Article

Teacher qualifications and early learning: Effects of certification, degree, and experience on first-grade student achievement

February 2007
Economics of Education Review 26(3):312-324

DOI:10.1016/j.econedurev.2005.05.008

Authors:

Robert G. Croninger

University of Maryland, College Park

Jennifer King Rice

University of Maryland, College Park

Amy Rathbun

American Institutes for Research

Maskao Nishio

A fundamental issue inherent to education policy is whether teacher qualifications such as certification status, degree level, preparation, and experience predict student achievement. While existing research provides some direction regarding the potential importance of these qualifications for productivity in secondary schools, less is known about their importance for productivity in elementary schools. This study draws on data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS) to analyze the relationship between elementary school teacher qualifications and first-grade achievement in reading and mathematics. While we find no effects for certification status, we report positive effects for teachers’ degree type and experience on reading achievement. We also discover potential contextual effects of teachers’ qualifications on student achievement, with first-graders demonstrating higher levels of reading and mathematics achievement in schools where teachers report higher levels of coursework emphasis in these subject areas. We discuss the implications of these findings for policy and future research.

Amidst reforms : Mexican Teacher Evaluation and Professional Development from the perspective of teachers, headteachers, and policymakers

Thesis

Full-text available

Oct 2020

Artemio Arturo Cortez Ochoa

Current knowledge regarding Teacher Evaluation Systems (TES) as a suitable approach to quality education improvement suggests that the relationship between teacher monitoring and enhancement is far from straightforward. Yet, developing countries such as Mexico have uncritically employed variants of these reforms since the early 1990s to bring about change with regards to levels of quality teaching and learning. Although teachers and headteachers are in everyday contact with education policies, these actors are rarely consulted regarding TES development. Therefore, this exploratory research examined teachers’, headteachers’ and policymakers’ perspectives concerning the strengths, weaknesses, and unintended consequences of a new TES called the Mexican Teacher Evaluation (MTE). Since full implementation of MTE started in 2015, the availability and impact of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) on the teachers’ practice before and after MTE (i.e. the academic years 2014-2015 and 2016-2017) were investigated. This sequential mixed-methods research collected data via an online survey of primary teachers across Mexico using online teachers’ networks (n=367) and semi-structured interviews (n=13). Of the total participants, n=131 participated in MTE and provided an insight into the procedures of the new TES as well as opportunities for CPD after the evaluation. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses of quantitative data and a thematic analysis approach of qualitative data were employed. The findings indicated that in 2014-2015, overall teacher participation was lower than previous records from a TALIS-Mexico report (Backhoff & Pérez-Morán, 2015). Nevertheless, most common CPD topics are like those in previous literature and were perceived impactful on the practice. Furthermore, a series of preparatory courses tailored to MTE emerged during 2014-2015. Concerning the strengths of MTE, the new TES was perceived as a better scheme for teacher hiring and promotion as compared with the former method where the teachers’ union held significant power. However, only half of the surveyed MTE participants highlighted the value and positive nature of feedback following assessments. Regarding the weaknesses, MTE lacks classroom observations, tailored CPD following the evaluations, and appropriate follow-up of Newly Qualified Teachers (NQT) and in-service teachers after the assessment. Regarding the unintended consequences, MTE might have negatively impacted the teachers’ wellbeing at various points of MTE implementation; however, the TES might have encouraged teachers to become involved in their preparation for the assessments. There is evidence that teachers focused on the summative aspects of the evaluation more than the developmental ones, although the rationales varied. This research concluded that TES in Mexico is not yet fit for purpose after both positive and negative aspects of new MTE policies were observed. Moreover, additional reforms to support educational quality improvement are required. The teachers’ self-perceived needs in terms of CPD, as well as standards that recognise professional development according to teaching experience, seem essential for success.

Teacher Educational Decision Making for Children With Specific Language Impairment

Article

Mar 2022
AM J SPEECH-LANG PAT

Purpose: Children with specific language impairment (SLI) are underidentified, despite a robust literature on their language abilities and a clinical grammar marker. Adlof and Hogan (2019) call for school systems to assess oral language and provide supports through response to intervention (RTI), with the aim of identifying and supporting children with SLI and other language impairments. However, it is unknown how teachers make educational decisions for children with SLI. Method: A web-based survey was distributed to public school teachers nationwide (N = 304). In this observational study, teachers read six vignettes featuring profiles of children systematically varying in the linguistic characteristics relevant to SLI (e.g., difficulty with verb tense) and responded to items on the educational decisions that they would make in the absence of workplace constraints. Results: Teachers were likely to identify that the children in the vignettes needed language for classroom success and to indicate that they would provide in-class intervention. However, teachers were unlikely to recommend speech-language pathology services. These outcomes were mostly consistent across all child characteristics and teacher characteristics. Conclusions: Findings show that teachers were sensitive to the language-based needs of children with SLI and elected to provide in-class intervention. Future work is needed to understand how workplace characteristics, including opportunities for interprofessional collaboration, and the heterogeneity of children with SLI, inform teacher educational decision making.

University Credits as a Measure of Teachers’ Pre-service and In-Service Training: A Longitudinal Approach Using Swedish Data

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2022

In this study, we accessed information about the university credits of all teachers born after 1971 in Sweden as a means of ascertaining the development of their subject knowledge. We examined the university credits they earned during pre-service and in-service training. Data comes from registers Gothenburg Educational Longitudinal Database (GOLD) and the teacher register. We linked GOLD to the teacher register in order to describe the knowledge development of teachers in compulsory school 1998–2014. Special focus was on Swedish language and mathematics. Multiple regression and multilevel growth modeling were used as our main methods. Results show an increase in pre-service credits during the time period and more credits in Swedish language than in mathematics. To analyze teachers’ in-service training, we followed the development of their university credits over time. Teachers with higher prerequisites in terms of grade point average tended to gain more credits in-service. The study included discussions on ideas and the implications for future research.

The Role of Graduate Education in Professional Development of Teachers: Is Graduation Enough?

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2021
EGIT BILIM

This research aims to determine the role of graduate education in supporting the professional development of teachers. The qualitative research method was employed, and the basic qualitative research design was utilized. The study group of the research consisted of 25 teachers who had graduate level and were working in a province center in the Central Black Sea Region of Turkey. In-depth interviews were held with teachers through a semi-structured interview form developed by the researchers. The data were analyzed with content analysis using the MaxQda software package. The results of the study revealed that the teachers pursued graduate education mostly to achieve personal and professional development and to build an academic career. They stated that graduate education provided them with the skills of scientific thinking and research, communication, teaching and evaluation, and establishing theory-practice relationships, as well as knowledge of the profession and the field. They also added that they gained positive attitudes towards their profession, students, education, and life in general. A considerable part of the teachers stated that with graduate education, they realized the importance of professional development, their approach to evaluating events changed, and that their self-confidence, satisfaction, and performance increased. Almost all of the teachers claimed that positive changes occurred in their approach to students after they had received graduate education. A significant portion of the teachers said that the graduate education they received contributed directly to learning and applying new methods and techniques and led to some tangible changes in their measurement and evaluation practices. On the other hand, teachers also touched on important problem areas, such as the lack of a career system that encouraged graduate education and failure to put what had already been learned into practice for various reasons. Findings showed that it was not enough to have graduate education alone and that some measures regarding both the structure of graduate education programs and the working environment of teachers needed to be taken. Based on the results of the research, we recommend that a career system that will increase the professional development motivation of teachers should be created and that the degrees to be obtained in the fields of education and educational sciences should be prioritized in this system.

Influência da Qualificação Docente Sobre o Desempenho Discente no Enem

Article

Full-text available

May 2023

Pesquisas sobre os retornos da qualificação docente são ainda escassas na literatura brasileira, especialmente em se tratando dos resultados que alunos obtêm em testes padronizados, como o Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio (Enem). Diante desse problema, o objetivo do artigo foi analisar a influência da qualificação docente sobre o desempenho discente no Enem. Para tanto, utilizamos o método de Regressão Linear Múltipla (RLM) com uma amostra das notas médias da prova objetiva no Enem por Escola 2019 de 385 campi de Institutos Federais de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia (Ifets) e de Centros Federais de Educação Tecnológica (Cefets) de todo o país. Os resultados sugerem que a qualificação docente tem influência positiva sobre o desempenho discente no Enem. Descobrimos que quanto maior é a titulação do corpo docente de uma escola, melhor é o desempenho dos seus alunos no Enem. Concluímos que é positivo o investimento que o Governo Federal realiza através das políticas de capacitação e remuneração docente nos Ifets/Cefets, uma vez que o retorno se materializa em boas notas dos alunos no Enem.

