How Changes in Entry Requirements Alter the Teacher Workforce and Affect Student Achievement

Abstract

We are in the midst of what amounts to a national experiment in how best to attract, prepare, and retain teachers, particularly for high poverty urban schools. Using data on students and teachers in grades three through eight, this study assesses the effects of pathways into teaching in New York City on the teacher workforce and on student achievement. We ask whether teachers who enter through new routes, with reduced coursework prior to teaching, are more or less effective at improving student achievement than other teachers and whether the presence of these alternative pathways affects the composition of the teaching workforce. Results indicate that in some instances the new routes provide teachers with higher student achievement gains than temporary license teachers, though more typically there is no difference. When compared to teachers who completed a university-based teacher education program, teachers with reduced course work prior to entry often provide smaller initial gains in both mathematics and English language arts. Most differences disappear as the cohort matures and many of the differences are not large in magnitude, typically 2 to 5 percent of a standard deviation. The variation in effectiveness within pathways is far greater than the average differences between pathways.

Better Teachers, Better Results? Evidence from Rural Pakistan

“…In order to control for student-teacher selection, studies in the USA have made use of experiments with random assignment of students and teachers or natural experiments (Clotfelter et al, 2006;Dee, 2004;Garet et al, 2008Garet et al, , 2010Jacob and Lefgren, 2004;Nye et al, 2004). In the absence of such experiments, in this paper, following studies in USA (Betts et al, 2003;Boyd et al, 2006;Clotfelter et al, 2007;Hanushek et al, 2005;Jepsen, 2005;Rivkin et al, 2005;Rockoff, 2004), we use student fixed effects to control for student heterogeneity and student-teacher matching. Student fixed effects alleviate the bias due to students assignment to teachers based on time-invariant student characteristics (static tracking) (Koedel and Betts, 2011;Rothstein, 2010).…”

Understanding inclusive STEM high schools as opportunity structures for underrepresented students: Critical components

“…The research literature points to the importance of the teacher in student success, identifying teacher characteristics such as a teacher's academic preparation, teaching certifications, and teaching experience (Boyd, Grossman, Lankford, Loeb, & Wyckoff, ; Goldhaber & Brewer, ; Monk, ). STEM teachers at the eight ISHSs were well‐prepared in their subject areas, experienced in teaching, and had STEM real world know‐how.…”

Why Black Women Teachers Leave and What Can Be Done About it

“…About 15% of all teachers surveyed in the 2011À2012 SASS, and nearly one in four first-year teachers surveyed, had entered teaching through an alternative pathway, in which they began teaching before completing coursework, often with little or no student teaching experience. Studies of the relationship between teacher certification pathways and teacher turnover generally find that better prepared teachers, including those who complete their certification before entering, are less likely to leave teaching in the first few years (see, e.g., Boyd, Grossman, Lankford, Loeb, & Wyckoff, 2006;Darling-Hammond, Holtzman, Gatlin, & Heilig, 2005;Marinell & Coca, 2013).…”