidelines intended to steer authors of classroom intervention… more →
- .Categories: Pathways to and Through Postsecondary
Tags: College readiness, Higher education“Free college” programs are widespread in American higher education. They are discussed as addressing college access, affordability, inequality, and skills shortages. Many are last-dollar tuition guarantees restricted to use at single community colleges. Using student-level data spanning the… more →
- .Categories: Staffing, Finance, and Operations
Tags: Higher education, Teacher hiring and retentionWe survey undergraduate students at a large public university to understand the pecuniary and non-pecuniary factors driving their college major and career decisions with a focus on K-12 teaching. While the average student reports there is a 6% chance they will pursue teaching, almost 27% report… more →
- .Categories: Policy, Politics, and Governance
Tags: Teacher hiring and retention, School districts, NeighborhoodsWe use frame analysis to analyze the first iteration of the Texas District of Innovation policy, which allows districts to take exemption from state education requirements mandating the hiring of a state certified teacher. We analyzed 451 district policies and find the plans use very similar,… more →
- .Categories: Student Learning
Tags: Leadership, Human capitalDespite the popularity of teacher leadership since the 1980s, little research examines its effects on student achievement. In this paper, I assess the influence of the New York City Department of Education’s Teacher Career Pathways program, a teacher leadership initiative, on student achievement… more →
- .Categories: Student Learning
Tags: Ability grouping, High schools, EquityThe pivotal role of Algebra in the educational trajectories of U.S. students continues to motivate controversial, high-profile policies focused on when students access the course, their classroom peers, and how the course is taught. This random-assignment partnership study examines an innovative… more →
- .Categories: Teacher and Leader Development
Tags: Leadership, Principals, Teacher hiring and retentionDespite increasing recognition of the importance of high-quality school leadership, we know remarkably little about principal skill development. Using administrative data from Tennessee, Oregon, and New York City, we estimate the returns to principal experience as measured by student outcomes,… more →
- .Categories: Teacher and Leader Development
Tags: Race, ethnicity, and education, Educator perceptionsThis paper investigates how teachers learn about race in the school context, with a particular focus on teachers’ development of racial competency. Using in-depth, semi-structured interviews we find that teachers learn through three sources: from their peers, from years of experience, and from… more →
- .Categories: Staffing, Finance, and Operations
Tags: Teacher hiring and retention, Human capitalTeacher shortages are a persistent challenge in the United States. I evaluate the effectiveness of an innovative pilot program that allowed principals to hand-select experienced staff members and paraeducators already working in schools to lead classrooms. Pilot educators are predominantly Black… more →
- .Categories: Teacher and Leader Development
Tags: Educator perceptionsTeachers’ professional identities are the foundation of their practice. Previous scholarship has largely overlooked the extent to which the broader institutional environment shapes teachers’ professional identities. In this study, I bridge institutional logics with theory on teacher professional… more →
- .Categories: Staffing, Finance, and Operations
Tags: Teacher well-beingWhy do employers offer pensions? We empirically explore two theoretical rationales, namely that pensions may improve worker effort and worker selection. We examine these hypotheses using administrative measures on effort and output in public schools around the pension-… more →