THE EFFECT OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF ISO: 9001 CERTIFIED PRIVATE SCHOOLS: THE CASE OF JORDAN

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2020

The aim of this study is to assess the academic performance of ISO: 9001 certified private schools in Jordan. Accordingly, a theoretical framework illustrating the hypothesized relationships between total quality management practices and academic performance has been developed, and hypotheses have been tested using a survey dataset of 335 questionnaires from all six ISO: 9001 certified private schools. The SPSS program has been used to analyse the collected data. The results showed that there is a statistically significant effect of TQM practices (teacher commitment, training and education, teamwork, and continuous improvement) on academic performance of private schools. More specifically, the total quality management dimension of continuos improvement has the strongest effect on academic performance, followed by training & education, and teamwork with the same strength of the effect and finally the teacher commitment. This study is considered one of the very few empirical studies that examine the effect of TQM on academic performance within Jordanian schools. As it analysed administration quality factors in private schools, extra examinations should be attempted to improve and enhance the learning and education methodology.

Working conditions and work performance of remote elementary school teachers

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2022

Working conditions are a critical component in determining an employee's productivity as well as their ability to be efficient and successful. The purpose of this study was to characterize working conditions and their impact on the job performance of elementary school teachers in Boven Digoel district. Data were gathered using survey from 171 respondents, conveniently selected from a total of 536 elementary school teachers of Boven Digoel district. The gathered data were statistically analyzed using the program SPSS version 21. The findings indicated that the working conditions of the elementary school teachers of Boven Digoel district strongly affected their job performance. In addition, the research show that school principals and regional education policymakers must develop favorable working conditions for teachers in order to motivate them to contribute more than is necessary to educate the youth of nations.

Impact of Mothers’ and Teachers’ Testimonies and Scientific Explanations on Children’s Judgments

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2021

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of mothers’ and teachers’ testimonies that conflict with scientific facts and scientific explanations on kindergartners’ judgments. The participants consisted of 104 young children in Şanlıurfa province in Turkey. Their ages ranged from 48 to 79 months, with a mean age of 61.48 months (SD = 5.58). The participants were randomly assigned to the following four groups: 1) Scientific explanation followed by teacher’s testimony, 2) teacher’s testimony; 3) scientific explanation followed by mother’s testimony, 4) mother’s testimony. The children responded to a question about a scientific fact. After the response, they watched their mothers’ or teachers’ testimonies which contradict the scientific fact. Findings revealed that when a scientific explanation was not provided, the children tended to show deference to their teachers’ and especially mothers’ testimony. A week later, a follow-up measurement revealed that this impact did not last a week.

IMPACT OF MOTHERS' AND TEACHERS' TESTIMONIES AND SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATIONS ON CHILDREN'S JUDGMENTS

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2021

Hüseyin Kotaman

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of mothers' and teachers' testimonies that conflict with scientific facts and scientific explanations on kindergartners' judgments. The participants consisted of 104 young children in Şanlıurfa province in Turkey. Their ages ranged from 48 to 79 months, with a mean age of 61.48 months (SD = 5.58). The participants were randomly assigned to the following four groups: 1) Scientific explanation followed by teacher's testimony, 2) teacher's testimony; 3) scientific explanation followed by mother's testimony, 4) mother's testimony. The children responded to a question about a scientific fact. After the response, they watched their mothers' or teachers' testimonies which contradict the scientific fact. Findings revealed that when a scientific explanation was not provided, the children tended to show deference to their teachers' and especially mothers' testimony. A week later, a follow-up measurement revealed that this impact did not last a week.

Variation in State Early Childhood Lead Educator Qualifications: Pre-service Versus In-service Qualification, Professional Organization, and Geographical Proximity

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2021
Early Child Educ J

Early childhood (EC) educator qualifications shape the quality of education/care provided to children. Although past research demonstrates that EC educator qualifications are lower than recommended by research, little is known about how qualification attainment differs at the state level where policy change primarily occurs. Using restricted-access data from the National Survey of Early Care and Education, inclusive of all 50 states, the current study seeks to understand EC lead educator’s qualifications. We ran a cluster analysis to understand the variation between state workforces. We found that, at the state level, EC lead educator workforces cluster in four distinct groups, which we label: the Informally-Qualified Educator, the Non-EC Track Educator, the K-12 Aligned Educator, and the Pre-Service Trained Educator. We find the latter two clusters have the highest membership in unions and professional development associations. We also identify professional development, most likely to occur as in-service training, as the most common form of qualification. Finally, an emergent finding demonstrates evidence of geographical proximity across clusters. Findings contribute to a more adequate understanding of how the EC lead educator profession is qualified and, thus, permit informed policy decisions to support educators and improve the quality of EC care and education.

How teacher rotation in Japanese high schools affects the clustering of teacher quality: Comparing the distribution of teachers across public and private education sectors

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2021

Ryan Seebruck

I examine a unique facet of Japan’s public education system: jinji idou, a mandatory teacher rotation system governed by the prefectural board of education where teachers are systematically transferred to other schools throughout their careers to appropriately staff schools, facilitate varied career paths, and identify future leaders for administrative roles. Although not a formal goal, this centralized system may also produce a more equal distribution of teacher quality across schools compared to the decentralized teacher labor market found in private schools. Because this system is present in public schools and absent in private schools, comparing sector differences offers a look at its impact on teacher quality distribution. Using a sample of 1,456 teachers nested in 49 schools, private vs. public group comparison tests indicate that, for most of the teacher quality traits examined, the public sector distributes teachers more equitably. Furthermore, the public sector has higher mean levels of teacher quality, intimating that education labor markets can be structured in ways that simultaneously minimize variation between schools without hindering quality, findings germane to scholars interested in educational equality.

Teachers’ Instruction of Reading Strategies and Primary School Students’ Reading Literacy: An Approach of Multilevel Structural Equation Modelling

Article

Full-text available

May 2021

Reading strategy instruction is positively related to students’ reading literacy. However, little is known about how reading instruction that emphasizes different types of reading strategies affects reading literacy. This study examined how Singapore primary school teachers’ reading strategy instruction affected Grade Four students’ reading literacy, and how reading strategy instruction was affected by teacher collaboration and other teacher characteristics. To control for possible effects of student characteristics on their reading literacy, we also included at the student level the students’ gender and their socioeconomic status as represented by their parents’ educational level. We used a multilevel structural equation modeling approach to analyze the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2016 (PIRLS 2016) data provided by 6,327 Singapore students nested within 356 teachers. At the teacher level, (1) teachers’ instruction on reading strategies can be categorized into micro-level reading strategy instruction and macro-level reading strategy instruction; (2) only instruction on the macro-level of comprehension significantly affected students’ reading literacy; and (3) teachers’ reading strategy instruction was positively impacted by their collaboration with other teachers. At the student level, reading literacy was positively affected by the parents’ educational level, the language the students used before starting school, and the students’ gender (in favor of girls). The findings suggest that the relationship between reading strategy instruction and reading literacy is complex. To develop learners’ reading literacy, teachers should emphasize both micro-level reading strategies and macro-level reading strategies in their reading instruction.

Teacher Recruitment and Retention in Select First Nations Schools

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2013

Historically, the inequitable funding for First Nations schools in comparison to funding for provincial schools has been an issue from the time of early day schools, to residential schools in which students worked half a day to tend to crops in order to grow food for consumption by students and staff, and to present day where band-managed schools still experience lack of funding. Similarly, the lower salary levels for teachers in federal and today in First Nations-managed schools has been identified as a significant issue related to teacher retention. The purpose of this research was to identify current factors affecting teacher recruitment and retention in present day First Nations’ managed schools. In this paper we report on one case study comparing funding and teacher retention in one provincial school system and schools in one Tribal Council in Saskatchewan.Keywords: funding; First Nations schools; administration; teacher recruitment; teacher retention

Predictors of Early Childhood Developmental Outcomes: The Importance of Quality Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) Services

Chapter

Full-text available

Aug 2023

Few studies have established the influence of different aspects of early childhood development and education (ECDE) quality on children’s outcomes in low-resourced settings in sub-Saharan Africa. We examined the impact of different aspects of ECDE quality on school readiness in a low-income context. The current study is a cross-sectional sub-study of the Tayari preschool pilot program evaluation. Baseline data were collected from public ECDE centers. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to establish predictors of school readiness, that is, 4-6-year-old children being mentally, physically, socially and emotionally ready to start and succeed in primary school. Teaching experience, availability of textbooks and school facilities were significant predictors; learners’ school readiness scores decreased with each additional year of teachers’ experience, and were higher where school facilities were better, and in schools where textbooks were available. On the other hand, school enrolment, classroom resources, head teacher support, educational attainment and teacher training did not predict school readiness. Promoting quality preschool programs has important implications for policy as it can lead to improved school readiness and later success for children in disadvantaged settings.

