Morgaen L. Donaldson

The Price of Misassignment: The Role of Teaching Assignments in Teach For America Teachers' Exit From Low-Income Schools and the Teaching Profession

Teach For America (TFA) recruits high-achieving college graduates to teach for 2 years in the nation’s low-income schools. This study is the first to examine these teachers’ retention nationwide, asking whether, when, and why they voluntarily transfer from their low-income placement schools or leave teaching altogether. Based on a survey of three entire TFA cohorts (n = 2,029), this longitudinal, retrospective study uses discrete-time survival analysis. We found that teachers who have more challenging assignments—split grades, multiple subjects, or out-of-field classes—are at greater risk of leaving their schools or resigning from teaching than those with single-grade, single-subject, or in-field assignments. It is notable that in-field science teachers’ risk of resigning was higher than that of their out-of-field counterparts with nonscience degrees. This study informs policymakers and school officials seeking to retain TFA and other promising teachers.

Teach for America Teachers: How Long do They Teach? Why do They Leave?

Most TFA alumni continue to teach after completing their two-year obligation. Those who leave the profession exit because of the same poor working conditions that drive away other young teachers.

Principals’ Approaches to Cultivating Teacher Effectiveness Constraints and Opportunities in Hiring, Assigning, Evaluating, and Developing Teachers

Purpose: How principals hire, assign, evaluate, and provide growth opportunities to teachers likely have major ramifications for teacher effectiveness and student learning. This article reports on the barriers principals encountered when carrying out these functions and variations in the degree to which they identified obstacles and problem-solved to surmount them. Research Methods: I conducted semistructured interviews with 30 principals in charter or conventional schools in two adjacent northeastern states. State A has been at the national forefront of efforts to raise teacher effectiveness. State B is a particularly strong union setting. Charter school principals constituted 23.3% of the sample; 53% of principals worked in urban schools. After coding interview transcripts, I used thematic summaries, categorical matrices, and analytical memos to identify themes across participant experiences. Findings: Principals encountered barriers to cultivating teacher effectiveness that were economic, contractual, cultural, and interpersonal. Principals with more professional development regarding how to improve teachers’ instruction and principals of schools that were elementary, smaller, and in State A reported fewer barriers and more opportunities to developing human capital. Implications: Implications for policymakers include creating incentives to draw teachers to urban and rural schools and curtailing teacher assignments that prioritize seniority. Implications for practitioners include efforts to shift the culture of schools to support principals in providing accurate and frank feedback on instruction. Further research should examine whether the patterns identified here hold for a larger, random sample of principals including those in large, urban districts and right-to-work states.

Teach for América The Latinization of U.S. Schools and the Critical Shortage of Latina/o Teachers

Motivated by shifting demographics and the persistently low academic performance of Latinas/os in U.S. schools, the authors examine factors that influence the recruitment and retention of Latina/o teachers. Applying Latina/o critical race theory and cross-case analysis to data collected from three groups of Latinas/os at distinct points in the teacher pipeline—high school students, undergraduate preservice teachers, and inservice teachers—the authors conclude that the perspectives and experiences of Latinas/os differ significantly from the dominant narrative on teacher recruitment and retention, which is largely defined by White teachers’ career histories. The findings of this study serve as an important race- and culture-conscious counternarrative that can inform efforts to systematically diversify the teaching profession.

Negotiating Site- Based Management and Expanded Teacher Decision Making: A Case Study of Six Urban Schools

Purpose: This article presents findings from a study of six schools in the Together Initiative (TI), which facilitates increased school autonomy from districts and expands teacher decision-making authority. This study aims to understand how TI’s theory of action changed structures, cultures, and agency as the concepts of site-based management and expanded teacher decision making were interpreted and implemented by district and school leaders and teachers. Research Design: Data were collected over the first 2 years of the initiative using a concurrent mixed-methods design. Field notes from more than 200 hours of observations and transcripts of 231 semistructured interviews with stakeholders were coded using the constant-comparative method. Findings from qualitative data were triangulated with annual teacher survey findings. Findings: Implementation of TI varied across the six schools and depended greatly on school staffs’ existing relationships the district, principal support for decision-making structures, and the extent to which school cultures reflected trust and teachers were able to enact greater agency. Only two schools experienced moderate increases in site-based management and expanded teacher decision making; those that did not were missing at least one of these structural or cultural supports. Conclusions: At a time when charter schools are touted as an effective reform model, this article informs policy and practice on the original charter concept—autonomous, innovative district schools. Our findings suggest that creating contexts where site-based management can flourish is far more complicated than changing structures or establishing supportive school cultures.

