Luke C. Miller

Performance Screens for School Improvement: The Case of Teacher Tenure Reform in New York City

Tenure is intended to protect teachers with demonstrated teaching skills against arbitrary or capricious dismissal. Critics of typical tenure processes argue that tenure assessments are superficial and rarely discern whether teachers in fact have the requisite teaching skills. A recent reform of the tenure process in New York City provides an unusual opportunity to learn about the role of tenure in teachers’ career outcomes. We find the reform led to many fewer teachers receiving tenure. Those not receiving tenure typically had their probationary periods extended to allow them an opportunity to demonstrate teaching effectiveness. These “extended” teachers were much more likely to leave their schools and be replaced by a teacher who was judged to be more effective.

Who Enters Teaching? Encouraging Evidence That the Status of Teaching Is Improving

The relatively low status of teaching as a profession is often given as a factor contributing to the difficulty of recruiting teachers, the middling performance of American students on international assessments, and the well-documented decline in the relative academic ability of teachers through the 1990s. Since the turn of the 21st century, however, a number of federal, state, and local teacher accountability policies have been implemented toward improving teacher quality over the objections of some who argue the policies will decrease quality. In this article, we analyze 25 years of data on the academic ability of teachers in New York State and document that since 1999 the academic ability of both individuals certified and those entering teaching has steadily increased. These gains are widespread and have resulted in a substantial narrowing of the differences in teacher academic ability between high- and low-poverty schools and between White and minority teachers. We interpret these gains as evidence that the status of teaching is improving.

The State Role in Teacher Compensation

INTRODUCTION Policy makers have long been concerned with K– 2 teachers’ compensation. Not only might increased teacher compensation purchase more skilled teachers, it might also influence how long teachers stay at their schools and in the teaching profession. Similarly, changes in the structure of teacher salary schedules may change the appeal of teaching even if average salaries remain the same. Much of the extant research on K–2 teacher salaries shows, to no great surprise, that teachers respond to salary changes (for examples, see Baugh and Stone 982 and Murnane and Olsen 989, 990). Teachers’ salaries are just one component of teachers’ overall compensation, however. States and school districts also provide other incentives—both monetary and nonmonetary—aimed at attracting and retaining teachers. These incentives often target certain types of teachers in certain types of positions. In addition, teachers receive health and welfare and retirement benefits that add to their total compensation packages. This policy brief examines the state role in these three components of total K–2 teacher compensation— base salary, benefits, and other incentives—showing how states across the country are going beyond simple salary structures to compensate teachers. We also examine how teachers’ compensation targets teachers at different points in their career cycles. Some components aim at recruiting teachers, others target retention of early career teachers, and still others aim at the retention and efficient release of older and retirement-eligible Susanna Loeb

Success in the college preparatory mathematics pipeline: the role of policies and practices employed by three high school reform models

This paper examines the relationship of the policies and practices employed by 3 high school reform models – Early College High Schools, Redesigned High Schools, and High Schools That Work – with student success in college preparatory mathematics courses by the end of the 10th grade. Data on policies and practices collected through a survey of school principals in North Carolina are combined with administrative data on student course-taking and performance. The examined policies include course-taking requirements, rigorous instruction, academic support, personalization, and relevance. Results show that implementation of these policies varies across models and that higher levels of implementation of combinations of these policies are associated with improved outcomes.

The Effects of Universal Preschool on Grade Retention

Nationwide, the percentage of four-year-olds enrolled in state-supported preschool programs has more than doubled since the early 2000s as states dramatically increased their investments in early childhood education. Floridas Voluntary Pre-kindergarten Program (VPK), which began in 2005, has been a national leader with respect to preschool access. This paper provides the first evidence of the programs impacts. We measure the effect of VPK participation on the likelihood that children are retained at any point between kindergarten and third grade. Using an instrumental variables approach, we leverage local program expansion and detailed student-level data on eight cohorts of children, four of which were of preschool age in the years before VPK was implemented and four of which had access to VPK programs. The results indicate that VPK did not lead to changes in the likelihood that children complete the third grade without ever being retained. We do find, however, that VPK led to a change in the timing of retention. Specifically, the program led to a drop in the likelihood that children were retained during the kindergarten year, but this drop was counteracted by increases in retention in subsequent school years. Implications for policy are discussed.