How are Primary School Computer Science Curricular Reforms Contributing to Equity? Impact on Student Learning, Perception of the Discipline, and Gender Gaps

Preprint

Full-text available

Jun 2023

Early exposure to Computer Science (CS) for all is critical to broaden participation and promote equity in the field. But how does introducting CS into primary school curricula impact learning, perception, and gaps between groups of students? We investigate a CS-curricular reform and teacher Professional Development (PD) program from an equity standpoint by applying hierarchical regression and structural equation modelling on student learning and perception data from three studies with respectively 1384, 2433 & 1644 grade 3-6 students (ages 7-11) and their 83, 142 & 95 teachers. Regarding learning, exposure to CS instruction appears to contribute to closing the performance gap between low-achieving and high-achieving students, as well as pre-existing gender gaps. Despite a lack of direct influence of what was taught on student learning, there is no impact of teachers' demographics or motivation on student learning, with teachers' perception of the CS-PD positively influencing learning. Regarding perception, students perceive CS and its teaching tools (robotics, tablets) positively, and even more so when they perceive a role model close to them as doing CS. Nonetheless gender differences exist all around with boys perceiving CS more positively than girls despite access to CS education. However, access to CS-education affects boys and girls differently: larger gender gaps are closing (namely those related to robotics), while smaller gaps are increasing (namely those related to CS and tablets). To conclude, our findings highlight how a CS curricular reform impacts learning, perception, and equity and supports the importance of i) early introductions to CS for all, ii) preparing teachers to teach CS all the while removing the influence of teacher demographics and motivation on student outcomes, and iii) having developmentally appropriate activities that signal to all groups of students.

School Library Service for Pre-Kindergarten Students: An Analysis of Certification and Standards

Article

May 2023

Enrollments in publicly funded pre-kindergarten (pre-K) programs are on the rise in the United States with bi-partisan support for universal pre-K increasing. Hypothetically, pre-K students should be able to access the school library and receive services and instruction from the school librarian. However, it is unclear if school librarians have either the leverage to serve these pre-K students or the necessary guidance to do so. This document analysis study involved a systematic review of school librarian certification documents, school library standards, and early childhood standards for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Findings reveal uneven justification for pre-K student services and programming through school libraries. School librarians are certified to serve pre-K students in approximately half of the states, but few states have school library standards for pre-K, leaving school librarians with little direction about how best to instruct them. Implications for practice, policy, and research are discussed.

Does socioeconomic sorting of teacher qualifications exacerbate mathematics achievement inequity? Panel data estimates from 20 years of TIMSS

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2023
Stud Educ Eval

Recent and older studies have reported either a persistence or a widening of the socioeconomic achievement gap-the difference in performance between students in top and bottom socioeconomic groups. Using a panel data technique with country fixed effects for 32 education systems and six waves of data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, we examine whether the sorting of teachers by specialization level in mathematics education and novice status across students of different socioeconomic backgrounds exacerbates mathematics achievement inequity despite the presence of a time-varying control for socioeconomic school segregation. We find modest evidence that sorting by mathematics education is associated with achievement inequity, but no evidence supporting the importance of sorting based on teacher experience. Socioeconomic school segregation, on the other hand, clearly and persistently exacerbates achievement inequity. The results have policy implications regarding the effective distribution of educational resources.

Characteristics and influencing factors of early childhood teachers’ work stress and burnout: A comparative study between China, Ghana, and Pakistan

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2023

Introduction Many studies have documented the stress and burnout experienced by early childhood teachers. However, few have focused on comparisons among countries, particularly developing ones. Meanwhile, female teachers, who are more sensitive and tend to provide emotional responses, are often overlooked as a major force of emotional involvement. This study examined the similarities and differences of early childhood teachers’ stress, burnout, and gender in China, Ghana, and Pakistan. Methods This study adopted a cross-sectional design. The participants included 945 preschool and lower primary school teachers recruited from Zhejiang Province in China, the Ashanti Region in Ghana, and Punjab, Pakistan. The analyses were conducted using structural equation modeling. First, the study estimated all parameters separately and without constraints between the groups for all models. Second, the study compared the latent mean difference and of stressors and burnout between teachers’ personal and job characteristics. Third, a structural equation model was used to assess the relationship between teachers’ stressors and burnout. Results Across the three countries, female teachers are more stressed out, with higher emotional demands and work-family conflicts, and are more prone to burnout with a greater level of emotional exhaustion and a lower level of personal accomplishments than their male counterparts are. Moreover, Chinese teachers were found to be the most stressed-out group with the highest level of burnout. In comparison to teachers in China and Pakistan, early childhood teachers in Ghana possess the lowest level of emotional demands. With the lowest level of emotional exhaustion and the highest level of personal accomplishments, Pakistani teachers were unlikely to experience burnout. Discussion This study comparatively analyzed the characteristics of stress and burnout among ECTs in different cultural settings and educational systems in three developing countries (China, Ghana, and Pakistan), and revealed workplace characteristics and circumstances for ECTs. In addition, this study takes gender as the main influencing factor and explores its effect on ECTs’ stress and burnout, and it highlights and verifies "emotionality" in ECTs' profession. As a result, policymakers and stakeholders in different countries may be encouraged to improve ECE quality and the well-being of ECTs.

Impacts of the Four-Day School Week on Early Elementary Achievement

Article

Dec 2022
EARLY CHILD RES Q

This study explores the impact of four-day school weeks on early elementary achievement. Using covariate adjusted regression analyses and data on all students who entered kindergarten in Oregon, USA between 2014 and 2016, we examine differences in 3rd grade math and English Language Arts test scores (i.e., achievement) for students enrolled in a four-day school week versus a five-day school week at kindergarten entry. On average, we find minimal differences between 3rd grade test scores of four-day and five-day students, but there are notable differential effects across the spectrum of these students' kindergarten readiness scores and educational program participation. We find that above median performers on kindergarten assessments, White students, general education students, and gifted students - student groups that make up more than half our sample - are the most negatively impacted by the four-day school week during the early elementary period. We generally find no statistically significant evidence of detrimental four-day school week achievement impacts for students who were below median performers on kindergarten assessments, minority students, economically disadvantaged students, special education participants, and English as a second language students.

Experiência docente e desempenho escolar: testando uma hipótese de um relacionamento não-linear

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2022

This paper aims to analyze the relationship between teacher’s experience and educational quality in Brazil. The hypothesis of teachers’ experience curve (TEC) was formulated to verify whether the teacher’s experience shows a quadratic rela-tionship with the student’s academics achievement in exams. A panel of schools was set up using the data from the Prova Brasil for the years 2007, 2009 and 2011, in which the average student’s achievement, per school, in Mathematics and Portuguese Language, was regressed against the quadratic polynomial of the average teachers’ experience as was proceeded by Grossman and Krueger (1995) to verify the hypothesis of environmental Kuznets curve and Lim and Tang (2008) testing the educational Kuznets curve. The results pointed that there is no evi-dence to validate the hypothesis of TEC.

