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The Economic Value of Higher Teacher Quality
Abstract
Most analyses of teacher quality end without any assessment of the economic value of altered teacher quality. This paper combines information about teacher effectiveness with the economic impact of higher achievement. It begins with an overview of what is known about the relationship between teacher quality and student achievement. This provides the basis for consideration of the derived demand for teachers that comes from their impact on economic outcomes. Alternative valuation methods are based on the impact of increased achievement on individual earnings and on the impact of low teacher effectiveness on economic growth through aggregate achievement. A teacher one standard deviation above the mean effectiveness annually generates marginal gains of over 100 trillion.
... It is widely agreed upon and empirically confirmed that education is essential for economic development due to its contribution to raising human capital and productivity (Becker, 1964;Benson, 1967;De la Fuente & Doménech, 2006;Demeulemeester & Diebolt, 2011;Hanushek & Woessmann, 2021;Mincer, 1984;Romer, 1986). It is also widely agreed upon that teachers have an essential role in the education process (Coleman, et al. 1966;Hanushek, 2011;Hanushek & Rivkin, 2010). Unfortunately, evidence has not been able to conclude which characteristics of teachers are the most important indicators of their quality and which have the largest effect on student performance (Hanushek, 2011). ...
... It is also widely agreed upon that teachers have an essential role in the education process (Coleman, et al. 1966;Hanushek, 2011;Hanushek & Rivkin, 2010). Unfortunately, evidence has not been able to conclude which characteristics of teachers are the most important indicators of their quality and which have the largest effect on student performance (Hanushek, 2011). Despite the common assumption that improving teachers' education will improve their quality, empirical studies often arrive at contradicting conclusions, and a meta-analysis conducted by Hedges, Laine and Greenwald (1994) suggests that teachers' education (as measured in years or level of education) impacts student's performance negatively. ...
... From all school resources, scholars tend to agree that teachers are one of the most important ones (Coleman et al. 1966;Hanushek & Rivkin, 2010;Hanushek, 2011). Some studies have investigated the value that teachers add to students by controlling for students' ...
Improving the quality of education is imperative for economic development, and educating teachers has been seen as one of the main ways to increase educational quality. Yet, there is conflicting evidence about the importance or effectiveness of teacher's education to improve student outcomes. This text makes use of the TALIS-PISA link from the OECD to disaggregate teachers' education into the different elements included in it and to test the relationship between those different elements and student performance. Results show that general pedagogy has a positive association with academic achievement, and so does subject content to a lower extent. Yet the relationship is negative for elements such as training in how to teach cross-curricular skills or how to use ICT for teaching. Classroom practice during teachers' studies is also negatively associated with student outcomes. Other elements do not seem to have consistent statistically significant relationships across subjects. The results from this study may help motivate further research into the specific training that teachers must receive to become better educators and contribute to improve educational outcomes and economic development.
... Today, it is still one of the most used and cited models in the field of higher education student dropout [8]. The shortage of research on pedagogical factors is unfortunate, as the strongest basis for understanding and strengthening the quality of teaching is established when changeable factors, on which one can actually intervene [9], are given particular awareness [10,11]. The reason for the shortage of research on the correlation between dropout and pedagogical factors is most likely manifold, but we consider two reasons to be dominant. ...
... This is a demanding and time-consuming research strategy, and, therefore, considerations regarding or intentions to drop out are often used as an early alert proxy for dropout [13,14], without us knowing if it is actually a good proxy. Secondly, it is suggested that pedagogical factors are often theoretically well-described but not clearly identifiable empirically [15], and it has been difficult to reliably identify specific factors with a reasonable effect size [10,16,17]. Due to the cruciality of these factors in the opportunity to strengthen the quality of teaching, a number of studies have sought to understand the reason why it is difficult to determine changeable factors [15]. ...
... The discussion on the study environment's quality leads us to the article's fourth and final research question: namely, how can student persistence be supported. As described in the Introduction, the lack of opportunity to take malleability into account in effect studies is described as a major reason for the lack of progression in studies of teaching quality, and this article's focus on the study environment is justified by a desire to focus on the so-called "changeable" [9] factors such as intervention programs, policies, and practices hypothesized (or believed) to enhance educational performance [11], which can be intervened on and are, therefore, the strongest basis for strengthening the quality of education [10] and, thus, hopefully retaining students in humanities programs. When it comes to the question of what can, therefore, be implemented to strengthen the quality of the study environment at different times during the students' educational trajectory, it is interesting that the regression models include variables from all three systems-the academic system, the social system, and teaching-changing so that the academic and teaching factors dominate the first-term model, the social factors dominate the second-term model, and the teaching factors dominate the fourth-term factor. ...
In this article, we investigate how tertiary humanities students’ perceptions of the study environment, dropout considerations, and background variables, respectively, explain variations in dropout. Based on Tinto’s Institutional Departure Model and a systematic review of the dropout literature, the study environment comprised an academic system, a social system, and teaching. Multivariate statistical analyses in the form of explorative factor analysis and logistic bivariate regressions were used on half-early register and survey data from all humanities students at a Danish university [University of Southern Denmark], matriculated in 2017–2019. This article found that students’ perceptions of their study environment explained between 15.8% and 36.9% of dropout, whereas dropout considerations and background parameters explained only between 0 and 9.1% and between 7.9 and 21.4% of dropout, respectively. We hereby present and discuss the results obtained during different terms. The discussion revolves around the proposed research instrument and the longitudinal research methodology, as well as around what we could learn from this study about being a humanities student and about study environments that could help us increase the number of graduates.
... At the same time, poor performance also damages the school reputation and causes parental reactions (Dean, 2002). On the other hand, individual and organizational inadequacies caused by low performance can also create long-term obstacles to the economic development of countries (Hanushek, 2010). ...
... It is argued that the effectiveness of schools is related to learning outcomes (Atkinson et al., 2009;Hallinger, Heck, & Murphy, 2014;Liu & Zhao 2013) and increase the quality of education (Hanushek, 2010). Given all this evidence, policymakers should prioritize teacher professional development for school effectiveness. ...
With the rapid changes in information societies and the mission of raising individuals who will adapt to this change, the concept of school effectiveness has come to the fore recently. This study aims to examine the extent to which the performance and professional development of teachers, who play the most important role in achieving school goals, influence school effectiveness. The predictive survey model, a subtype of the relational survey model, which is one of the quantitative research methods, was used within the scope of the research. The data were collected from 392 teachers working in public schools in Istanbul. As a result of the research, it was determined that there was a positive and significant relationship between teachers' perceptions of school effectiveness and their performance and professional development. The professional development of teachers positively affects their performance and school effectiveness. For this reason, policymakers need to carry out studies on the professional development of teachers in a much more comprehensive and planned manner to increase the effectiveness of schools. It should also be considered that the effect of in-service training should be measured with concrete measurement tools.
... The low performance would not enable the exiting learners to compete favourably in nationally and internationally in both education and employment arena where high quality academic grades are demanded for employment and continued education (UNESCO, 2017). On the other hand, an improvement in academic performance may lead to increased future income to individuals and to the nation (Hanushek, 2011). Table 2 highlights the learners' performance in K.C.S.E in all the Counties in Nyanza Region from 2018 to 2022. ...
... The low educational achievement suggests a lasting negative impact on individual lives and represents lost output for the national economy (Michelmore and Dynarski, 2016) due to a reduced technical skilled human capital and increased low level of productivity. In the context of this study, it may suggest that learners exiting secondary school education might not be competitively absorbed in training institutions to acquire relevant knowledge and skills for their individual and national development (Hanushek, 2011). The government has prevailed upon education stakeholders to address the worrying trend of low academic performance (Republic of Kenya, 2019). ...
Rewarding productive teachers signifies recognition by school leadership. This study aimed to determine the influence of principals’ reward systems on learners’ academic performance in K.C.S.E., grounded on Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy’s General Systems Theory. An explanatory sequential mixed-method design was employed, prioritizing quantitative data in phase one, followed by qualitative data in phase two. The target population included 4,691 participants: 340 principals, 1,360 Heads of Departments (H.O.Ds), and 2,991 teachers, with a sample of 451 respondents. Proportionate stratified random sampling selected 85 schools, 114 H.O.Ds, and 252 teachers, while census sampling chose national and special schools, and 85 principals were purposefully sampled. Data were collected using questionnaires and interview guides. Validity (content, criterion, construct, face) was ensured through expert evaluation, and reliability was confirmed with a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient over 0.7. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS Version 29, and qualitative data were analyzed thematically, presented with direct quotes and integrated with phase one findings. Descriptive statistics were shown in tables and graphs, and inferential statistics were presented as Pearson’s correlation coefficients, ANOVA, and regression coefficients. The study found a weak positive insignificant influence between the reward system and learners' academic performance (r=0.021, p≤0.05; 2-tailed), supporting the null hypothesis. Principals’ interviews indicated financial constraints and unclear promotion policies demoralize teachers. The study’s findings aim to guide corrective measures for low academic performance in the study area and recommend further research on the impact of principals' leadership skills on K.C.S.E. performance.
... Nurse shortages have detrimental effects on quality of care and societal health outcomes, e.g., exacerbating patient mortality (Aiken et al., 2002), and increasing 30-day hospital readmission rates (Friedrich & Hackmann, 2021). Relatedly, teachers are one of the most important inputs for human capital (Hanushek, 2011). Failing to deliver high-quality education over time could result in gaps in relevant knowledge and skills crucial for social and economic development (European Comission/EACEA/Eurydice, 2019 ;Santiago, (2002); UNESCO, (2016)). ...
... This especially holds for teachers who offer education to multiple students at the same time. In fact, decreasing class sizes -and thus increasing the number of teachers -sometimes leads to no or only modest improvements in student achievement (see e.g., Hoxby, 2000;Woessmann & West, 2006), while investments in teacher quality might generate more favorable learning outcomes (see e.g., Hanushek, 2011). Hence, the debate on teacher and staff shortages should not be limited to increasing the size of the workforce, but also its quality. ...