Into—and Out of—City Schools: The Retention of Teachers Prepared for Urban Settings

This retrospective, longitudinal study compares the career paths of graduates of Harvard Universitys masters-level teacher education program (TEP) before and after it adopted an urban emphasis in 2001. I surveyed all graduates of TEP, 1985–2006, which yielded a sample of 636. Using discrete-time survival analysis, I examined where respondents taught and whether, when, and why they left teaching. I found that graduates of TEPs urban-focused program were more likely to teach in urban schools than the comparison cohorts but less likely than prior cohorts to stay in teaching. However, compared to the non-urban cohort members that were working in urban schools, urban cohort members were no more likely to exit. I further found that Whites and males in the urban cohorts were more likely to exit than members of these groups in previous cohorts, whereas females of color who prepared for urban settings were much less likely to leave than their counterparts who had received more general preparation. A large number of urban cohort members who left teaching identified “lack of community support for the school” as a key factor in their decision to leave teaching. At the same time, they felt drawn into other roles, such as principal, or professions, such as law, that, in their view, enabled them to have greater impact on urban schooling.

The Structure and Substance of Teachers' Opportunities to Learn about Teacher Evaluation Reform: Promise or Pitfall for Equity?.

ABSTRACT Despite growing momentum to overhaul teacher evaluation policies and practices, scant research examines how educators at the street level of such reform—principals and teachers—make sense of them, and almost no research examines the implications of current evaluation reforms for equity. This article provides findings based on a study of 14 districts implementing a new teacher evaluation policy in Connecticut. It focuses on how principals shaped teachers’ opportunities to learn about the new policy. We find that the majority of teachers’ opportunities to learn were formal and in whole group or one-on-one formats. We find important differences in the quantity and quality of learning opportunities at the district level, with districts serving greater shares of low-income students, students of color, and English language learners generally offering teachers fewer and lower quality opportunities to learn about the new reform than their counterparts. As such, this article builds on prior research illustrating the potential of new evaluation systems to exacerbate inequities and raises important cautions regarding the extent to which the unprecedented teacher evaluation reforms (currently underway) may exacerbate inequities among school districts.

District Leaders' Framing of Educator Evaluation Policy.

Purpose: Educator evaluation systems have recently undergone scrutiny and reform, and district and school leaders play a key role in interpreting and enacting these systems. This article uses framing theory to understand district leaders’ interpretation and advancement of a state’s new educator evaluation policy. Research Methods: The article draws on qualitative data from 14 Connecticut districts to highlight the relationship between state policy, district leadership, and the ideas about educator evaluation making their way into schools. We employed frame analysis to systematically analyze interview data from district leaders responsible for evaluation reform. Findings: District leaders’ frames addressed two distinct elements of the evaluation policy: accountability and development. Overall, district leaders tended to emphasize the accountability aspects of the state’s new evaluation system—SEED (System for Educator Evaluation and Development). Second, we find that district leaders’ frames predominately issued solutions and advice regarding the implementation of the evaluation policy. These leaders rarely enforced their framing of SEED. Finally, we present a vignette to highlight how one elementary school principal encountered frames within his district context and elected to respond to the ideas and rules of the new evaluation system. Implications for Research and Practice: This article’s findings encourage additional research on the role of district leaders in translating state policy into school-level change. This article also highlights the need for district-level actors to have a deep understanding of current policy as well as the skills to frame policy messages to diverse audiences.

Leading the Local: Teachers Union Presidents Chart Their Own Course

Teachers unions are among the most powerful, yet least studied, actors in public education today. Although public attention focuses on the influence of national unions, the policies that most affect teachers and schooling are bargained by local unions and school boards. Interviews with 30 recently elected local union presidents reveal that these leaders balance competing interests and obligations, from the concerns and priorities of their members to pressures from state and national affiliates. Although these presidents reaffirm the traditional union agenda, most also advocate an expanded agenda of teacher professionalism and more collaborative approaches to collective bargaining and contract management.

An Idea Whose Time Had Come: Negotiating Teacher Evaluation Reform in New Haven, Connecticut.

This article examines New Haven (Connecticut) Public Schools’ efforts to create a new teacher evaluation model in a collaborative manner. Based on semistructured interviews with nearly 100 educators, we develop a case study charting the progress of the new system, TEVAL, from an initial concept through early implementation. We find that John Kingdon’s three streams—problems, politics, and policies—all aligned in the years preceding TEVAL’s adoption and were supported by local policy entrepreneurs. Notably, we also find that TEVAL’s progress was further facilitated by the relationships and interactions among the participants themselves.