Eğitim ve Bilim Öğretmenlerin Mesleki Gelişimlerinde Lisansüstü Eğitimin Rolü: Mezun Olmak Yeterli mi? Makale Hakkında

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2021
EGIT BILIM

Bu araştırmanın amacı, öğretmenlerin mesleki gelişimlerinin desteklenmesinde lisansüstü eğitimin rolünü belirlemektir. Araştırmada nitel araştırma yöntemi işe koşulmuş ve temel nitel araştırma deseninden yararlanılmıştır. Araştırmanın çalışma grubunu Orta Karadeniz Bölgesinde bir il merkezinde görev yapan lisansüstü eğitim almış 25 öğretmen oluşturmaktadır. Araştırmacılar tarafından geliştirilen yarı-yapılandırılmış görüşme formu aracılığıyla öğretmenlerle derinlemesine görüşmeler gerçekleştirilmiştir. Veriler MaxQda programı kullanılarak içerik analizi ile analiz edilmiştir. Araştırmanın sonuçları, öğretmenlerin en fazla kişisel ve mesleki gelişimlerini sağlamak ve akademik kariyer yapmak için lisansüstü eğitime başvurduklarını göstermektedir. Öğretmenler, lisansüstü eğitimin kendilerine meslek ve alan bilgisinin yanında bilimsel düşünme ve araştırma, iletişim, öğretim ve değerlendirme ile kuram-uygulama ilişkisi kurma becerileri kazandırdığını belirtmişlerdir. Ayrıca öğretmenler mesleklerine, öğrencilerine, eğitime ve genel olarak hayata karşı olumlu tutumlar kazandıklarını ifade etmişlerdir. Öğretmenlerin önemli bir bölümü, lisansüstü eğitimle birlikte mesleki gelişimin önemini fark ettiklerini, olayları değerlendirme yaklaşımlarında farklılaşma olduğunu, kendine güvenlerinin, doyumlarının ve performanslarının arttığını belirtmişlerdir. Öğretmenlerin tamamına yakını lisansüstü eğitim aldıktan sonra öğrencilere yaklaşımlarında olumlu yönde değişimler meydana geldiğini belirtmiştir. Öğretmenlerin önemli bir kısmı, aldıkları lisansüstü eğitimin yeni yöntem ve teknikler öğrenme ve uygulama noktasında kendilerine doğrudan katkısının olduğunu, lisansüstü eğitim almalarının ardından ölçme ve değerlendirme uygulamalarında birtakım somut değişiklikler meydana geldiğini belirtmişlerdir. Tüm bu olumlu tablonun yanında öğretmenler, lisansüstü eğitimi teşvik eden bir kariyer sisteminin bulunmaması, öğrenilenlerin çeşitli nedenlerle uygulamaya geçirilememesi gibi önemli sorun alanlarından bahsetmişlerdir. Bulgular, tek başına lisansüstü eğitim yapmış olmanın yeterli olmadığını gerek lisansüstü eğitim programlarının yapısına gerekse öğretmenlerin Öğretmen Yetiştirme Mesleki Gelişim Lisansüstü Eğitim

Delineating Differences in How US High Schools are Racialized

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2022
YOUTH SOC

Schools’ overt or explicit practices are a dominant lens through which education researchers and policymakers attempt to understand how schools are racially inequitable. Yet, Lewis and Diamond argue that contemporary racial inequalities are largely sustained through implicit factors, like institutional practices and structural inequalities. Ray’s framework on racialized organizations similarly outlines how our racialized sociopolitical structure becomes embedded in organizations, legitimating and perpetuating the racialized hierarchy. We apply illustrative cluster analysis techniques to rich data on schools, teachers, and students from the nationally representative High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 to find that structural inequities (e.g., student body, sector, average achievement) appear to be most salient in delineating the racialization of US high schools, whereas the characteristics of schools and teachers that are typically emphasized for closing racial inequities in educational outcomes (e.g., teacher qualifications, courses offered, stratification practices) are not salient differentiators across schools.

Working Conditions of Indonesian Remote Elementary School Teachers: A Qualitative Case Study in Southern Papua

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2022

The quality of the teaching-learning process is determined not only by the qualifications and competence of teachers, but also by the school conditions in which they work. Teachers are clear about the working conditions that they need for them to be successful with students. A better working condition improves mood and concentration and provides an excellent working approach for teachers. This case study was intended to learn what working conditions teachers note as challenging while teaching in the remote elementary schools of Southern Papua. Seventeen teachers were willing to be interviewed to assist in answering the main inquiry question: "What are the most concerning aspects of working conditions that the remote elementary school teachers in Southern Papua have to deal with?" The study found four aspects of working conditions facing the remote elementary school teachers of Southern Papua, Indonesia, as the following: (a) school physical facilities and resources, (b) school principal, (c) salary and allowance, and (d) parents' support and involvement. From the results, we recommend the need for the regional government of Southern Papua, Indonesia, to create and maintain good conditions for teachers to remain teaching the youth of nations in a quality manner.

Out-of-School Suspension Rates in Maryland: Interactions of Race, Gender, and Disproportionality

Conference Paper

Jan 2019

Erin Janulis

Elementary School Social Experiences with Peers and Teachers: Manifestation and Development

Chapter

Aug 2022

An important part of children’s social experiences takes place in the context of school. For a substantial number of years in the first decade or so of their lives (i.e., “elementary school” years), young children spend a considerable number of hours each day in the presence of classroom peers, guided by teachers. This chapter focuses on these two important socializing agents of influence on children’s normative social and academic development, and well-being, in the classroom context. We present a conceptual framework to distinguish four levels at which the socializing influence of peers and teachers can be examined: children’s individual characteristics, interaction or social-interactive behaviors, dyadic relationships, and groups and group processes. This chapter reviews the relevant theory and empirical findings for each level in this framework, along with recommendations for future research.

Does School-Level Instructional Quality Matter for School Mathematics Performance? Comparing Teacher Data across Seven Countries

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2022

Based on the TALIS 2013 and PISA 2012 linkage data, we examine the measurement properties of school instructional quality and study its relationship with mathematics performance, considering school context characteristics (school composition, teacher–student relationship, and teacher qualifications). The study adopts a cross-country perspective. In five of the seven countries, a three-dimensional framework has been confirmed to study mathematics instructional quality (dis- ciplinary climate, supportive climate, and cognitive activation). As a common factor, disciplinary climate explains the variation in school mathematics achievement in four countries. The key is the interaction with socioeconomic status. Schools composed of students with favourable socioeconomic backgrounds reflect a disciplinary climate conducive to learning. Schools consisting of students with low socioeconomic backgrounds benefit more from a supportive climate, contributing to the reduction in the achievement gap. Schools with harmonious teacher–student relationships reflect differential effects on mathematics performance of schools consisting of students from lower- and higher-socioeconomic status families. Low-SES schools are more likely have less academically quali- fied teachers. School collective teacher qualification seems not directly related to school mathematics performance, but disciplinary climate mediates this link. Consistently, schools composed of students from high-socioeconomic status families tend to perform better.

Teacher Effectiveness in Adult Education: The Relationship Between Teacher Characteristics and Student Test Gains and Transitions Into Postsecondary Education

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2021
ADULT EDUC QUART

The federal adult education program serves over 2 million eligible adults who seek basic literacy and English language skills. Using administrative student-level panel data, this study provides the very first assessment of the relationships between adult education teacher characteristics and student achievement using hierarchical linear modeling design. Results show that students in classes with teachers with a bachelor’s or higher degree have higher post-test scores. Having a part-time adult education teacher was associated with lower odds of students transitioning to postsecondary education. Compared to teachers specialized in English as a second language, having an adult secondary education teacher is correlated with an increase in test score gains as well as higher odds of transitioning to postsecondary education. We also identified student characteristics (age, disability status, attendance hours, race, and employment status) and program characteristics (size, quality, and setting) that are statistically significantly correlated with student learning and students’ transition to postsecondary education.

The Relationships between Experience, Qualification and Subject Specialization and Content Knowledge Mastery of Economic and Management Sciences Teachers: A Case of Accounting Teaching

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2021

Habasisa Molise

This paper investigates the relationship between teaching experience, qualification, and subject specialization on the content mastery of teachers of financial literacy to Grade 9 learners. The sample consisted of 89 Grade 9 teachers of financial literacy in the Thabo Mofutsanyana education district of South Africa. Data was collected using a questionnaire that elicited biographical data and required teachers of financial literacy to answer questions on a variety of accounting topics, to diagnose the effect of teaching experience, qualification, and subject specialization on the content knowledge mastery of the teachers. The data revealed three distinct themes, namely, solving the accounting equation, understanding accounting concepts, and the connection between topics and application of accounting principles. The items of the questionnaire were clustered into three constructs: accounting equation, accounting concepts, and accounting principles and subsidiary journals. The results show that having experience of teaching the subject, having relevant qualifications, and having a minor or major subject specialization in financial literacy enhances teachers’ content knowledge and competence. This result suggests that teachers of financial literacy should have a minimum of three years of teaching experience before they teach senior classes, possess a relevant diploma or degree, and have had accounting as a subject until at least the second to the third year of their studies. In general, teachers should not be expected to teach subjects they did not specialize in, and their level of experience should be a determining factor in workload/subject allocation for teachers, especially for accounting (also known as financial literacy).