Both the healthcare and education sector suffer from considerable staff shortages. In the healthcare sector, shortages are particularly prominent for nurses, while the education sector experiences significant teacher shortages. In this systematic literature review, we examine the effectiveness of interventions and policies to reduce staff shortages in healthcare and education in high-income countries. We focus our analysis on studies that apply research designs that allow for causal inference to inform policymakers about the effectiveness of interventions. In total, we include 85 studies that meet our inclusion criteria. Out of these studies, 71 studies focus on teachers and 14 on nurses, and 72 of the retrieved studies were conducted in the US. The majority of studies examine the impact of financial incentives and a large share of these studies report positive effects on teacher employment. Moreover, different types of interventions that invest in workers’ human capital show predominantly positive effects on employment. Interventions that equip nurses with skills to better cope with the stressors of their profession seem to be particularly effective. The same holds for policies that increase the scope of practice for nurses. Finally, effective school leaders are better capable of retaining (high-quality) teachers.
... The low performance would not enable the exiting learners to compete favourably in nationally and internationally in both education and employment arena where high quality academic grades are demanded for employment and continued education (UNESCO, 2017a). On the other hand, an improvement in academic performance may lead to increased future income to individuals and to the nation (Hanushek, 2011). Table 2 highlights the learners' performance in K.C.S.E in all the Counties in Nyanza Region from 2018 to 2022. ...
... In the context of this study, it may suggest that learners exiting secondary school education might not be competitively absorbed in training institutions to acquire relevant knowledge and skills for their individual and national development (Hanushek, 2011). The government has prevailed upon education stakeholders to address the worrying trend of low academic performance (Republic of Kenya, 2019). ...
This study investigates the impact of principals' allocation of teaching and learning resources on academic performance in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (K.C.S.E.) in public schools. Grounded in Von Bertalanffy's General Systems Theory, this study employed a mixed-method explanatory sequential design, prioritizing quantitative methods followed by qualitative methods. The target population comprised 4,691 participants: 340 principals, 1,360 heads of departments (H.O.Ds), and 2,991 teachers. A sample of 451 respondents was selected using proportionate stratified random sampling for 85 schools, 114 H.O.Ds and 252 teachers, with census sampling for national and special schools and purposive sampling for 85 principals. Data were collected through questionnaires and interview guides, ensuring content, criterion, construct, and face validity via expert evaluation and reliability through Cronbach's alpha (≥0.7). Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS-29, while qualitative data were subjected to thematic analysis and integration with phase one findings. Descriptive statistics are presented in tables and graphs, as well as inferential statistics, including Pearson's correlation coefficients, ANOVA, and regression coefficients. The results reveal a moderately positive relationship (r=0.072, p≤0.05) between resource allocation and K.C.S.E. performance, thus supporting the hypothesis that resources are inadequate. The principal identified inadequate funding as a significant issue. The findings aim to inform corrective actions for poor academic performance, and further research on principals' leadership skills and their impact on K.C.S.E. performance is recommended.
... Research by Hanushek (2011) posit that the consistently underscored robust connection between teacher qualifications and student academic performance. A study by Ichaza and Omoregie (2020) revealed that educators with advanced degrees and specialized training significantly enhance student achievement. ...
... Given the importance of chemistry education, addressing these challenges is critical for the future prospects of Bayelsa State's students. Numerous empirical studies have revealed the significance of teachers explaining noticeable variances in students' achievement (Hanushek, 2011) but studies on impact of teachers' qualification and experience on chemistry students' academic performance in Bayelsa State are insufficient. This study aims to investigate the impact of chemistry teachers' qualification and experience on academic performance of senior secondary school chemistry students in Bayelsa State. ...
The purpose of the study was to examine impact of chemistry teachers’ qualification and years of experience on academic performance of secondary school students in Ogbia Local Government Area in Bayelsa State. The study adopted an expo-facto survey research design. Two research questions were raised and answered. The population of the study was 35 secondary schools and 3,116 chemistry students in Ogbia Local Government Area, Bayelsa State. 184 students and 10 teachers were used as sample in the study. A teacher questionnaire titled, "Teachers’ Qualification and Experience" was used for data collection and it was validated by two science education experts. There was no reliability since students’ previous scores were used. Frequency, percentage and mean were used to answer the research questions. The findings showed that teachers’ qualification and years of experience have a significant impact on students’ academic achievement in senior secondary schools in Ogbia Local Government Area. Hence, teachers' qualification and years of experience are major determinants that affect students' performance in senior secondary schools in Ogbia Local Government Area. This implied that government should establish policies that increase the number of teachers with B.Ed in chemistry and schools should prioritize hiring teachers with appropriate qualifications and years of experience in chemistry education so as to enhance academic performance in chemistry.
... Several studies emphasize that teachers should maintain distinctive attributes in their teaching styles to promote student learning (Hanushek, 2011). Specifically, teaching styles can demonstrate teacher quality and influence students' learning styles and overall development when aligned with students' preferences (Lavy, 2016). ...
Global concern surrounds students' mathematics learning, development, and achievement. Scholarly discussions have explored various factors influencing students' mathematics performance. However, more information is needed to understand the impact of mathematics teaching styles on student outcomes in developing contexts like Nepal. This study examines the moderators of mathematics teaching styles and their influence on students' performance. To achieve this, the Teachers' Teaching Style Questionnaire (TTSQ) collected quantitative data from 469 grade nine students across 14 high schools in Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur districts of Nepal. Confirmatory factor analysis, path analysis, and moderation analysis were performed to examine the effects of teaching styles on student achievement in mathematics. Key findings indicate that teaching styles, such as consideration and openness, are not significant predictors of student achievement, but rigid teaching styles can predict student achievement in mathematics. However, impact of the rigid teaching style was negative on student achievement. School type influenced the relationship between performance and considerate teaching, favoring private schools. School location influenced the relationship between considerate teaching and student performance in mathematics, favoring rural schools. Likewise, urban schools had a negative effect on the relationship between teacher openness and student performance, but rural schools had a positive effect on their relationship. Furthermore, low and high-ability students moderated the relationship between considerate teaching and student achievement, with the negative effect of low ability on considerate teaching and student performance and the positive influence of high ability on considerate teaching and student achievement. Student ability influenced the relationship between teacher openness and student performance, with a negative moderations of low and moderate ability students. The study concludes by emphasizing the importance of teacher training in teaching styles for high schools in Nepal and similar contexts.
... Evidence suggests that features of the U.S. education system can disadvantage students from minoritized racial and ethnic groups. Geographical segregation coupled with an aversion among many teachers to the prospect of working in diverse settings (Boyd et al., 2013; may make racial and ethnic minority students disproportionately likely to be taught by lower quality teachers (e.g., those who performed worse on certification exams and have fewer years of experience; Goldhaber et al., 2015;Knight, 2020); this may, in turn, have significant impacts on students' educational and later life outcomes (Hanushek, 2011). Moreover, the fact that teachers tend to have similar levels of implicit bias to the general population (Starck et al., 2020) may consequently influence their assessment practices (Anderson-Clark et al., 2008;Doyle et al., 2023), disciplinary actions (Okonofua & Eberhardt, 2015), interactions with students (Goudeau et al., 2023), and school preferences . ...
Racial inequalities in education may be exacerbated by teachers’ lack of confidence about working with students from racial and ethnic backgrounds different to their own. Although intergroup contact experiences typically enhance people’s self-efficacy about navigating cross-group interactions, very little work has explored such trends among teachers. Across two cross-sectional studies and one preregistered repeated measures experiment (N = 1,608), we reveal that (a) White teachers’ interracial contact experiences predicted a stronger sense of self-efficacy about cross-race engagement; (b) White teachers generally showed a preference for working in a majority-White school compared to a majority-Black school, but this bias was attenuated by teachers’ interracial contact experiences; and (c) the link between cross-race friendships and desire to work in the majority-Black school was mediated by a greater sense of self-efficacy.
... Kane and Staiger (2008) in their research emphasised the long-term benefits of effective teaching on students' academic trajectories and highlighted the variability in teacher performance across different contexts. In fact, effective teachers can significantly influence student performance, often more so than any other school-related factor (Hanushek, 2011). A longitudinal study by Chetty et al. (2014) demonstrates that high quality teachers can help to improve student achievement substantially, with lasting effects on future earnings and educational attainment. ...
The Standardised Teacher Assessment and Review (STAR) assessment framework provide operational definitions and understanding of the key aspects of teacher competencies measured by STAR. It details on how these competencies are measured, enabling necessary decisions related with teacher proficiency. The framework establishes parameters for test development through a principled design approach and defines the scope of content for the assessment instrument organised into four domains and 12 strands. The subsequent sections describe the detailed content related to each domain, ensuring comprehensive coverage and clarity in the assessment process. The robust structure not only supports the integrity of the assessment but also aligns with best practices in educational evaluation. Development of the framework started with a review of the literature, specifically focused on in-service teachers’ professional learning that identified the key elements for inclusion in the assessment. Drawing on the experience of reputed academic leaders and teachers from partner schools, the element list was further refined and distilled to indicate how these elements are aligned with the National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST). The framework is designed for use by academic school leaders, programme coordinators, subject coordinators, and those who design and implement professional learning opportunities for their teachers.
... Teachers play a highly influential role in the academic and broader life outcomes of the students they teach (Egalite et al., 2015;Hanushek, 2011;Murphy & Machin, 2011). Indeed, in the space of just one academic year, students taught by high-quality teachers may gain the equivalent of an entire year's worth of extra learning compared to those assigned low-quality teachers (Hanushek, 1992). ...
Schools serving diverse and low‐income communities tend to have disproportionately high numbers of low‐quality or inexperienced teachers, thereby creating an inequality of access to high‐quality teaching. Across two pre‐registered experiments and one exploratory survey ( N total = 956), we investigated the factors associated with trainee teachers’ bias in school choices, and the role of teacher education in mitigating this issue. In Studies 1 and 3, trainee teachers demonstrated a preference for working in a school with average (vs. diverse/low‐income) demographics, even though all other aspects of the school were equal. These disparities were most pronounced when trainees more strongly believed that (a) educational inequality can be attributed to external factors; (b) intelligence is fixed, and (c) schooling is truly meritocratic. Study 2 revealed that levels of equity‐related input during initial teacher education vary hugely, but that, where implemented, it may better prepare trainees for the challenges associated with teaching in diverse and low‐income communities. Finally, Study 3 revealed tentative evidence to suggest that a brief intervention that challenges teachers to think beyond the internal causes of inequality could reduce some of these troubling disparities.
