The importance of having a highly qualified teacher in every classroom is an educational necessity. Determining which teacher characteristics define teacher quality and measuring their impact on student outcomes has offered mixed results. This study explored the effect of teachers' knowledge of language and literacy on their students' reading…

This latent class analysis study used a bias-adjusted three-step approach to empirically identify mutually exclusive clusters of teacher professional qualifications based on commonly studied indicators of teacher quality. We then examined the relationship between cluster membership and the mathematics gains of adolescents at risk for mathematics…

Purpose: We surveyed educational leaders in a large, urban school district in the southeastern United States, examining: (1) the factor structure of scores from a new measure of administrators' preferred teacher applicant characteristics, and (2) the relationships between administrator demographics and their preferences.…

Theory suggests that charter schools may affect neighboring traditional public schools either positively or negatively. Empirical findings are mixed, which may be due to variation in the policy context or estimation approach. Our contribution is in considering a new measure of charter penetration and comprehensive methodology. We combine the…

Background/Context: With a growing body of evidence to support the assertion that teacher quality is vital to producing better student outcomes, policymakers continue to seek solutions to attract and retain the best educators. Performance-based pay is a reform that has become popular in K-12 education over the last decade. This strategy…

Policymakers aiming to close the well-documented achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students have increasingly turned their attention to issues of teacher quality. A number of studies have demonstrated that teachers are inequitably distributed across student subgroups by input measures like experience and qualifications, as well…

The study investigated several teacher characteristics, with a focus on two measures of teaching experience, and their association with second grade student achievement gains in low performing, high poverty schools in a Mid-Atlantic state. Value-added models using three-level hierarchical linear modeling were used to analyze the data from 1,544…

Fewer than 20 states require middle grades certification; in most states, credentials overlap so that both elementary and secondary certified teachers may teach in the middle grades. Moreover, in many urban districts, getting teachers for the middle grades is a challenge. Despite this crazy-quilt of certifications and a growing body of work on…

Extensive education research on the contribution of teachers to student achievement produces two generally accepted results. First, teacher quality varies substantially as measured by the value added to student achievement or future academic attainment or earnings. Second, variables often used to determine entry into the profession and…

Reviews studies that examine the relationships between student achievement gains and the characteristics of teachers. Describes determinate relationships for four categories of teacher characteristics: college ratings, test scores, degrees and coursework, and certification status. (SLD)

Charter schools are publicly funded but operate outside the regulatory framework and collective bargaining agreements characteristic of traditional public schools. In return for this freedom, charter schools are subject to heightened accountability. This paper estimates the impact of charter school attendance on student achievement using data from…

Mounting pressure in the policy arena to improve teacher productivity either by improving signals that predict teacher performance or through creating incentive contracts based on performance--has spurred two related questions: Are there important determinants of teacher productivity that are not captured by teacher credentials but that can be…

In this study, data from ECLS-K are used to estimate the degree to which specific aspects of teacher training--the teaching credential and coursework in pedagogy--and teaching experience are associated with student achievement. In addition, the study identifies the teacher-reported instructional practices associated with student achievement gains…

Value-added models in education research allow researchers to explore how a wide variety of policies and measured school inputs affect the academic performance of students. Researchers typically quantify the impacts of such interventions in terms of "effect sizes", i.e., the estimated effect of a one standard deviation change in the…

A study investigated the characteristics of elementary school (kindergarten and grades 1-2) teachers of limited-English-proficient (LEP) students and the oral language proficiency of students in the classrooms of identified effective bilingual and English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teachers. The study involved (1) a district-wide survey of…