Teacher attrition: Human capital and terms of employment – Do they matter?

Article

Full-text available

May 2021

Addressing Sorensen and Tuma's resource–reward theory, we explored teacher attrition from an economic perspective. The study aimed to explore the extent to which teachers' resources and terms of employment correlate with attrition behavior. In a sample of 10,340 Israeli K-12 teachers it was found that many beginning teachers who left the profession were relatively highly educated. Although the literature stresses teachers’ intrinsic motivation for choosing their career, the findings, in line with earlier empirical studies, suggest that job rewards do play an important role in teachers' career decisions. Moreover, the current findings suggest that at lower salary levels, the rewards-attrition association differs by teacher higher-education level. That is, the attrition rates of highly-educated teachers drop more sharply as salary increases, as expected by the theory. Some explanations and policy recommendations are made.

The Education Process Viewed from the Standard-Based Education Paradigm in Public Schools: A Case From Central Java, Indonesia

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2021

Moh. Zamili

This study aims to analyse Indonesia's education process using a standard-based education paradigm in the process aspect. The study focused on public high school students on four educational standards released by the Central Java Provincial Education Quality Assurance Agency. Methodology: Case studies were selected based on data from national education standards. Data analysis processed using ATLAS.ti version 8. The research findings: the results showed the absence of regulations regarding improving teacher qualifications had worsened the standard achievement. Excessive implementation of educational concepts and ignorance of collaborative assessment of spiritual aspects obscures religious tolerance as a hallmark of Indonesian education.

ESL Teacher Certification Policy: Current Trends and Best Practices

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2021

Utilizing aspects of the Standards for Initial TESOL Pre-K-12 Teacher Preparation Programs (2018), this study seeks to review and critique current trends in ESL teacher certification policy nationwide. Data collection involved triangulating state policies found online with a brief questionnaire sent to teacher certification boards nationwide (51 in total). The researchers focused on whether or not state policies: (1) offer initial and/or add-on ESL certification; (2) have a test-out option for add-on ESL certification; (3) require a certain number of credits for add-on ESL certification; (4) align their coursework topic requirements with guidelines set forth by TESOL. Data analysis highlighted changes in policy from a previous survey conducted during the NCLB era ( Reeves, 2010 ), and compared requirements in each state’s policy to the Standards for Initial TESOL Pre-K-12 Teacher Preparation Programs (2018). Findings reveal an alarming trend toward less rigorous add-on certification (i.e., endorsement) pathways as well as a number of states either no longer offering initial certification or providing options for testing-out of coursework altogether. Additionally, many state policies outline required coursework, but few follow ESL teacher preparation guidelines set by TESOL International Association (TESOL) (2019) . This has led to a notable rift between current ESL teacher education policy and evidence-based best practices such as coursework on the linguistic and cultural aspects of second language learning.

Comparison of Impact of Secular and Religious Education on Children's Factuality Judgements and Problem Solving Strategies

Article

Feb 2021
Br J Relig Educ

Hüseyin Kotaman

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of religious education on Turkish children’s reality status judgements, reasoning processes and intercessory beliefs for problem solving. The participants consist of 51 children, 27 of whom are enrolled in a public kindergarten that provides secular education and 24 in private kindergarten that provides religious education in addition to a secular curriculum. Pre-Test-post-test design was utilised. When the children in the religious group encountered a problem that is almost impossible for them to solve with their own abilities, they tended to demand help from God more than the ones in the secular group did.

The Impact of School Infrastructure and Teachers' Human Capital on Academic Performance in Brazil

Article

Aug 2023

To improve one of the lowest rates of literacy and numeracy in the world, the government of Brazil has targeted public education reform, given the strong link between an educated population and economic growth. This study examines the academic performance of the Brazilian public primary school system. It addresses the empirical shortcomings of prior research to examine the dynamics of the relationship between academic performance scores and several demographic and institutional variables, such as socioeconomic characteristics, variations in school infrastructure and school complexity, and teachers' human capital. We employed quantile regression to explore the determinants of academic performance across 35,490 schools in rural and urban environments in Brazil. The dependent variable in our analysis captures the academic performance score, as measured by Brazil's education authorities, of each school in our dataset. The model includes several education-related indices used in prior research and, as explanatory factors, measures of teachers' human capital and the students' socioeconomic level, which synthesizes information on parents' education and household income. The results suggest that several institutional variables, including access to school libraries, computer facilities, projectors, and televisions, are positively and significantly related to the academic performance of primary students in Brazil's system of public education. Furthermore, students' socioeconomic level is positively associated with their academic performance.

Öğretmen Özerkliğinin Öğrencilerin Akademik Başarılarına Etkisine İlişkin Öğretmen GörüşleriTeachers' Views on the Effect of Teacher Autonomy on Students' Academic Achievement

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2023

Araştırmanın amacı, öğretmen özerkliğinin öğrencilerin akademik başarılarına etkisinin öğretmen görüşlerine göre derinlemesine araştırılmasıdır. Bu amaç doğrultusunda; öğretmen görüşlerine göre, “Öğretmenlerin özerklik davranışları nelerdir?” ve “Öğretmen özerkliğinin öğrencilerinin akademik başarılarının artırılmasına ne gibi katkıları olmaktadır?” sorularına yanıt aranmıştır. Araştırmada nitel araştırma yöntemlerinden olgubilim (fenomenoloji) deseni kullanılmıştır. Araştırmada amaçlı örneklem ve amaçlı örneklem altında ölçüt örnekleme yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Öğretmen özerkliği ve öğretmen özerkliğinin öğrencilerin akademik başarılarına etkisine ilişkin öğretmen görüşleri; “mesleki gelişim özerkliği”, “mesleki iletişim özerkliği”, “öğretim programı özerkliği” ve “öğretme süreci özerkliği” temalarında gruplandırılmıştır. Sonuç olarak her ülkenin iç dinamiklerini ve kültürünü dikkate alarak öğretmen özerkliğini dengeli bir şekilde oluşturması ve bu durumun eğitim öğretim süreçleri için olumlu sonuçları oluşturacağı göz ardı edilmemelidir. Öğretmenin denetim, yönetim süreçlerine katılımı, paydaşlarla iletişimi, öğretim yöntem ve teknikleri, öğretim programı ve mesleki gelişimi gibi konuları da kapsayan bütüncül bir bakış açısı ile ele alınması gerektiği düşünülmektedir. Bu şekilde geliştirilen ve desteklenen öğretmen özerkliğinin öğrencilerin akademik başarılarına katkısı olacağı söylenebilir.

“I Want to Contribute, but…”: Exploring the Perceived Valuing of Doctoral Qualifications Held by Teachers in Schools

Article

Jun 2023

Estimating effects of teacher characteristics on student achievement in reading and mathematics: evidence from Swedish census data

Article

Feb 2023

There is consensus that, for student achievement, teachers matter. However, providing reliable research evidence for the effects of observable teacher characteristics, such as qualification measures, has been difficult. The current study uses panel data based on register information from teachers and students to estimate effects of teacher characteristics on student achievement in mathematics and Swedish in Grade 6. Applying fixed-effects regression to a large sample of schools, we observed significant positive effects of several teacher characteristics. Having a teaching license was found to be one of the most important qualification measures, but teachers’ level of experience was also important for student achievement. The effects of teacher qualifications were generally stronger for mathematics than for Swedish.

Attracting and selecting the best talent into the teaching profession

Chapter

Full-text available

Mar 2018

Pablo Fraser

A key component of the establishment of a high-quality teaching workforce is attracting and selecting the best candidates into the profession. This chapter reviews how these processes take shape across the Ibero-American region by first looking at the data on the candidates wishing to enter the profession. It provides an overview of the entrance requirements for initial teacher education programmes and the proportion of certified teachers in the region and their association with students’ learning. It concludes with a review of the influence of career structures on building attractive professional positions that allow teachers further career advancement and development while maintaining equity in the education system.