... We must develop targeted strategies to enhance BTEC's appeal to potential educators and support the existing faculty, effectively addressing the institution's recruitment and retention challenges. One critical strategy involves improving salary structures and benefits for teacher educators (Hanushek, 2011;Lavy, 2007). Research indicates that competitive compensation is fundamental in attracting and retaining talent within the education sector (Hajnal & Dibski, 1993;Kelley & Finnigan, 2004). ...
This study explores the factors influencing teacher educators' decisions to work at Battambang Teacher Education College (BTEC) in Cambodia, including their challenges and BTEC's strategies for attracting and retaining qualified staff. Through semi-structured interviews with faculty and administrative personnel, the research identifies that professional opportunities, personal motivations, and financial incentives significantly impact career choices. However, challenges such as inadequate resources, limited professional development, and insufficient administrative support hinder job satisfaction and retention. The study underscores the need for effective strategies, like competitive compensation and targeted marketing, and a supportive workplace culture through mentorship programs. Addressing these challenges can enhance BTEC's attractiveness as a premier educator development college, ultimately improving educational outcomes and fostering stakeholder optimism.
... Qualities of teachers reckon upon the quality of teacher education, which is the backbone for quality education, where it plays a crucial role in shaping the quality of school education. A child taught by a good teacher gains 1.5 grade-level equivalents, while a child taught by a bad teacher only gets half an academic year's worth (Hanushek 2011). The professional qualifications of the teachers had a significantly positive association with the performance of the students (NCERT 2017). ...
... Studien aus dem Forschungsbereich der Bildungsökonomie ist zu entnehmen, dass sowohl das Wirtschaftswachstum eines Staats als auch das regionale Wachstum positiv mit der Qualität der Ausbildung der Erwerbstätigen korrelieren (Hanushek & Woessmann, 2012) und auch deren individuelles Einkommen steigern können (Hanushek et al., 2017). Neben der Betrachtung von Output-Faktoren ist ferner festzustellen, dass eine gute Unterrichtsqualität und eine ausgeprägte Fachkompetenz von Lehrkräften einen hohen Einfluss auf das zukünftig zu erwartende Einkommen der unterrichteten Schüler*innen haben kann (Chetty et al., 2014;Hanushek, 2011;Hanushek et al., 2019). Diese evidenzbasierte Beziehung zwischen einem hohen Bildungsgrad der Bevölkerung und dem volkswirtschaftlichen Wohlstand eines Landes unterstreicht die Bedeutung in der Transparenzlegung von Bildungsprozessen bei Assessments (Hanushek, 2019). ...
Dieses Buch thematisiert die Erhebung der ökonomischen Kompetenz von Schüler*innen der Sekundarstufe I und verfolgt dabei drei Forschungsziele: (1) die Konzeption und Modellierung der ökonomischen Domäne, (2) die modellbasierte Entwicklung eines Testinstruments zur Messung ökonomischer Kompetenz und (3), wie unterschiedliche Evidenzquellen, bezogen auf die Curriculum-Instruction-Assessment-Triad, die Validität der Testwertinterpretation in der ökonomischen Domäne sicherstellen können. Das entwickelte Testinstrument TBA-EL wurde anhand des Evidence-centered-Designs entwickelt und stellt einen psychologischen Leistungstest dar, der über ein möglichst authentisches, computergestütztes Design das Konstrukt der ökonomischen Kompetenz operationalisiert. Die Befunde der Analyse weisen auf ein zweidimensionales Modell ökonomischer Kompetenz, mit einer Differenzierung in einer sprachlich-argumentativen und einen mathematisch analytischen Zugang zu ökonomischen Inhalten hin. Darüber hinaus lässt sich über schwierigkeitsgenerierende Merkmale ein fachdidaktisch interpretierbares Kompetenzniveaumodell entwickeln. Ebenfalls lassen sich schulformspezifische Unterschiede in der Instruktionssensitivität des Testinstruments feststellen. Die Befunde weisen eine hohe Anschlussfähigkeit sowohl an die wirtschaftspädagogische als auch die ökonomisch allgemeinbildende Forschung auf und adressieren ein zentrales Desiderat.
... Şagirdlərin öyrənmə qabiliyyətinin artırılmasında ən önəmli məsələlərdən biri də müəllimlərin şagirdlərlə olan qarşılıqlı münasibətidir (Hanushek, 2011). Bunu nəzərə alaraq, PISAda məktəb direktorlarından və şagirdlərdən xoşagəlməz məktəb ab-havası yarada bilən və şagirdin öyrənməsinə mane olan bəzi müəllim davranışları, məsələn, müəllimlərin dəyişikliklərə qarşı müqaviməti, dərsə hazırlıqsızlıq və dərsdən yayınma halları barədə bir neçə sual soruşulub. ...
Developing countries around the world, including Azerbaijan, are interested in participating in various international studies to assess the effectiveness of their education systems and identify the necessary steps for implementing successful education policies. As examples, some of these studies include PISA, PIRLS, TIMSS, TALIS, PIAAC, and ICILS. This article discusses the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), with a particular focus on the impact of the school environment on students' academic outcomes. Additionally, the focal points mentioned have been compared to the results from Azerbaijan and other countries. Furthermore, the study seeks to answer the questions, "What are the factors that directly or indirectly affect students' outcomes in PISA?" and "How significant is their role?"
... Adequate salaries are crucial for attracting and retaining high-quality teachers, which directly influences student outcomes such as test scores and graduation rates. Research shows that higher teacher pay is associated with improved teacher performance, as it fosters job satisfaction and reduces turnover (Hanushek, 2011). Bonuses, such as performance-based incentives, can further motivate teachers to improve classroom practices, positively affecting student achievement (Podgursky & Springer, 2011). ...
Purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate the correlation between teacher motivation, remuneration, and student outcomes in Nigeria, with a focus on public versus private educational institutions Methodology: This study adopted a desk methodology. A desk study research design is commonly known as secondary data collection. This is basically collecting data from existing resources preferably because of its low cost advantage as compared to a field research. Our current study looked into already published studies and reports as the data was easily accessed through online journals and libraries. Findings: The investigation into the correlation between teacher motivation, remuneration, and student outcomes in Nigeria reveals a clear link between teacher incentives and student performance, with notable differences between public and private institutions. In private schools, where teachers generally receive higher salaries and better working conditions, student outcomes are significantly better, as measured by exam performance and retention rates. Conversely, in public schools, low teacher remuneration, lack of incentives, and inadequate working conditions result in low teacher motivation, which negatively impacts student outcomes. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Herzberg’s two-factor theory, expectancy theory & equity theory may be used to anchor future studies on the correlation between teacher motivation, remuneration, and student outcomes in Nigeria, with a focus on public versus private educational institutions. Performance-based remuneration systems should be implemented in public schools to enhance teacher motivation. Policymakers should establish a national remuneration framework that aligns public and private sector teacher pay, ensuring equity in compensation and reducing the motivation gap between the sectors.
... Educational research has consistently found that among school-based inputs, classroom teachers have the most significant effects on student outcomes (Chetty et al., 2014a;Hanushek, 2011;Rivkin et al., 2005). The potential influence of an effective teacher also extends into adulthood, leading to higher college attendance rates, increased income and employment, and lower levels of incarceration in later life (Chetty et al., 2014b). ...
... Economic conditions influence the level of funding available for education, affecting everything from teacher salaries to the quality of school facilities. During economic downturns, education budgets often face cuts, which can lead to larger class sizes, reduced resources, and lower educational quality (Hanushek, 2013). Conversely, a strong economy can enable significant investments in education, leading to better infrastructure, more comprehensive programs, and enhanced educational outcomes. ...
Background: political ideologies, such as neoliberal and socialist perspectives, significantly influence the formulation and implementation of education policies, impacting factors such as resource allocation, curriculum design, and access to education. Objective: to determine the correlation between political ideologies and educational psychology in fostering economic growth and sustainable development in Nigeria. Method: the study adopted a structured methodology for an opinion paper which ensured that opinions were presented clearly and persuasively following these steps: introduction, conceptual clarification, review of related literature, conclusion, recommendation, references. Result: the study uncovered that political ideologies and educational psychology play crucial roles in fostering economic growth and sustainable development in Nigeria. Conclusion: there are promising opportunities such as technological advancements, data-driven insights, the growing focus on socio-emotional learning, and global collaboration, leveraging these opportunities, educational psychology can foster a more inclusive and effective educational environment. Unique Contribution: the study provides a nuanced understanding of how various political ideologies influence educational policies and their subsequent impact on economic growth. Key Recommendation: policymakers, educators, and researchers should prioritize the integration of their fields to foster sustainable national development. This collaboration will lead to more informed and effective policies, ensuring benefits for both current and future generations.
... If we assume, for the moment, that behavioral responses and dynamic complementarities are zero, then these estimates of depreciation (one minus depreciation) are in between 40% to 60%. These estimates of depreciation are similar to what others have found (e.g., Todd and Wolpin 2007;Hanushek 2010). Analogous estimates from models that include the baseline test score are very similar and range from 0.36 to 0.55. ...
In this article, we use data from the Head Start Impact Study to assess the effect of attending preschool at ages three and four on cognitive and behavioral skills and whether these effects depreciate and fadeout or result in dynamic complementarities that affect skills. Evidence from our analyses suggests that effects of preschool depreciated significantly within a year and that there were no positive dynamic complementarities that offset depreciation. Furthermore, our findings suggest that only a small fraction of the accumulation of cognitive and behavioral skills from ages three to four and four to five can be explained by preschool attendance limiting its ability to address racial and socioeconomic disadvantages in child development.
