Cassandra M. Guarino

Teacher Recruitment and Retention: A Review of the Recent Empirical Literature

This article critically reviews the recent empirical literature on teacher recruitment and retention published in the United States. It examines the characteristics of individuals who enter and remain in the teaching profession, the characteristics of schools and districts that successfully recruit and retain teachers, and the types of policies that show evidence of efficacy in recruiting and retaining teachers. The goal of the article is to provide researchers and policymakers with a review that is comprehensive, evaluative, and up to date. The review of the empirical studies selected for discussion is intended to serve not only as a compendium of available recent research on teacher recruitment and retention but also as a guide to the merit and importance of these studies.

Can Value-Added Measures of Teacher Performance Be Trusted?

We investigate whether commonly used value-added estimation strategies produce accurate estimates of teacher effects under a variety of scenarios. We estimate teacher effects in simulated student achievement data sets that mimic plausible types of student grouping and teacher assignment scenarios. We find that no one method accurately captures true teacher effects in all scenarios, and the potential for misclassifying teachers as high- or low-performing can be substantial. A dynamic ordinary least squares estimator is more robust across scenarios than other estimators. Misspecifying dynamic relationships can exacerbate estimation problems.

Predictors of surgery resident satisfaction with teaching by attendings: A national survey

Objective:To identify factors that predict fourth- and fifth-year surgical resident satisfaction of attending teaching quality. Summary Background Data:With the training of surgical residents undergoing major changes, a key issue facing surgical educators is whether high-quality surgeons can still be produced. Innovative techniques (eg, computer simulation surgery) are being developed to substitute partially for conventional teaching methods. However, an aspect of training that cannot be so easily replaced is the faculty–resident interaction. This study investigates resident perceptions of attending teaching quality and the factors associated with this faculty–resident interaction to identify predictors of resident educational satisfaction. Methods:A national survey of clinical fourth- and fifth-year surgery residents in 125 academically affiliated general surgery training programs was performed. The survey contained 67 questions and addressed demographics, hospital, and service characteristics, as well as surgery, education, and clinical care-related factors. Univariate analyses were performed to describe the characteristics of the sample; multivariate analyses were performed to evaluate the factors associated with resident educational satisfaction. Results:The response rate was 61.5% (n = 756). Average age was 32 years; most were male (79%), white (72%), and married (69%); 42% had children. Ninety-five percent of respondents graduated from U.S. medical schools, and the average debt was

Impact of instructional practices on student satisfaction with attendings' teaching in the inpatient component of internal medicine clerkships.

80,307. Of 20 potentially mutable factors, 6 variables had positive associations with resident education satisfaction and 7 had negative associations. Positive factors included the resident being the operating surgeon in major surgeries, substantial citing of evidence-based literature by the attending, attending physicians giving spontaneous or unplanned presentations, increasing the continuity of care, clinical teaching aimed at the chief resident level, and having clinical decisions made together by both the attending and resident. There were 7 negative factors such as overly supervising in surgery, being interrupted so much that teaching was ineffective, and attending physicians being rushed and/or eager to finish rounds. Conclusion:This study identifies several factors that were associated with resident educational satisfaction. It offers the perspective of the learners (ie, residents) and, importantly, highlights mutable factors that surgery faculty (and departments) may consider changing to improve surgery resident education and satisfaction. Improving such satisfaction may help to produce a better product.

A Comparison of Growth Percentile and Value-Added Models of Teacher Performance

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence and influence of specific attending teaching practices on student evaluations of the quality of attendings’ teaching in the inpatient component of Internal Medicine clerkships.DESIGN: Nationwide survey using a simple random sample.SETTING: One hundred and twenty-one allopathic 4-year medical schools in the United States.PARTICIPANTS: A total of 2,250 fourth-year medical students.MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: In the spring of 2002, student satisfaction with the overall quality of teaching by attendings in the inpatient component of Internal Medicine clerkships was measured on a 5-point scale from very satisfied to very dissatisfied (survey response rate, 68.3%). Logistic regression was used to determine the association of specific teaching practices with student evaluations of the quality of their attendings’ teaching. Attending physicians’ teaching practices such as engaging students in substantive discussions (odds ratio (OR)=3.0), giving spontaneous talks and prepared presentations (OR=1.6 and 1.8), and seeing new patients with the team (OR=1.2) were strongly associated with higher student satisfaction, whereas seeming rushed and eager to finish rounds was associated with lower satisfaction (OR=0.6).CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that student satisfaction with attendings’ teaching is high overall but there is room for improvement. Specific teaching behaviors used by attendings affect student satisfaction. These specific behaviors could be taught and modified for use by attendings and clerkship directors to enhance student experiences during clerkships.