The Relationship between the Educational Qualifications of Chief Financial Officers and the Effectiveness of Local District Financial Leadership in Alabama Public Schools: A Policy Analysis

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2009

In the early years of 2000, Alabama experienced a series of embarrassing financial incidents in localschool districts. In one of the largest districts in the state, an audit discovered the finances were in suchdisarray that deceased employees continued to be paid, bills went unpaid, and accounts had not beenreconciled in so long that no one knew the actual financial status of the school district. In the midst ofthis financial fiasco, the superintendent and the school board publicly acknowledged that they were notaware of the financial condition of the school system until the situation had deteriorated to the point thatthe state superintendent had to intervene. In several other districts, a sudden drop in expectedrevenues resulted in the lack of available funds to pay employees and resulted in school districts hastilymaking arrangements for bank loans to fund the payroll. Still in other districts, there were incidents offraud and intentional theft of funds by school employees – most commonly bookkeepers and otheremployees with access to school funds.

From the best practices of successful school leaders: Developing and validating the principal competencies inventory in South Korea

Article

Mar 2022
Educ Manag Admin Leader

This study aims to develop and validate the Principal Competency Inventory (PCI), an instrument used to assess a principal’s leadership competencies that promote student learning in South Korea. An extensive review of prior work was conducted to understand the theoretical foundation related to school leadership and the competency construct of the PCI derived from the Behavioural Event Interview of principals. Then, the psychometric procedures used in developing and validating the PCI were followed. The significance of this study and its practical implications for the use of this new instrument was discussed. From a theoretical and practical standpoint, this study contributes to the school leadership field by describing development and validation procedures, identifying where evidence of the reliable assessment instrument is lacking, and utilising the advantage of the competency-based framework. Also, the analysis of this study provides international perspectives about school leadership practices, thus supplementing the prior Western-focused literature in this field. In addition, this study offers useful information for policymakers and principal leadership development program designers who want to assess and evaluate principal leadership competency.

Human Resources in Multilevel Service Provision Performance: The Role of Field Offices and Local Organizations

Article

Jul 2021

Ricardo A. Bello-Gomez

The public management literature has extensively explored human resources’ (HR) contribution to organizational performance. However, HR approaches are seldom explored when assessing multilevel service provision. This research studies the HR-performance relationship when organizations at different government levels contribute to service provision. Beyond directly engaged local organizations, HR in national organizations’ field offices providing ancillary services may influence local service performance; however, local organizations’ HR levels moderate this contribution. Education in Colombia allows testing this model. While local schools directly provide classroom instruction, a national agency’s (Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar, ICBF) field offices provide related services. Relative workforce size and educational attainment serve to assess HR of schools and ICBF’s field offices while high school enrollment and dropout rates capture education provision performance. Schools’ HR increase performance and moderate ICBF’s indirect influence, offering evidence for both substitutive and reinforcing relationships between local and national organizations in service provision.

The Effect of Teacher Subject-Specific Qualifications on Student Science Achievement

Article

Nov 2022
LABOUR ECON

Pietro Sancassani

I investigate the effect of teacher subject-specific qualifications on student science achievement using data from TIMSS 2015, a large-scale assessment of student skills. I exploit the availability of student test scores in four different science subjects—biology, chemistry, physics, and earth science—to test whether teachers holding a subject-specific qualification raise student test scores. Using a within-student within-teacher approach, which controls for student and teacher heterogeneity, I find that teacher subject-specific qualification in one subject increases student test scores by 3.5% of a standard deviation in the same subject. The effect is stronger for female students, especially when they are taught by female teachers, for disadvantaged students, and in lower-performing countries. The mediation analysis reveals that 20% of the effect is explained by teachers feeling more confident to teach topics in subjects in which they hold subject-specific qualifications.

Back to School After School Closure in the Pandemic: Student Discipline Problems

Article

Oct 2022

Bilgen Kıral

The study was carried out to determine the disciplinary problems students experienced on returning to school after the pandemic. This is a case study, one of the qualitative research designs conducted with five principals working in high schools in Turkey, who volunteered to participate in the research in the first semester of the 2021–2022 academic year. Principals were selected according to the snowball sampling method. In the research, disciplinary problems were handled as personal, against friends, and disorganizing problems. When the reasons for disciplinary problems are examined, they are psychological, technological, social-emotional, familial, academic, and school orders. The measures by principals taken are reward-punishment and positive language and approaches.

How policy can help prepare early childhood teachers: the alignment between state childcare licensing policy and teacher qualification attainment

Article

Sep 2022
J Early Child Teach Educ

The qualifications that early childhood (EC) teachers attain vary across the 50 states. This variance is likely associated with the differences in state-level childcare licensing policies governing the qualification attainment of EC teachers. This research explores the relationship between childcare licensing policy and the qualifications that EC teachers attain. We examine secondary data from the National Survey of Early Care and Education merged with secondary policy data on childcare licensing policies for all 50 states. We use a series of linear and logistic regression models to understand how the policy stringency of childcare licensing predicts the attainment of educational degrees, EC certification, and professional development. We find more stringent policies predict teacher attainment of bachelor’s degrees in EC, certification, and professional development. Policy does not predict associate degree attainment in EC. Our finding that policy stringency aligns with qualification attainment demonstrates that policymakers can better target childcare licensing policies to promote qualification attainment among the EC workforce. This research can be used by 1) teacher education programs to illustrate how policies and regulatory standards influence the qualifications of the workforce that they prepare for careers in EC, and 2) policymakers to better craft and target childcare licensing policies that influence qualification attainment among their EC workforces.

Do teachers’ college majors affect students’ academic achievement in the sciences? A cross-subfields analysis with student-teacher fixed effects

Article

Sep 2022

We examine whether and how teachers’ major fields in college affect students’ achievement, exploiting within-student variation across subfields in natural science (i.e. physics, chemistry, biology, and Earth science). Using middle-school students’ data from the TIMSS and controlling for student-teacher fixed effects, we find that teachers improve students’ achievement in subfields of natural sciences correspond to their college majors. Teaching practices explain about half of the effect, mostly accounted for by teachers’ preparation for teaching science topics. The results are robust to potential endogenous matching between students and teachers.

Performance-Based Training Effectiveness Evaluation: Faculty Retooling in Focus

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2022

Alvin O. Cayogyog

Do Teachers' College Majors Affect Students' Academic Achievement in the Sciences? A Cross-Subfields Analysis with Student-Teacher Fixed Effects

Article

Jan 2022

Parents’ responses to teacher qualifications

Article

May 2022
J ECON BEHAV ORGAN

We identify the causal effect of children being assigned to more highly qualified teachers on their parents’ investments. Exploiting a unique setting in which teachers are randomly assigned to classes, we show that parents respond to more qualified teachers by increasing their children's private tutoring. A potential mechanism is an increase in parents’ belief that achievement is driven by student effort—for which tutoring is instrumental. Teacher qualifications are unrelated to test scores, however. Instead, they weaken students’ beliefs that effort is important for achievement, suggesting that private tutoring may have a demotivating effect on students. We conclude that family-wide behavioral reactions are important in educational production.

Selecting or Rewarding Teachers? International Evidence from Primary Schools

Article

Jan 2019

Raising the bar: Teaching kindergartners with emotional and behavioral disabilities and teachers’ readiness expectations

Article

Sep 2021
EARLY CHILD RES Q

This study examined whether kindergarten teachers’ school readiness expectations differed in classrooms with and without children with emotional and behavioral disabilities (EBD). Using teacher observations from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Kindergarten Class of 2010–11, where observations were selected based on a three stage sampling design to ensure national representation, we relied on a school fixed effects methodology given the large sample of teachers teaching classrooms with (N = 390) and without (N = 3480) students with EBDs. Using readiness expectations scales derived from teacher-reported survey items, we found that academic readiness expectations were no different across teachers but teachers with students with an EBD have higher social readiness expectations. The characteristics of teachers and classrooms did not consistently moderate readiness expectations. These findings indicate that teachers hold similar, and in some cases higher, expectations for students in classrooms with diverse learning differences and behavioral needs.

School leaders' preferences for teacher applicant characteristics in a large urban school district

Article

Jun 2021
J Educ Admin

Purpose We surveyed educational leaders in a large, urban school district in the southeastern United States, examining: (1) the factor structure of scores from a new measure of administrators' preferred teacher applicant characteristics, and (2) the relationships between administrator demographics and their preferences. Design/methodology/approach We implemented a non-experimental, cross-sectional survey design using the Preferred Teacher Applicant Characteristics Survey (PTACS). We undertook descriptive and exploratory factor analyses in order to examine dimensions and underlying patterns among the 31 survey items. The retained factors served as the dependent variables in our multiple regression analyses. Findings We identified a four-factor structure: (1) personal, (2) professional, (3) student outcomes, and (4) demographics. Our analyses suggest that there was not meaningful variability in administrators' preferred characteristics of applicants across racial and gender variables, but revealed a significant difference between principals and assistant principals for applicant demographics. Research limitations/implications Our findings are limited in their generalizability to the respondents from a single urban district who completed our survey in spring 2018. Although we cannot establish causation, the significant difference between principals and assistant principals for demographics may result from principals feeling greater pressure from district targets to hire diverse staff than their assistant principal counterparts. It is important to note that preferences for teacher applicant characteristics are different from actual hiring decisions and the availability of preferred characteristics. Originality/value Our study is the first large-scale use of the instrument in a large US urban school district, a context, which poses significant challenges to the education of youth as well as the hiring and retention of educators.