... Additionally, teachers with higher value-added scores positively influence later in life outcomes such as wages and college-attendance (Chetty et al., 2014). Another study estimated that in a class of twenty students, a one-standard deviation increase in teacher value-added generates marginal gains of over $400,000 annually in present value of student future earnings and proportionately increases with larger class sizes (Hanushek, 2011). ...
While teacher preparation in the United States continues a long period of decline, the largest-producing state, Texas, is experiencing substantial changes in how it prepares teachers. The number of teachers prepared by traditional university pathways continues to decline, and the number from alternative pathways is rising. Using extensive data from Texas, we find that traditionally prepared teachers from universities obtain significantly higher student learning gains than alternatives. We use value-added models to estimate changes in student test scores in many grade levels and test subjects as a function of teacher preparation pathway. We compare all Traditional programs to all Alternative programs, and we compare all For-Profit programs to all Not for-Profit programs. For most subjects and grade levels, students learn significantly more from Traditional or Not for-Profit program teachers: 0.02 to 0.05 in standard deviation units. There is not one significant estimate in any model where students learn more from Alternative and For-Profit programs teachers than they do from Traditional and Not For-Profit program teachers.
... However, attracting and retaining teachers, especially in remote schools, has become increasingly challenging (See et al., 2020). According to Hanushek (2011) and Sutcher et al. (2016), high-quality education and teachers are crucial for every country's development, yet recruiting and keeping qualified teachers has long been a global educational policy concern. Darling-Hammond (2010) adds that teaching quality is influenced not only by the teacher's abilities but also by the instructional context. ...
Background: The workplace can be a source of stress if relationships are strained, as these interactions significantly impact individual well-being. Although numerous studies address the challenges and well-being of teachers, there is a scarcity of research on the relational experiences and relationships that are essential for teachers’ well-being.Objectives: The study aimed to understand the relational experiences and relationships that contribute to the well-being of teachers in rural primary schools.Methods: Purposive sampling was employed to select 10 male and female teachers with five or more years of teaching experience from quintile 1–3 ordinary rural schools in South Africa. The data were obtained through semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically.Results: The study’s findings revealed that schools can provide conducive spaces for experiencing and forming positive interactional relationships with learners, peers and the community. In addition, teachers thrive because of important relationships that give meaning, such as nurturing interpersonal collaboration, finding purpose in life, fulfilment and valued relationships. Such relationships enable teachers to consistently strive for the best in their work performance.Conclusion: Positive interactional relationships not only enhance the well-being of teachers but also contribute to the overall success of education.Contribution: Our findings have implications for relational well-being interventions for teachers in the education sector.
... Teacher VAM itself may also be used to identify which teachers are effective, as teacher VAM from previous years strongly predicts student growth in future years (Rivkin et al., 2005;Rockoff, 2004). Higher teacher VAM is associated with better behavioral outcomes, such as lower absence and suspension rates (Jackson, 2018;Kraft, 2019), and better student long-term outcomes, such as higher college-going rates, higher adult salaries, and fewer teen pregnancies (Chetty et al., 2014;Hanushek, 2011). However, there is no research estimating or using VAM in Christian schools, likely because of the lack of consistent standardized testing practices. ...
Teacher quality is one of the most important factors influencing a student’s educational outcomes, yet scant research has examined teacher hiring and quality in Protestant Christian schools. In this qualitative work, we thematically analyze interviews about Christian schools’ teacher hiring practices with a group of 12 leaders from 10 member schools in the Association of Christian Schools International. We find that these 10 schools generally follow a standard hiring process. The qualifications they seek in teachers could be arranged into a pyramid, where the base—the most fundamental quality—is demonstration of authentic belief in Protestant Christian doctrines. After faith, school leaders desired teachers to demonstrate Christian virtue and to be a good “fit” for their school culture; at the tip of the pyramid is the category of professional and pedagogical skills. While there was some heterogeneity in the top three tiers among school leaders, all agreed on the importance of Christian school teachers having “a heart for Christ and a heart for kids.”
... The relationship between academic performance and future earnings is well-documented in various studies Hanushek [32]; Hanushek and Zhang [33] and Lazear [34] indicating a strong correlation between educational achievement and financial success. Individuals who excel academically often have better opportunities for higher-paying jobs, career advancement, and overall financial stability. ...
Education is a key driver in reducing poverty and increasing shared prosperity. This study aimed to examine the impact of parental socioeconomic status and the school’s physical facilities availability on academic performance. A quantitative survey research approach was utilized taking the state junior high school students in Southern Papua Province, Indonesia, as the population and samples. Data on parental socioeconomic status and the school’s physical facilities availability were gathered using two quantitative survey questionnaires, while data on student academic performance was obtained by getting the surveyed students’ academic records. The obtained data were subjected to statistical analysis using the SPSS software version 21. The results revealed a significant positive impact of parental socioeconomic status and the school’s physical facilities availability on academic performance among the state junior high school students in Southern Papua Province, Indonesia, both partially and simultaneously. The result highlights the importance of addressing the disparities in access to quality education between students from different socioeconomic backgrounds. This study’s findings may endorse the efforts to eliminate class-based gaps in students’ academic performance in compulsory education. In addition, government policy on the socioeconomic status of parents and school grants should be implemented thoroughly to promote educational equity so that students from low economic backgrounds have equal access to quality education.
In this paper we use novel data to test the direct and indirect paths between teacher self-efficacy and student outcomes. This includes how teacher self-efficacy is linked to student, teacher, and expert rater views of lesson quality. Our results illustrate how the link between teacher self-efficacy and instructional quality is sensitive to how lesson quality is measured, with large effects when based on teacher reported outcomes but no association when based on the ratings of expert observers. Virtually no relationship is found between teacher self-efficacy and student outcomes. We thus conclude that while there is probably some positive association between teacher self-efficacy and the quality of their instruction, the strength of this relationship is relatively weak.
This study explores the mediating roles of professional development and teacher leadership in the relationship between educational research and teacher performance. Data from 465 Turkish teachers were analyzed using a multiple mediation model. Results show that educational research positively influences teacher performance directly and indirectly through professional development and leadership, enhancing overall performance. Significant connections between educational research, professional development, and leadership are highlighted. The findings suggest that integrating educational research with teacher development and leadership can improve teacher performance, providing valuable insights for educational leaders and policymakers focused on enhancing teacher effectiveness.
The research aimed to assess how different levels of teachers' years of experience affect students' academic outcomes. A sample size of 124 respondents was selected, including head teachers, subject heads, experienced and newly qualified teachers, and students. Quantitative data analysis was conducted using Pearson correlation and regression analysis. The results indicated that years of experience also played a key role, with the regression model showing a significant positive effect (β = 0.39, p < 0.05). Teachers with more than five years of experience demonstrated higher student success rates, with an average increase of 15% in pass rates. The R² value of 0.52 indicates that 52% of the variance in student academic performance can be explained by teachers' experience. The study concluded that experience of teachers plays a critical role in various aspects of educational effectiveness, particularly in shaping competitive remuneration packages, influencing the adequacy of benefits, and impacting student academic performance. The data suggests that while many teachers recognize the contribution of experienced educators in advocating for compensation aligned with industry standards, the wide variation in perceptions indicates that there may be significant disparities in how individual teachers assess the effectiveness of these packages based on their personal experiences and career trajectories. It was recommended that schools should implement structured pay scales that offer incremental salary increases based on years of experience. This approach will help retain experienced teachers by providing them with competitive, long-term financial rewards. Educational institutions should establish regular intervals (e.g., annually) for reviewing teacher salaries to ensure that they remain competitive with industry standards. These reviews should involve teachers and unions to guarantee transparency and fairness. In addition to salaries, benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, and family support programs should be enhanced. These benefits should be tailored to address the evolving needs of teachers at different stages of their careers, providing financial security and promoting long-term retention.
This chapter problematizes the assumption that resources are allocated to maximize education outcome and question what resources matter more to promote equality of education. In this context, given the multiple benefits of education, the primary goal of this chapter is to understand the school and non-school inputs that influence student progress in Utah amidst an increase in the education budget and teacher shortages. There are reasons that we believe that an effective approach to the equality of educational opportunity requires not only school input but also disruptive innovation. The latter is supported by a contextualized transfer of policies and practices based on adaptation to the local context. At the core of this argument is an understanding of quality education as the product of a community, rather than a product of a single policy. This distinction is necessary as the education production function approach ignores important diverse student backgrounds and refuses to admit the heterogeneity of societies, thus distorting the pivotal role of culture, and the positive relations of unobservable variables in the education production function.
Over recent years there has been a strong emphasis on engagement and attendance as indicators of success in remote First Nations education. Attendance in remote schools has been steadily falling for several years. At the same time teacher quality and quality teaching have been described as critical for student outcomes. Finding teachers who have the right qualities and experience for working in remote schools has long been a challenge. In this article, we ask the question: What is quality teaching in remote First Nations schools, and what difference does it make? The article is based on research conducted in Western Australia and the Northern Territory during 2023 by researchers from Batchelor Institute, Curtin University and University of Notre Dame. The research involved a quantitative survey involving 226 respondents, and qualitative interviews or yarns with 139 respondents, mostly conducted by Aboriginal community-based researchers. The sample included students, teachers and school staff, principals, and community members. The research aimed to determine why young people engaged with school, and what schools are doing to support young people to complete Year 12. Some of the strongest responses in the qualitative data suggested that the quality of teachers (not so much about the quality of teaching) affects student engagement. There were also indications in the quantitative data that teachers are important for engagement. Local teachers, and teachers who brought cultural knowledge, and who were able to support first language learning were recognised as making a positive impact.
This study joins an intense research debate regarding whether competition is beneficial for student outcomes, focusing on the relationships between student-level and school-level competitiveness and student academic achievement. I also examine the impact of country-specific competitiveness context on the relationships between competitiveness and student achievement. This study's assumptions and hypotheses were guided by theoretical tenets of Swab & Johnson's multilevel model of competition and competitiveness and the person-culture fit model. Using Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 data and World Values Survey (WVS) data from 57 countries, I analyzed three-level hierarchical linear models (HLM) with cross-level interactions to test these hypotheses. The results showed that student competitiveness was positively related to student achievement in mathematics within schools. Between schools, a competitive climate was positively correlated to student mathematics achievement. Cross-level interactions revealed country context positively moderated the relationship between student competitiveness and achievement. These findings emphasize the importance of considering broader cultural competitiveness contexts when examining the association between student competitiveness and achievement.
