Leaders in education must focus on improving teacher attrition because teacher turnover contributes to lower student academic achievements by disrupting the learning environment for both students and teachers (Carver-Thomas & Darling-Hammond, 2017). This study took place in a North Florida School district where school and district leaders are…

Project EQuIPD--Engaging Quality Instruction through Professional Development--sought to establish and test for efficacy a professional development model to produce highly qualified teachers in STEM practices for all children, especially for students who are in traditionally underserved schools and districts within the State of Florida. The…

This report represents the final results of an evaluation of Project EQuIPD--Engaging Quality Instruction through Professional Development. The project provided two years of intensive professional development to help teachers learn to think more strategically about how to improve student outcomes using technology-based inquiry instruction. The…

This study will examine principals' attitudes concerning the impact of the new performance pay plans on principals' relationships with their teachers and how these plans impact their schools. This study will explore principals' perceptions of performance pay, thus providing information to school policy stakeholders, policymakers, teachers, and…

This report examines the ongoing effort to revamp teacher evaluations. After collecting and synthesizing data from 17 states and the District of Columbia, it provides five major lessons for policymakers. New evaluation systems are just one part of sweeping changes in American schools. Because the number and extent of these changes are daunting,…

Creating a pipeline of great teachers for all schools and students in each state is a crucial policy goal. Strengthening teacher pipelines requires states to examine multiple policy areas, including certification requirements, educator evaluation, compensation and career ladders, educator environment (e.g., working conditions), and the range of…

William Taylor, 29, a third generation Washington, D.C. resident stands out for a number of reasons. For one, he is an African American man who taught math at an elementary school for many years. Taylor excelled in the role, so much so that he now coaches his fellow math teachers at Aiton Elementary School, which is located in a high-poverty…

Prior research on Troops to Teachers (TTT) affirms that TTTs are effective instructors likely to work in high-poverty, high-minority schools, teach high-demand subjects, use research-based instructional and classroom management practices linked with student achievement, and plan to stay in the profession. A nonexperimental, mixed method design…

Struggling schools that come under increased accountability pressure face a number of challenges, changing instructional policies and practices to facilitate student improvement. But what effect does school accountability have on teachers' mobility decisions? This study is the first to exploit policy variation within the same state to examine the…

Over the past decade, national initiatives have shifted States' attention to the challenge of turning around low-performing schools. The lack of consistent, dramatic improvements in the lowest-performing schools reflects the severity of the school turnaround challenge, but also suggests the need to continuously evaluate and refine turnaround…

At the request of the Urban League of Miami, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) analyzed the distribution of teachers in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. In this paper, the authors examine teacher-level data to determine whether indicators correlated with teacher quality vary across the district based on socioeconomic differences, and…

The combination of difficult economic times and increased accountability has led policymakers to call for evidence that students taught by National Board of Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS)-certified teachers make greater achievement gains than those taught by non-NBPTS-certified teachers. Overall, studies show mixed results regarding the…

During the 2008-09 school year, over 5,000 charter schools operated in 40 states and Washington, D.C. and were attended by over 1.5 million students, or about three percent of the nation's public school students. Although the first U.S. charter schools opened in 1992, debate continues over whether they provide students with a better education than…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine whether teachers with high value-added scores (as a measure of teacher quality) stay or left test grades and subjects in a medium-sized school district. Design/methodology/approach: Panel data for this paper encompass teachers providing math and reading instruction and link to individual students…

One of the most important things school systems can do to promote student achievement is to ensure that all students have effective teachers. Effective teachers may be particularly important for the most disadvantaged students. The U.S. Department of Education commissioned the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to create this report as a…