Evaluating the Effect of Teacher Degree Level on Educational Performance

Article

Full-text available

Teacher Quality and Student Achievement: A Review of State Policy Evidence

Article

Full-text available

Nov 1999

Linda Darling-Hammond

Using data from a 50-state survey of policies, state case study analyses, the 1993-94 Schools and Staffing Surveys (SASS), and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), this study examines the ways in which teacher qualifications and other school inputs are related to student achievement across states. The findings of both the qualitative and quantitative analyses suggest that policy investments in the quality of teachers may be related to improvements in student performance. Quantitative analyses indicate that measures of teacher preparation and certification are by far the strongest correlates of student achievement in reading and mathematics, both before and after controlling for student poverty and language status. State policy surveys and case study data are used to evaluate policies that influence the overall level of teacher qualifications within and across states. This analysis suggests that policies adopted by states regarding teacher education, licensing, hiring, and professional development may make an important difference in the qualifications and capacities that teachers bring to their work. The implications for state efforts to enhance quality and equity in public education are discussed.

Student Perceptions, I. Q. and Achievement

Article

Full-text available

Jan 1979

The study analyzes the determinants of reading achievement for 500 fourthgraders in the Wilmington, Delaware, school district. The data are an improvement over those used by past researchers because of the concurrent availability of student IQ, pretest and posttest reading scores, student perception and motivation information, and individual teacher characteristics matched with their individual students. The main results are (1) a large positive relation between achievement and the student's perception of a positive teacher attitude toward himself, and (2) a somewhat smaller, but nonetheless significant, positive effect of the student's perception of the parents' attitude toward the student's ability to succeed in life. The observed relationships suggest that earlier emphasis on more traditional teacher characteristics such as years of education and experience may have been misplaced.

Understanding ethnic differences in academic achievement: Empirical lessons from national data

Article

M. Phillips

When Should We Reward Degrees for Teachers?

Article

Oct 1998

Equality of educational opportunity quantified: a production function approach

Article

Jan 1977

Characteristics Associated with Effective Public High Schools

Article

Jan 2015

Delwyn L. Harnisch

This study identifies the school characteristics that are associated with four cognitive achievement measures for students during their last two years of high school. The study uses the High School and Beyond (HSB) data on 18,684 public high school sophomore students who participated in the 1980 base-year and 1982 follow-up study. Over 800 public schools across the country are included in the analyses. This study uses the longitudinal data for the sophomore cohort in evaluating the major factors associated with school variation in verbal, mathematics, science, and a composite performance measure. Results from this study revealed that gains were greater in those schools where a large percentage of students were enrolled in the academic curriculum and in the schools which offered a large number of additional courses beyond the remediation level. The quantity of instruction that a student took beyond the remedial level was positively related to test score gain. The school effects were significant but small in explaining total school variation. One factor that may explain the small school effects is that the cognitive measures used in this study may not be sensitive to detect differences that might exist between public schools in their effects on student achievement during the junior and senior years of high school.

Using Research on Employees' Performance to Study the Effects of Teachers on Students' Achievement

Article

Oct 1997

The study reported here used general ideas about employees' performance to develop and test a model of teachers' effects on students' achievement in mathematics using data from the longitudinal files of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88). A general model of employees' performance suggests that the effects of teachers on students' achievement can be explained by three general classes of variables: teachers' ability, motivation, and work situation. This article discusses how these general classes of variables can be operationalized in the NELS:88 data set and presents estimates of models of the combined effects of these classes of variables on students' achievement. The analyses revealed that teachers' knowledge of subject matter and expectancy motivation have direct effects on students' achievement in mathematics and that the size of these effects depends on the average levels of ability of students in a school.

The Impact of School Resources on the Learning of Inner City Children

Article

Sep 1976

Cumulative and Residual Effects of Teachers on Future Student Academic Achievement

Article

Jan 1996

What Large-Scale, Survey Research Tells Us About Teacher Effects on Student Achievement: Insights From the Prospects Study of Elementary Schools

Article

Dec 2002

This paper discusses conceptual and methodological issues that a-rise when educational researchers use data from large-scale, survey research to examine the effects of teachers and teaching on student achievement. Using data from Prospects: The Congressionally Mandated Study of Educational Growth and Opportunity 1991-1994, we show that researchers' use of different statistical models has led to widely varying interpretations about the overall magnitude of teacher effects on student achievement. However, we conclude that in well-specified models of academic growth, teacher effects on elementary school students' growth in reading and mathematics achievement are substantial (with d-type effect sizes ranging from .72 to .85). We also conclude that various characteristics of teachers and their teaching account for these effects, including variation among teachers in professional preparation and content knowledge, use of teaching routines, and Patterns of content coverage, with effect sizes for variables measuring these characteristics of teachers and their teaching showing d-type effect sizes in the range of .10. The paper concludes with an assessment of the current state of the art in large-scale, survey research on teaching. Here, we conclude that survey researchers must simultaneously improve their measures of instruction while paying careful attention to issues of causal inference.

Unions and Public Schools

Article

Jan 1984

Social Class Segregation and Its Relationship to Pupils' Examination Results in Scotland

Article

Apr 1986

Jon Willms

In 1965 Scotland began to reorganize its secondary education along comprehensive lines by abolishing selective transfer to secondary school. Ten years later the process was substantially completed. This study describes the socioeconomic composition of Scotland's school towards the end of the 1970s and examines the relationship between school composition and pupils' grades and attainment in the Scottish Certificate of Education examinations. The study employs data from the 1981 Scottish School Leavers' Survey, which surveyed a large representative sample of pupils that left school in 1980. The analysis provides estimates of socioeconomic status (SES) segregation for each of Scotland's administrative divisions, and employs multilevel regression analyses to estimate the contextual effects of school mean SES on examination results. The findings show that there is large between-school variation in SES in most school divisions, and that much of this variation is associated with an unequal distribution of pupils from high-social-class backgrounds. The findings also suggest that there are substantial contextual effects of school mean SES on examination attainment, that they are more strongly related to the proportion of high-social-class pupils in a school than the proportion of low-social-class pupils, and that they are equally strong for pupils of high and low ability alike.

Does Teacher Certification Matter? High School Teacher Certification Status and Student Achievement

Article

Jun 2000

We empirically test how 12th-grade students of teachers with probationary certification, emergency certification, private school certification, or no certification in their subject area compare relative to students of teachers who have standard certification in their subject area. We also determine whether specific state-by-state differences in teacher licensure requirements systematically affect student achievement. In mathematics, we find teachers who have a standard certification have a statistically significant positive impact on student test scores relative to teachers who either hold private school certification or are not certified in their subject area. Contrary to conventional wisdom, mathematics and science students who have teachers with emergency credentials do no worse than students whose teachers have standard teaching credentials.