This chapter summarizes and discusses the research findings from a study investigating how a prestigious and exclusive physical education teacher education (PETE) program can prepare outstanding physical education students for their role as educational and social leaders. Twenty-nine pre-service student teachers responded to a questionnaire and were interviewed by phone. The participants were asked about their reasons for choosing teacher education studies, the overall contribution of the program to the learners and their teaching skills, and aspects of the program that needed improvement. The findings showed participants appreciated the unique and enriched curriculum, the small, high-quality learning group, and the personal support of the staff. They also felt competent with their teaching abilities. However, the program did not meet their expectations about achieving effective learning of sports education or growing as athletes. These results emphasize the importance of policymakers taking into account the perspectives of students when designing and running specialized programs intended to attract the best and brightest into teaching.
Background
The five-year plan for the Bedouin population in the Negev for the years 2017-2021 (government resolution 2397) is the second consecutive long-term governmental plan for this population group, which is situated at the bottom of the socio-economic scale in the State of Israel. The plan seeks to reduce gaps between the Negev Bedouin and the general population and to expand their inclusion in Israel’s society and its economy. As part of the plan, three billion shekels (approximately 810 million dollars) were allocated to programs in various aspect of life: education (formal, informal and higher education), employment, infrastructure development, the empowerment of local municipalities, and the development and improvement of services in the areas of welfare, community and health. The Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute (MJB) provided ongoing input regarding the five-year plan through an extensive research program. That research program included 16 studies and it was conducted over several years by numerous researchers from MJB and additional research organizations.
Study Goals
This study set out to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the five-year plan: to examine the benefits of the plan to the Negev Bedouin population by drawing on an extensive range of perspectives and relying on appropriate research methods. In particular, the study aim was to shed light on how the plan was developed and tailored; to identify international best practices in reducing inequalities and strengthening community resilience, primarily regarding disempowered minorities; to examine the extent to which the plan achieved its core goals; to aid decision makers in improving future plans; and to provide the public with a reliable portrayal of the plan’s development and implementation.
Methodology
The five-year plan is a complex policy, meaning it is characterized by multiple, interweaving components, which interact in a way that affects the actualization of policy goals. Thus, the methodology chosen for the comprehensive evaluation was an intervention path contribution analysis.
This methodology included several steps. First, based on the government resolution and the set of work plans developed to guide implementation of the resolution, a theoretical model was put forward, which included two core goals and six intervention paths of influence (specified in the next section). For each path, a focused literature review was carried out to identify evidence regarding the relevance of the path to the core goals and to identify best practices and mechanisms through which the path could be realized. In addition, all programs included in the five-year plan were analyzed in terms of purpose and content and then mapped to each of the six paths, creating six distinct inventories of activities.
Following this, in order to provide an in-depth understanding of the opportunities, challenges, and barriers to the implementation of the five-year plan in general and of each path in particular, a wide range of consultations were conducted. Key stakeholders in government ministries, local authorities, civil society and academia, as well as researchers at MJB with an expertise in the relevant topics were consulted through discussion forums and individual follow-up interviews. Members of the Department for Socio-economic Development of the Bedouin Society in the Negev also took part in the consultation process. Finally, the numerous studies conducted as part of the research program evaluating the five-year plan were used to anchor the contribution stories developed for each one of the six paths.
The comprehensive evaluation research report is based on the combination of the sources of data and knowledge and the methods described above. An academic advisory committee, which included experts from Israel and abroad, provided ongoing support throughout the study.
Overview of Findings
Two core goals of the five-year plan were identified: (1) reducing inequalities between the Negev Bedouin population and other population groups in Israel; (2) strengthening the resilience of the Bedouin local authorities in the Negev. Following on from this, six paths of influence were identified through which the plan was intended to achieve its core goals: (1) improving socio-economic status; (2) enhancing inclusion within Israel society and integration into it; (3) strengthening Bedouin local authorities; (4) improving the accessibility of social and governmental services; (5) improving local infrastructure; and (6) using multi-year, inter-sectoral governmental programs to tackle inequality.
The report provides an in-depth examination of the six paths of influence, including the following components: the goodness-of-fit of the five-year plan to best practices in the relevant field; an inventory of the contents of each path in terms of relevant activities and programs which were included in the five-year plan; a contribution story which discusses the extent and quality of path implementation, challenges and barriers to achieving the aims of the path, and its actual contribution to the plan’s core goals; and recommendations for future actions. The main findings about the paths and the researchers’ assessments regarding actualization of their potential contributions are presented in a concise summary table. Finally, the report puts forward integrative findings from the comprehensive evaluation as well as from the entire research program.
Key Recommendations
Based on the multitude of studies conducted as part of the research program on the five-year plan for the socio-economic development of the Bedouin population in the Negev for the years 2017-2021, including the comprehensive evaluation, several key recommendations for future government actions are put forward. These specific recommendations are highlighted because they carry the greatest potential for meaningful contribution to the target population.
Operating the five-year plan on a local level: For each local authority, the Department for Socio-economic Development of the Bedouin Society in the Negev should ensure that an inter-ministerial perspective guides the planning and implementation of all the local activities across the various domains (such as education, employment, infrastructure, and accessibility of services).
Action items in the domain of education: Invest in the coordination and integration of activities currently under the responsibility of different actors; adapt services to the population at the levels of the government ministry, the locality, the school, the family and the individual; ensure continuity of care for students from preschool through to the end of high school, and cultivate connections with families and communities; set up and operate a measurement system for assessing the quality of teaching.
Action items in the domain of employment: Institutionalize an inter-ministerial coordination mechanism to advance service integration; promote cultural adaptation of employment interventions and policy tools; provide high school students with a basic understanding of the job market and of the importance of higher education; promote gap year programs, programs that contribute to successful integration in academia and programs that incorporate technological training.
Continued promotion of the local authorities model (first introduced as part of the five-year plan for the years 2017-2021): Strive to expand the number of well-trained professionals working for local authorities; promote public participation processes; schedule periodic meetings of representatives from local authorities with high-ranking government officials; improve the efficiency of local authorities by tailoring the five-year plan to each authority; create an infrastructure for ongoing gathering and analysis of municipality-level data.
Providing local responses to land ownership claims and disputes in the Negev: Establish a task force to appropriately deal with these issues in order to remove barriers to the development of infrastructure and services and to the improvement of the lived environment.
Consolidation of a comprehensive plan for the promotion of social integration and service accessibility, including the following components: map the opportunities and barriers; incorporate best practices regarding inclusion and integration into the plan; develop services in accordance with the various dimensions of accessibility; develop a long-term action plan, which identifies the actors responsible for its implementation; gather relevant data and indicators and use them to conduct an evaluation study; set up a committee of experts and stakeholders to provide oversight.
Reducing data gaps: Launch a systematic process to identify existing gaps in government data regarding the Negev Bedouin population; set up a professional forum that will be accountable for promoting ongoing progress on this issue, with the aim of bridging the data gaps.
Improving governmental work plans: Prepare an instruction manual for government ministries on how to formulate effective work plans; provide ongoing guidance to the ministries; regularly monitor and provide feedback to the ministries regarding the quality of the work plans; set up a digitized system for designing and monitoring work plans.
Setting up a research program as an integral part of any five-year plan: Focus on specific domains of knowledge and types of interventions that make up the plan as well as on general issues concerning the plan as a whole; select research topics judiciously; rely on findings of the research program in planning the next five-year plan; include a comprehensive evaluation of the plan’s contribution.
The five-year plan as a framework for governmental ministries: Provide a support system for the planning and implementation of the plan across numerous ministries, particularly with regard to broad issues of concern such as social inclusion, service accessibility, and improvement of work plans.
How are powerful interest groups with a stake in the status quo overcome? Policymakers succeed in enacting policies against the preferences of powerful vested interests when they delegate the costs associated with challenging those vested interests to advocacy groups. Advocacy groups can provide information and capacity, freeing allied policymakers from relying on vested interests. Using a 50‐state regression analysis of teacher evaluation policymaking in 2010 and 2011 and case studies of the experiences of Minnesota and Wisconsin, I find evidence that where advocacy groups assist policymaker allies, they can successfully pass and implement policy change against the preferences of powerful vested interests.
School boards are fighting for their survival. Almost everything that they do is subject to regulations handed down from city councils, state boards of education, legislatures, and courts. As recent mayoral and state takeovers in such cities as Baltimore, Chicago, and New York make abundantly clear, school boards that do not fulfill the expectations of other political players may be stripped of what few independent powers they still retain. Teachers unions exert growing influence over board decision-making processes. And with the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, the federal government has aggressively inserted itself into matters of local education governance. B esieged is the first full-length volume in many years to systematically examine the politics that surround school boards. A group of highly renowned scholars, relying on both careful case studies and quantitative analyses, examine how school boards fare when they interact with their political superiors, teachers unions, and the public. For the most part, the picture that emerges is sobering: while school boards perform certain administrative functions quite well, the political pressures they face undermine their capacity to institute the wide-ranging school reforms that many voters and local leaders are currently demanding.
Students of Teach For America teachers outscored their schoolmates on math achievement tests, and matched their average performance in reading, according to the findings from the first national evaluation of the impact of TFA teachers on student learning. The large-scale random assignment study, which compared the performance of TFA corps members to that of other novice and veteran teachers in the same elementary schools, also found differences in classroom management and teacher backgrounds.