What Can We Learn About Effective Early Mathematics Teaching? A Framework for Estimating Causal Effects Using Longitudinal Survey Data

School districts and state departments of education frequently must choose among a variety of methods to estimate teacher quality. This article investigates the consequences of some of these choices. We examine estimates derived from student growth percentile and commonly used value-added models. Using simulated data, we examine how well the estimators can rank teachers and avoid misclassification errors under a variety of assignment scenarios of teachers to students. We find that growth percentile measures perform worse than value-added measures that control for prior year student test scores and include teacher fixed effects when assignment of students to teachers is nonrandom. In addition, using actual data from a large diverse anonymous state, we find evidence that growth percentile measures are less correlated with value-added measures that include teacher fixed effects when there is evidence of nonrandom grouping of students in schools. This evidence suggests that the choice between estimators is most consequential under nonrandom assignment of teachers to students and that value-added measures controlling for teacher fixed effects may be better suited to estimating teacher quality in this case.

Evaluating Specification Tests in the Context of Value-Added Estimation

Abstract This study investigates the impact of teacher characteristics and instructional strategies on the mathematics achievement of students in kindergarten and first grade and tackles the question of how best to use longitudinal survey data to elicit causal inference in the face of potential threats to validity due to nonrandom assignment to treatment. We develop a step-by-step approach to selecting a modeling and estimation strategy and find that teacher certification and courses in methods of teaching mathematics have a slightly negative effect on student achievement in kindergarten, whereas postgraduate education has a positive effect in first grade. Various teaching modalities, such as working with counting manipulatives, using math worksheets, and completing problems on the chalkboard, have positive effects on achievement in kindergarten, and pedagogical practices relating to explaining problem solving and working on problems from textbooks have positive effects on achievement in first grade. We show that the conclusions drawn depend on the estimation and modeling choices made and that several prior studies of teacher effects using longitudinal survey data likely neglected important features needed to establish causal inference.

Demographic Factors Associated With the Early Identification of Children With Special Needs

Abstract We study the properties of two specification tests that have been applied to a variety of estimators in the context of value-added measures (VAMs) of teacher and school quality: the Hausman test for choosing between student-level random and fixed effects, and a test for feedback (sometimes called a “falsification test”). We discuss theoretical properties of the tests to serve as background, and propose parsimonious one-degree-of-freedom versions. An extensive simulation study provides important further insight into the VAM setting. Unfortunately, although both the Hausman and feedback tests have good power for detecting the kinds of nonrandom assignment that can invalidate VAM estimates, they also reject in situations where estimated VAMs perform very well in terms of ranking teachers. Consequently, the tests must be used with caution when student tracking is used to form classrooms.

A Climate Survey for Medical Students A Means to Assess Change

Early and accurate identification of special needs, coupled with an appropriate course of treatment and educational plan, is important to academic progress, in particular for economically disadvantaged children with fewer family resources to catch up if they fall behind. A first step in improving mechanisms to promote early identification is to uncover factors influencing the timing of identification. This study investigates how early identification—defined as identification prior to kindergarten entry—varies by demographic characteristics. Using data from the California Department of Education, the authors find systematic differences in the timing of identification, even after adjusting for disability and other factors. Girls are less likely to be identified with special needs prior to kindergarten entry than boys. African Americans are less likely than children of other races to be identified early, despite disproportionately high overall identification rates. English learners are less likely than non-English learners to be identified early.

Promoting Quality and Variety Through the Public Financing of Privately Operated Schools in Qatar

An instrument was developed to assess the perceptions of students regarding six aspects of school climate and their experience of and attitudes toward sexual harassment and gender insensitivity. During clerkship orientation, 77 students (92% return rate), half female, were given the survey. Cronbach alpha reliabilities for the six scales ranged from .71 to .85. One significant female/male difference among the three scales of general school climate was observed; two signizfcantfemale/ male differences occurred among the three scales relating to gender concerns. Seventy percent of both males and females reported having observed sexually harassing behavior during the previous year; 46% offemales and 15% of males reported experiencing sexually harassing behavior during the year Observing and/or personally experiencing sexual harassment was associated with a decrease in positive climate ratings and an increase in negative climate ratings.