How and why money matters: An analysis of Alabama schools

Article

Jan 1996

Value-Added Assessment

Article

Jan 1998

William L. Sanders

Comprising complex technologies from different academic areas, Tennessee's Value-Added Assessment System measures effects of the system, school, and teacher on rate of student progress. Research findings reveal neutral racial-composition effects for intermediate grades, deleterious effects for students changing buildings, lower yearly academic gains among higher achieving students, and effective teachers' key role. (MLH)

Teacher Quality: Understanding the Effectiveness of Teacher Attributes

Article

Jan 2003

Jennifer King Rice

This literature review outlines five measurable, policy-relevant teacher characteristics that reflect teacher quality: teacher experience, teacher preparation programs and degrees, type of teacher certification, specific coursework taken in preparation for the profession, and teachers' own test scores. It reviews a wide range of empirical studies that examine the impact of teacher characteristics on teacher effectiveness. Overall, several studies find a positive effect of experience on teacher effectiveness. The selectivity/prestige of the institution attended by a teacher has a positive effect on student achievement. Teachers who have earned advanced degrees have a positive impact on high school mathematics and science achievement when degrees earned are in those subjects. Research demonstrates a positive effect of certified teachers on high school mathematics achievement when the certification is in mathematics. Studies show little impact of emergency or alternative route certification on student achievement in mathematics or science compared to standard certification. Teacher coursework in both subject area taught and pedagogy contributes to positive education outcomes. Pedagogical coursework seems to contribute to teacher effectiveness at all grade levels. Tests that assess teachers' literacy levels or verbal abilities are associated with higher levels of student achievement. (Contains 108 references.) (SM)

Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods

Book

Jan 1997

Learning by doing, vintage, and selection: Three pieces of the puzzle relating teaching experience and teaching performance

Article

Sep 1981
ECON EDUC REV

This article points out that the puzzling nature of the evidence concerning the relationship between teaching experience and teaching performance is due at least in part to the research methodology used to study this relationship, in particular to the use of cross-sectional data on teachers. With cross-sectional data, the variable of interest—years of teaching experience—reflects three different phenomena: learning by doing, vintage and selection. These phenomena are explained and their influence on the relationship between experience and performance observed in a cross section of teachers is discussed. It is then shown that the impact of learning by doing on teaching performance is significantly increased when the impact is estimated in a model that explicitly accounts for vintage effects.

Assignment Practices and the Relationship of Instructional Time to the Reading Performance of Elementary School Children

Article

Dec 1984
ECON EDUC REV

Herbert J. Kiesling

This paper reports results from a study of the relationship of minutes of reading instruction to the gains in reading performance for a large sample of elementary school children in New York State. The data set included information for instruction and performance for each individual child. Consistent positive relationships were found between classroom large and small group instruction and reading gains. While the gross relationship of individualized instruction to reading gains was found to be negative, a hypothesis is advanced and tested that this is due in part to biases coming from improper modelling of resource assignment practices. When interaction terms are introduced to control for the suspected bias, the effect of individualized instruction turns positive. It is argued that assignment bias is a pervasive problem in school ‘production function’-type studies which probably needs to be controlled with simultaneous equation procedures.

Why Don’t Schools and Teacher Seem to Matter? Assessing the Impact of Unobservables on Educational Productivity

Article

Jun 1997

Using data drawn from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988, which allows students to be linked to particular teachers and classes, we estimate the impact of observable and unobservable schooling characteristics on student outcomes. A variety of models show some schooling resources (in particular, teacher qualifications) to be significant in influencing tenth-grade mathematics test scores. Unobservable school, teacher, and class characteristics are important in explaining student achievement but do not appear to be correlated with observable variables in our sample. Thus, our results suggest that the omission of unobservables does not cause biased estimates in standard educational production functions.

The Foundations of Educational Effectiveness

Article

Jan 1997

Incl. bibliographical references, index

Holding Schools Accountable: Performance-Based Reform in Education

Article

Jan 1996

Helen F. Ladd

The Trade-Off between Child Quantity and Quality

Article

Feb 1992

Eric A. Hanushek

An empirical investigation of trade-offs between number of children and their scholastic performance confirms that family size directly affects children's achievement. Though parents show no favoritism to first-born children, being early in the birth order implies a distinct advantage, entirely because of the higher probability of being in a small family. Recent large changes in family size explain a portion of aggregate test score declines, but increased divorce rates and market work by mothers have no apparent impact. Finally, teachers are shown to differ enormously, even though performance differences are poorly captured by commonly measured teacher characteristics. Copyright 1992 by University of Chicago Press.

Teachers, Schools, and Academic Achievement

Article

Sep 1998
ECONOMETRICA

Considerable controversy surrounds the impact of schools and teachers on the achievement of students. This paper disentangles the separate factors influencing achievement with special attention given to the role of teacher differences and other aspects of schools. Unique matched panel data from the Harvard/UTD Texas Schools Project permit distinguishing between total effects and the impact of specific, measured components of teachers and schools. While schools are seen to have powerful effects on achievement differences, these effects appear to derive most importantly from variations in teacher quality. A lower bound suggests that variations in teacher quality account for at least 7Â« percent of the total variation in student achievement, and there are reasons to believe that the true percentage is considerably larger. The subsequent analysis estimates educational production functions based on models of achievement growth with individual fixed effects. It identifies a few systematic factors a negative impact of initial years of teaching and a positive effect of smaller class sizes for low income children in earlier grades but these effects are very small relative to the effects of overall teacher quality differences.

Do Schools Make a Difference?

Article

Jan 1977

We show that the length of compulsory education has a causal impact on regional labour mobility. The analysis is based on a quasi-exogenous staged Norwegian school reform, and register data on the whole population. Based on the results, we conclude that part of the US-Europe difference, as well as the European North-South difference in labour mobility, is likely to be due to differences in levels of education in the respective regions.

Teachers, Schools, and Academic Achievement

Article

Feb 2005
ECONOMETRICA

This paper disentangles the impact of schools and teachers in influencing achievement with special attention given to the potential problems of omitted or mismeasured variables and of student and school selection. Unique matched panel data from the UTD Texas Schools Project permit the identification of teacher quality based on student performance along with the impact of specific, measured components of teachers and schools. Semiparametric lower bound estimates of the variance in teacher quality based entirely on within-school heterogeneity indicate that teachers have powerful effects on reading and mathematics achievement, though little of the variation in teacher quality is explained by observable characteristics such as education or experience. The results suggest that the effects of a costly ten student reduction in class size are smaller than the benefit of moving one standard deviation up the teacher quality distribution, highlighting the importance of teacher effectiveness in the determination of school quality. Copyright The Econometric Society 2005.

Subject Area Preparation of Secondary Mathematics and Science Teachers and Student Achievement

Article

Feb 1994
ECON EDUC REV

David H. Monk

Data drawn from the Longitudinal Survey of American Youth are the basis of this inquiry into the effects of mathematics and science subject matter preparation of secondary school teachers on pupil performance gains in these subjects. Results suggest that measures of how much a student's teacher knows about what he or she is teaching has a positive effect on pupils' learning gains. The evidence also suggests that the effects of subject matter preparation diminish with time and vary across types of students. Explicit attention is paid to policy implications for teacher education, recruitment, and retention.

Do School and Teacher Characteristics Matter? Evidence from High School and Beyond

Article

Feb 1994
ECON EDUC REV

This paper uses data from the High School and Beyond longitudinal study. We estimate the extent to which school characteristics and teacher characteristics influence the probability that public school students drop out of high school between their sophomore and senior years and, for those who do not drop out, whether these characteristics influence the extent to which students' scores on achievement tests increase during the 2-year period. The paper allows for the possibility that school and teacher characteristics are the result of both parent and teacher choices. It also statistically controls for the fact that “gain scores” are available only for students who did not drop out. School and teacher characteristics generally appear to influence gain scores more than they do drop-out probabilities. Students' gain scores are higher when teachers come from more selective institutions. The “selectivity” of a teacher's school may reflect intelligence or verbal ability, and analyses indicate that districts that pay higher salaries attract teachers from more selective institutions.

Teacher qualifications and early learning: Effects of certification status, degree, and experience on first-grade achievement. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Education Finance Association Teacher quality and student achievement: A review of state policy evidence

Jan 2000

R G Croninger
J K Rice
A Rathbun
L Darling-Hammond

Croninger, R. G., Rice, J. K., & Rathbun, A. (2003). Teacher qualifications and early learning: Effects of certification status, degree, and experience on first-grade achievement. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Education Finance Association, Orlando, FL. Darling-Hammond, L. (2000). Teacher quality and student achievement: A review of state policy evidence. Journal of Education Policy Analysis, 8(1).

Multilevel teacher resource effects on pupil performance in secondary mathematics and science: The case of teacher subject-matter preparation

Jan 1994
29

Monk

Monk, D. H., & King, J. K. (1994). Multilevel teacher resource effects on pupil performance in secondary mathematics and science: The case of teacher subject-matter preparation. In R. Ehrenberg (Ed.), Choices and consequences: Contemporary policy issues in education (pp. 29–58). Ithaca, NY: ILR Press.

Value-added assessment. The School Administrator

Jan 1998
24-32

W L Sanders

Sanders, W.L. (1998). Value-added assessment. The School Administrator, 55(11), 24-32.

Teacher qualifications and early learning: Effects of certification, degree, and experience on first-grade student achievement

Abstract

No full-text available

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Teacher qualification and the achievement gap in early primary grades