Abstract While calls to reduce class size in school have considerable popular appeal, the related discussion of the scientific evidence has been limited and highly selective. The evidence about improvements,in student achievement that can be attributed to smaller classes turns out to be meager and unconvincing. In the aggregate, pupil-teacher ratios have fallen dramatically for decades, but student performance has not improved. Explanations for these aggregate trends, including more poorly prepared students and the influence of special education, are insufficient to rationalize the overall patterns. International comparisons,fail to show any significant improvements,from having smaller pupil-teacher ratios. Detailed econometric evidence about the determinants of student performance,confirms the general lack of any achievement,results from smaller classes. Finally, widely cited experimental evidence actually offers little support for general reductions in class size. In sum, while policies to reduce class size may enjoy popular political appeal, such policies are very expensive and, according to the evidence, quite ineffective. For further information, contact:
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Teacher induction programs are designed to support new teachers and reduce teacher turnover. Comprehensive teacher induction, however, goes beyond traditional induction by relying on carefully selected and trained full-time mentors and also includes an intensive curriculum involving instructional support and professional development, opportunities to observe experienced teachers, and assessment tools for teachers that permit ongoing evaluation of practice and constructive feedback. Findings from the second year of Mathematica’s national evaluation show that compared to business-as-usual induction programs, comprehensive induction did not lead to measurable improvements in student test scores, percentage of teachers remaining in their district or in the profession, or in qualifications of the teachers who were retained. This was true whether induction programs were delivered as one-year or two-year programs.
Brookings Papers on Education Policy 2004 (2004) 7-25
When considering schools, one must pay attention to teachers. After all, teachers are the largest single budget item of schools, and many believe that they are the most important determinant of school quality. Yet research does not find a systematic link between teacher characteristics and student outcomes, leading to doubts about many current policy thrusts that are keyed to measurable attributes of teachers and their background.
The relevant research follows four distinct lines that relate in varying ways to teacher quality. At the most aggregate level and possibly the most influential, a variety of studies have traced changes over time in the salaries of teachers relative to those in other occupations. Going beyond that, a second level of studies relates pay and other characteristics of teaching jobs to the characteristics of teachers in different schools and districts and teacher turnover. A third line of research, following naturally from these, relates teacher characteristics to student performance. The failure to find a strong relationship between the contributions of teachers to student achievement and other outcomes, on the one hand, and teacher education, experience, and salaries, on the other, is inconsistent with the popular view of teachers as a key determinant of the quality of education. Finally, the fourth line of research appears to have solved this conundrum by demonstrating both the large impact of teachers on student learning and the lack of explanatory power of traditional quality measures.
The central focus of this paper is to relate these various bodies of research to a set of teacher quality policy initiatives. These proposals can be divided into three broad areas that are not mutually exclusive. First, because salaries of teachers have fallen relative to other jobs, some argue that an obvious move is simply to restore teacher salaries to their previous position in the earnings distribution to attract better teachers into the profession. Second, states should adopt more stringent qualifications for teachers such as mandatory master's degrees to improve quality. Salary increases are often, but by no means always, recommended along with more stringent qualifications to offset any possible negative impacts on teacher supply. Finally, an alternative set of policy proposals has taken a different tack. These typically advocate less strict instead of stricter requirements in combination with incentives for higher teacher performance and improved school personnel practices.
While the evidence related to teacher quality is widely scattered, common themes do emerge. A key distinction is whether or not the investigations are related directly to student outcomes or simply rely upon a presumed relationship.
A starting point in the consideration of teacher quality is the evolution of teacher salaries over time. Figure 1 traces the wages of teachers age twenty to twenty-nine compared with those of other young college graduates between 1940 and 2000. The calculations, done separately by gender, give the proportion of nonteachers with a bachelor's degree or more who earn less than the average teacher.
Over the entire time period since World War II, salaries of young female and male teachers have fallen relative to those for other occupations. However, we have shown that substantial gender differences are evident in the time path of relative salaries. For males, relative salaries fell between 1940 and 1960 but have remained roughly constant afterward. For females, relative salaries started out high—above the median for college-educated females—but then continuously fell. The changes are easiest to see for young teachers and college graduates, for whom the adjustment has been larger, but they also hold for teachers of all ages. In other words, the growth in late-career salaries has not offset the decline in salaries for younger teachers.
Others have attempted to go deeper into the structure of teacher supply responses. Frederick Flyer and Sherwin Rosen describe...
Student achievement in mathematics has been a focal concern in the United States for many years. The National Research Council's 2001 report and the recent report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel (2008) both called attention to student achievement in mathematics, and both called for all students to learn algebra by the end of eighth grade. Reports have argued, further, that achieving this goal requires that students first successfully learn several topics in rational numbers--fractions, decimals, ratio, rate, proportion, and percent. These topics are typically covered in grades 4 through 7, yet many students continue to struggle with them beyond the seventh grade. The National Mathematics Advisory Panel wrote that--difficulty with fractions (including decimals and percent) is pervasive and is a major obstacle to further progress in mathematics, including algebra. The panel also specified that by the end of seventh grade, students should be able to solve problems involving percent, ratio, and rate, and extend this work to proportionality. The U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Educational Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE)--within the Institute of Education Sciences--initiated the Middle School Mathematics Professional Development Impact Study to test the impact of a professional development (PD) program for teachers that was designed to address the problem of low student achievement in topics in rational numbers. The study focuses on seventh grade, the culminating year for teaching those topics and has three central research questions: (1) What impact did the PD program provided in this study have on teacher knowledge of rational number topics? (2) What impact did the PD program provided in this study have on teacher instructional practices? and (3) What impact did the PD program provided in this study have on student achievement in rational number topics? The study produced the following results: (1) The study's PD program was implemented as intended; (2) The PD program did not produce a statistically significant impact on teacher knowledge of rational numbers (effect size = 0.19, p-value = 0.15); (3) The PD program had a statistically significant impact on the frequency with which teachers engaged in activities that elicited student thinking, one of the three measures of instructional practice used in the study (effect size = 0.48); and (4) The PD program did not produce a statistically significant impact on student achievement (effect size = 0.04, p-value = 0.37). This report presents the study's findings after 1 year of implementing the PD in the treatment schools. A subsequent report will present findings after 2 years of implementing the PD. Chapter 1 presents an overview of the study. Chapter 2 describes the study design and its realization, including a description of the sample and tests of baseline equivalence of the treatment and control groups on observed characteristics. Chapter 3 describes the design and implementation of the PD program and the extent of service contrast between the treatment and control groups. Chapter 4 addresses the impact of the PD program on teacher knowledge, instructional practice, and student mathematics achievement. Chapter 5 provides several nonexperimental analyses that explore additional questions related to the impact findings. Appended are: (1) Data Collection; (2) Details of the Study Samples and Analytic Approaches; (3) Supplemental Information on the Design and Implementation of the PD Program; (4) Supporting Tables and Figures for Impact Analyses; and (5) Exploratory Analyses: Approaches and Additional Results. (Contains 9 exhibits, 9 figures, and 90 tables.)
It is widely accepted that teachers differ in their effectiveness, yet the empirical evidence regarding teacher effectiveness is weak. The existing evidence is mainly drawn from econometric studies that use covariates to attempt to control for selection effects that might bias results. We use data from a four-year experiment in which teachers and students were randomly assigned to classes to estimate teacher effects on student achievement. Teacher effects are estimated as between-teacher (but within-school) variance components of achievement status and residualized achievement gains. Our estimates of teacher effects on achievement gains are similar in magnitude to those of previous econometric studies, but we find larger effects on mathematics achievement than on reading achievement. The estimated relation of teacher experience with student achievement gains is substantial, but is statistically significant only for 2nd-grade reading and 3rd-grade mathematics achievement. We also find much larger teacher effect variance in low socioeconomic status (SES) schools than in high SES schools.
Performance-related incentive pay for teachers is being introduced in many countries, but there is little evidence of its effects. This paper evaluates a rank-order tournament among teachers of English, Hebrew, and mathematics in Israel. Teachers were rewarded with cash bonuses for improving their students' performance on high-school matriculation exams. Two identification strategies were used to estimate the program effects, a regression discontinuity design and propensity score matching. The regression discontinuity method exploits both a natural experiment stemming from measurement error in the assignment variable and a sharp discontinuity in the assignment-to-treatment variable. The results suggest that performance incentives have a significant effect on directly affected students with some minor spillover effects on untreated subjects. The improvements appear to derive from changes in teaching methods, after-school teaching, and increased responsiveness to students' needs. No evidence found for teachers' manipulation of test scores. The program appears to have been more cost-effective than school-group cash bonuses or extra instruction time and is as effective as cash bonuses for students.
The extensive investigation of the contribution of teachers to student achievement produces two generally accepted results. First, there is sub stantial variation in teacher quality as measured by the value added to achievement or future aca demic attainment or earnings. Second, variables often used to determine entry into the profession and salaries, including post-graduate schooling, experience, and licensing examination scores, appear to explain little of the variation in teacher quality so measured, with the exception of early experience. Together these findings underscore explicitly that observed teacher characteristics do not represent teacher quality.
Mincer wage equations focus on the earnings premium associated with additional schooling for a cross section of individuals of different ages but generally fail to account for changes in education quality over time. More fundamentally, school attainment is an inadequate proxy of individual skills, when both family inputs and ability affect cognitive skills. We combine quality-adjusted measures of schooling and international literacy test information to estimate skill gradients for 13 countries. The premiums to quality-adjusted education are considerably higher than the traditional Mincer estimate for most countries, but this bias is more than offset by consideration of other factors affecting skills and earnings. (c) 2009 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved..
Перевод: Mona Mourshed, Chinezi Chijioke, Michael Barber. How the worlds most improved school systems keep getting better. McKinsey&Company. November 2010 (пер. с англ. Н. Микшиной, Е. Шадриной). Продолжение. Начало публикации см. в № 1 за 2011 г.Содержание1. Группа мер воздействия1.1. В Зазеркалье1.2. Система, а не набор явлений1.3. Предписывайте соответствие норме, но дайте возможность добиваться большего1.4. Общие, но различные 2. Адаптация мер воздействия к определенному контексту2.1. Как прорваться, а не провалиться2.2. Руководящий принцип: принуждение или убеждение? 3. Поддержание уровня3.1. Практика сотрудничества: пользовательский интерфейс3.2. Посредническое звено: операционная система3.3. Воспитание нового поколения лидеров: центральный процессор 4. Пусковой импульс4.1. На старте4.2. Хороший кризис всегда пригодится4.3. Не спрятаться, не скрыться4.4. Как правильно выйти на сцену4.5. Сценарий нового лидера4.6. Устойчивость лидера 5. ЗаключениеПриложение
Spurred by court rulings requiring states to increase public-school funding, the United States now spends more per student on K-12 education than almost any other country. Yet American students still achieve less than their foreign counterparts, their performance has been flat for decades, millions of them are failing, and poor and minority students remain far behind their more advantaged peers. In this book, Eric Hanushek and Alfred Lindseth trace the history of reform efforts and conclude that the principal focus of both courts and legislatures on ever-increasing funding has done little to improve student achievement. Instead, Hanushek and Lindseth propose a new approach: a performance-based system that directly links funding to success in raising student achievement. This system would empower and motivate educators to make better, more cost-effective decisions about how to run their schools, ultimately leading to improved student performance. Hanushek and Lindseth have been important participants in the school funding debate for three decades. Here, they draw on their experience, as well as the best available research and data, to show why improving schools will require overhauling the way financing, incentives, and accountability work in public education.
In Project STAR, 11,571 students in Tennessee and their teachers were randomly assigned to classrooms within their schools from kindergarten to third grade. This article evaluates the long-term impacts of STAR by linking the experimental data to administrative records. We first demonstrate that kindergarten test scores are highly correlated with outcomes such as earnings at age 27, college attendance, home ownership, and retirement savings. We then document four sets of experimental impacts. First, students in small classes are significantly more likely to attend college and exhibit improvements on other outcomes. Class size does not have a significant effect on earnings at age 27, but this effect is imprecisely estimated. Second, students who had a more experienced teacher in kindergarten have higher earnings. Third, an analysis of variance reveals significant classroom effects on earnings. Students who were randomly assigned to higher quality classrooms in grades K-3-as measured by classmates' end-of-class test scores-have higher earnings, college attendance rates, and other outcomes. Finally, the effects of class quality fade out on test scores in later grades, but gains in noncognitive measures persist.
Contents:Introduction, p.1Quasi-Experimental Studies, p.3Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Studies, p.15Why Does Class Size Matter? Inferences from Existing Research, p.20Implications of the Class-Size Findings, p.25References, p.26Appendix, p.29
We present results from a randomized evaluation of a teacher performance pay program implemented across a large representative sample of government-run rural primary schools in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. At the end of 2 years of the program, students in incentive schools performed significantly better than those in control schools by 0.27 and 0.17 standard deviations in math and language tests, respectively. We find no evidence of any adverse consequences of the program. The program was highly cost effective, and incentive schools performed significantly better than other randomly chosen schools that received additional schooling inputs of a similar value.
Richard J. Murnane and David K. Cohen use the framework of microeconomics to account for the short lives of most merit pay plans. They demonstrate that teaching is not an activity that satisfies the conditions under which performance-based pay is an efficient method of compensating workers. They then show that merit pay plans survive in a few school districts, in part because the districts are special and in part because the merit pay plans are quite different from conventional notions of performance-based pay.
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.
Value-added modeling continues to gain traction as a tool for measuring teacher performance. However, recent research questions the validity of the value-added approach by showing that it does not mitigate student-teacher sorting bias (its presumed primary benefit). Our study explores this critique in more detail. Although we find that estimated teacher effects from some value-added models are severely biased, we also show that a sufficiently complex value-added model that evaluates teachers over multiple years reduces the sorting bias problem to statistical insignificance. One implication of our findings is that data from the first year or two of classroom teaching for novice teachers may be insufficient to make reliable judgments about quality. Overall, our results suggest that in some cases value-added modeling will continue to provide useful information about the effectiveness of educational inputs. © 2011 Association for Education Finance and Policy
Empirical research bears out the conventional wisdom that teacher quality is the key schooling resource influencing student achievement, so it is not surprising that policy makers attempt to influence it by regulating admission into the teacher labor market through licensure systems. Most of these systems require teachers to graduate from an approved teacher training institution and pass one or more tests, the notion being that these preservice requirements ensure a basic level of teacher competence. A criticism, however, is that these requirements dissuade talented individuals from attempting to become teachers, thereby lowering the quality of teachers in the workforce. It is shocking how little we actually know about key aspects of the teacher licensure-teacher quality equation. The great majority of the empirical literature on licensure speaks to one crucial link in the teacher licensure-teacher quality equation: the correlation between licensure requirements and student achievement. In general this literature suggests only weak links between specific licensure requirements and student achievement. Far less evidence exists on the impact of licensure on the pool of potential teachers, or who school district hiring officials would employ in the face of fewer requirements, or the absence of requirements altogether.
While compensation accounts for roughly 90% of K-12 instructional costs, there is little evidence of rational design in these systems. This chapter reviews the nature of teacher compensation systems in developed economies and research on their performance effects. Since these compensation schemes typically arise out of collective negotiations, this chapter also surveys the smaller literature on the effect of teacher collective bargaining on earnings and school outcomes.
To help states and districts make informed decisions about the professional development (PD) they implement to improve reading instruction, the U.S. Department of Education commissioned the Early Reading PD Interventions Study to examine the impact of two research-based PD interventions for reading instruction: (1) a content-focused teacher institute series that began in the summer and continued through much of the school year (treatment A) and (2) the same institute series plus in-school coaching (treatment B). The Early Reading PD Interventions Study used an experimental design to test the effectiveness of the two PD interventions in improving the knowledge and practice of teachers and the reading achievement of their students in high-poverty schools. It focused specifically on second grade reading because (1) this is the earliest grade in which enough districts collect the standardized reading assessment data needed for the study; and (2) later grades involve supplementary instruction, which was outside the scope of the study. The study was implemented in 90 schools in six districts (a total of 270 teachers), with equal numbers of schools randomly assigned in each district to treatment A, treatment B, or the control group, which participated only in the usual PD offered by the district. This design allowed the study team to determine the impact of each of the two PD interventions by comparing each treatment group's outcomes with those of the control group, and also to determine the impact of the coaching above and beyond the institute series by comparing treatment group B with treatment group A This report describes the implementation of the PD interventions tested, examines their impacts at the end of the year the PD was delivered, and investigates the possible lagged effect of the interventions, based on outcomes data collected the year after the PD interventions concluded. The study produced the following results: (1) Although there were positive impacts on teacher's knowledge of scientifically based reading instruction and on one of the three instructional practices promoted by the study PD, neither PD intervention resulted in significantly higher student test scores at the end of the one-year treatment; (2) Added effect of the coaching intervention on teacher practices in the implementation year was not statistically significant; and (3) There were no statistically significant impacts on measured teacher or student outcomes in the year following the treatment. Twelve appendixes are included: (1) Theory of Action and Development for the PD Interventions for the Early Reading PD Interventions Study; (2) Details on the Study Design and Implementation; (3) Details on Teacher Data and Teacher Sample Characteristics; (4) Reading Content and Practices Survey Design and Scales; (5) Classroom Observer Training and Inter-Rater Reliability; (6) Classroom Observation Scales and Descriptive Statistics; (7) Details on Student Data, Sample Characteristics and Achievement Measures; (8) Validation of the Survey Data on Professional Development Participation; (9) Estimation Methods and Hypothesis Testing; (10) Fall 2005 Short-Term Teacher Practice Outcomes; (11) Supporting Tables and Figures for Impact Analyses; and (12) Supplementary Analyses. (Contains 165 footnotes, 35 figures, and 85 tables.)
The concept of "pay for performance" for public school teachers is once again growing in popularity and use. U.S. education is now at a critical juncture that requires thoughtful and informed consideration of this policy innovation. "Performance Incentives" offers the most up-to-date and complete analysis yet of the promising--yet still controversial--mechanism. Matthew Springer of Vanderbilt University, director of the National Center on Performance Incentives, brought together an interdisciplinary team of analysts to address the issues surrounding merit pay for teachers. Their purpose was to identify the potential strengths and weaknesses of performance-based pay and address key conceptual and implementation issues that have dominated the debate. Among the specific questions addressed: (1) How does pay-for-performance work in other sectors, and what can the education sector learn from those experiences? (2) What do the teachers themselves think of merit pay? (3) What has been the experience of jurisdictions that have implemented incentive pay? They examine recent examples in Forida, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri. They discuss different strategies for measuring teacher accomplishment, thus establishing the basis for their merit pay; and (4) Most important, what has been the impact on student achievement? The notable contributors include Dale Ballou (Vanderbilt), Jay Greene (University of Arkansas), James Guthrie (Vanderbilt), Eric Hanushek (Hoover Institution), Brian Jacob (University of Michigan), and Michael Podgursky (University of Missouri).
This edition of the "Digest of Education Statistics" is the 36th in a series that provides a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field of U.S. education from kindergarten through graduate school. The Digest includes data from many sources, both government and private, and draws heavily on work done by the National Center for Education Statistics. The publication contains information on a variety of subjects, including the numbers of schools and colleges, teachers, enrollments, and graduates, in addition to educational attainment, finances, federal funds for education, employment and income of graduates, libraries, and international education. Supplemental information on population trends, attitudes on education, education characteristics of the labor force, government finances, and economic trends provide background information for evaluating education data. This edition contains a significant amount of new material, including information on: (1) public school building deficiencies; (2) the distribution of high school completers; (3) percent of high school dropouts; (4) average reading proficiency for eighth graders; (5) states with assessment programs in language arts, reading, and writing; (6) enrollment and degrees conferred in women's colleges; (7) total revenue of private not-for-profit degree-granting institutions; and (8) total expenses of private not-for-profit degree-granting institutions. An appendix contains a guide to tabular presentation, a guide to sources, definitions, and an index of table numbers. (Contains 33 figures and 438 tables.) (SLD)
A teacher's effectiveness--the most important factor for schools in improving student achievement--is not measured, recorded, or used to inform decision making in any meaningful way. The failure of evaluation systems to provide accurate and credible information about individual teachers' instructional performance sustains and reinforces a phenomenon that is called the Widget Effect. The Widget Effect describes the tendency of school districts to assume effectiveness is the same from teacher to teacher. This fallacy fosters an environment in which teachers cease to be understood as individual professionals, but rather as interchangeable parts. In its denial of individual strengths and weaknesses, it is disrespectful to teachers; in its indifference to instructional effectiveness, it gambles with the lives of students. Today, the Widget Effect is codified in a policy framework that rarely considers teacher effectiveness for key decisions. The fact that information on teacher performance is almost exclusively used for decisions related to teacher remediation and dismissal paints a stark picture: In general, schools are indifferent to instructional effectiveness--except when it comes time to remove a teacher. Better evaluation systems may offer a partial solution, but they will not overcome a culture of indifference to classroom effectiveness. Reversing the Widget Effect depends on better information about instructional quality that can be used to inform other important decisions that dictate who teaches in schools. In this article, the authors offer recommendations which outline a comprehensive approach to improving teacher effectiveness and maximizing student learning. If implemented thoroughly and faithfully, the authors believe they will enable districts to understand and manage instructional quality with far greater sophistication. Improved evaluation will not only benefit students by driving the systematic improvement and growth of their teachers, but teachers themselves, by at last treating them as professionals, not parts.
In practice, teacher induction is common, but induction that is intensive, comprehensive, structured, and sequentially delivered in response to teachers' emerging pedagogical needs is less so. Congressional interest in formal, comprehensive teacher induction has grown in recent years. The National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance within the U.S. Department of Education's (ED) Institute of Education Sciences (IES) contracted with Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. (MPR), to evaluate the impact of structured and intensive teacher induction programs. The study examines whether comprehensive teacher induction programs lead to higher teacher retention rates and other positive teacher and student outcomes as compared to prevailing, generally less comprehensive approaches to supporting new teachers. More specifically, the study is designed to address five research questions on the impacts of teacher induction services: (1) What is the effect of comprehensive teacher induction on the types and intensity of induction services teachers receive compared to the services they receive from the districts' current induction programs?; (2) What are the impacts on teachers' classroom practices?; (3) What are the impacts on student achievement?; (4) What are the impacts on teacher retention?; and (5) What is the impact on the composition of the district's teaching workforce? Statistically significant differences between the treatment and control groups were identified in the amount, types, and content of induction support teachers reported having received, both in the fall and the spring of the intervention year. Although treatment teachers reported receiving more mentoring than did control teachers; were more likely than control teachers to report participating in specific induction activities; and spent more time in certain professional activities than did control teachers during the three months prior to the spring survey, summarized comparisons between treatment and control groups found: (1) No impacts on teacher practices; (2) No positive impacts on student test scores; (3) No impacts on teacher retention; and (4) No positive impacts on composition of district teaching workforce. This report focused on the first year of findings only. The research team is conducting longer term follow-up to include additional collection of test score and teacher mobility data. Eight appendices are included: (1) National Data on Teacher Induction; (2) Analysis Weights; (3) Impact Estimation Methods; (4) Classroom Observation Methods; (5) Reference Tables for Chapter II; (6) Supplemental Tables for Chapter IV; (7) Supplemental Tables for Chapter V; and (8) Supplemental Figures. (Contains 43 footnotes, 15 figures and 101 tables.)
Proposals to use teachers' performance incentives as the basis for school reforms have recently attracted considerable attention and support among researchers and policy makers. The main message is that the most likely way to improve students' achievements is to institute performance incentives, direct monetary rewards for improvements in student outcomes. However, there has been very little experience with applying performance incentives in schools. This paper provides empirical evidence on the causal effect of a program that offered monetary incentives to teachers as a function of their students' achievements. The program offered incentives to schools in the form of performance awards, part of which were distributed to teachers and school staff as merit pay and the rest, for the well-being of teachers in the school. I evaluate the effect of the program during the first two full academic years of its implementation, 1996 and 1997. Since participating schools were not chosen randomly, the issue of identification is central to the empirical strategy. The second part of the paper evaluates the effect of a "twin" program, implemented simultaneously and with the same objectives as the incentive program, but in different schools, and based on providing additional resources to schools. The paper compares the effect and cost of the two alternative intervention strategies and draws policy implications.
Why are teachers paid up to four times as much in some countries compared to others and does it matter? Specifically, is the quality of teachers likely to be higher if they are paid higher up the income distribution in their own country, and are pupil outcomes influenced by how well their teachers are paid? This paper considers the determinants of teachers’ salaries across countries and examines the relationship between the real (and relative) level of teacher remuneration and the (internationally) comparable measured performance of secondary school pupils. We use aggregate panel data on 39 countries published by the OECD to model this association. Our results suggest that recruiting higher ability individuals into teaching and permitting scope for quicker salary advancement will have a positive effect on pupil outcomes.
— Peter Dolton and Oscar D. Marcenaro-Gutierrez
Neither holding a college major in education nor acquiring a master's degree is correlated with elementary and middle school teaching effectiveness, regardless of the university at which the degree was earned. Teachers generally do become more effective with a few years of teaching experience, but we also find evidence that teachers may become less effective with experience, particularly later in their careers. These and other findings with respect to the correlates of teacher effectiveness are obtained from estimations using value-added models that control for student characteristics as well as school and (where appropriate teacher) fixed effects in order to measure teacher effectiveness in reading and math for Florida students in fourth through eighth grades for eight school years, 2001-2002 through 2008-2009.
How important are teenagers' cognitive skills in predicting subsequent labor market success? Do cognitive skills pay off in the labor market only for students who go to college? Does college benefit only students who enter with strong basic skills? These questions are often parts of current policy debates about how to improve the earnings prospects for young Americans. This paper addresses these questions using two longitudinal data sets with earnings information from the mid-1980s and early 1990s. It shows that the same evidence can be used to support the claim that cognitive skills are important determinants of subsequent earnings, and that the effect of cognitive skills is modest. It also shows that while some evidence indicates that college pays off more for students who enter with strong cognitive skills than for students who enter with weaker skills, the bulk of the evidence does not support this conclusion. © 2000 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.
Teach For America (TFA) selects and places graduates from the most competitive colleges as teachers in the lowest-performing schools in the country. This paper is the first study that examines TFA effects in high school. We use rich longitudinal data from North Carolina and estimate TFA effects through cross‐subject student and school fixed effects models. We find that TFA teachers tend to have a positive effect on high school student test scores relative to non‐TFA teachers, including those who are certified in field. Such effects offset or exceed the impact of additional years of experience and are particularly strong in science. (C) 2011 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.
Existing growth research provides little explanation for the very large differences in long-run growth performance across OECD countries. We show that cognitive skills can account for growth differences within the OECD, whereas a range of economic institutions and quantitative measures of tertiary education cannot. Under the growth model estimates and plausible projection parameters, school improvements falling within currently observed performance levels yield very large gains. The present value of OECD aggregate gains through 2090 could be as much as $275 trillion, or 13.8% of the discounted value of future GDP for plausible policy changes. Extensive sensitivity analyses indicate that, while different model frameworks and alternative parameter choices make a difference, the economic impact of improved educational outcomes remains enormous. Interestingly, the quantitative difference between an endogenous and neoclassical model framework – with improved skills affecting the long-run growth rate versus just the steady-state income level – matters less than academic discussions suggest. We close by discussing evidence on which education policy reforms may be able to bring about the simulated improvements in educational outcomes.
— Eric A. Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann
Improving the quality of instruction is a central component to virtually all proposals to raise school quality. Unfortunately, policy recommendations often ignore existing evidence about teacher labor markets and the determinants of teacher effectiveness in the classroom. This chapter reviews research on teacher labor markets, the importance of teacher quality in the determination of student achievement, and the extent to which specific observable characteristics often related to hiring decisions and salary explain the variation in the quality of instruction. The evidence is applied to the comparison between policies that seek to raise quality by tightening the qualifications needed to enter teaching and policies that seek to raise quality by simultaneously loosening entry restrictions and introducing performance incentives for teachers and administrators.
In Project STAR, 11,571 students in Tennessee and their teachers were randomly assigned to classrooms within their schools from kindergarten to third grade. This article evaluates the long-term impacts of STAR by linking the experimental data to administrative records. We first demonstrate that kindergarten test scores are highly correlated with outcomes such as earnings at age 27, college attendance, home ownership, and retirement savings. We then document four sets of experimental impacts. First, students in small classes are significantly more likely to attend college and exhibit improvements on other outcomes. Class size does not have a significant effect on earnings at age 27, but this effect is imprecisely estimated. Second, students who had a more experienced teacher in kindergarten have higher earnings. Third, an analysis of variance reveals significant classroom effects on earnings. Students who were randomly assigned to higher quality classrooms in grades K–3—as measured by classmates' end-of-class test scores—have higher earnings, college attendance rates, and other outcomes. Finally, the effects of class quality fade out on test scores in later grades, but gains in noncognitive measures persist.
Over the past four decades, empirical researchers -- many of them economists -- have accumulated an impressive amount of evidence on teachers. In this paper, we ask what the existing evidence implies for how school leaders might recruit, evaluate, and retain teachers. We begin by summarizing the evidence on five key points, referring to existing work and to evidence we have accumulated from our research with the nation's two largest school districts: Los Angeles and New York City. First, teachers display considerable heterogeneity in their effects on student achievement gains. Second, estimates of teacher effectiveness based on student achievement data are noisy measures. Third, teachers' effectiveness rises rapidly in the first year or two of their teaching careers but then quickly levels out. Fourth, the primary cost of teacher turnover is not the direct cost of hiring and firing, but rather is the loss to students who will be taught by a novice teacher rather than one with several years of experience. Fifth, it is difficult to identify at the time of hire those teachers who will prove more effective. As a result, better teachers can only be identified after some evidence on their actual job performance has accumulated. We then explore what these facts imply for how principals and school districts should act, using a simple model in which schools must search for teachers using noisy signals of teacher effectiveness. The implications of our analysis are strikingly different from current practice. Rather than screening at the time of hire, the evidence on heterogeneity of teacher performance suggests a better strategy would be identifying large differences between teachers by observing the first few years of teaching performance and retaining only the highest-performing teachers.