Pervasiveness of illiteracy has remained a foremost social and developmental challenge for India. This has prompted successive central and state governments to remain obsessed with increasing enrolments and decreasing dropout of children. However, these efforts are not accompanied by policies and programs for improving the quality of education. A…

Discussions of teacher preparation, qualifications, and effectiveness are at the heart of increasing attacks on public education. In this article, we contribute to the growing body of literature that works to challenge the narrowing parameters of what is considered effective teacher pedagogy, particularly as it relates to the noted value of…

Evidence suggests that there are significant difficulties associated with the attraction and retention of appropriately qualified, high quality teachers and educational leaders (e.g., principals) for rural, regional and remote locations in Australia. Further, educational leadership in these areas carries complex demands, and educational leaders…

Teachers are the most important school resource. In every country, teachers' salaries and training represent the greatest share of expenditure on education; and this investment in teachers can have significant returns. Research shows that being taught by the best teachers can make a real difference in the learning and life outcomes of otherwise…

The underperformance of English Language Learners (ELs) in test scores and high school graduation rates raises important questions about teacher preparation in California. A small, but growing body of evidence suggests that teachers of ELs need specialized knowledge, dispositions and practices to effectively teach this population. ELs in the state…

In this paper, we analyze how students select particular sections of required undergraduate courses at a regional public university in Texas. Specifically, we study how perceived instructor quality and other course section attributes, such as meeting time, impact enrollment. We find strong evidence that publicly available information about…

Student evaluations of teaching are among the most accepted and important indicators of college teachers' performance. However, faculty and administrators can overinterpret small variations in mean teaching evaluations. The current research examined the effect of including statistical information on the interpretation of teaching evaluations.…

This technical supplement provides details for the full report (published separately) which includes two studies that describe the local context for teacher employment decisions. The first examines the local labor market, and the second examines employment for teachers who left Austin Independent School District (AISD). A separate executive…

In recent years, states have sought to increase accountability for public school teachers by implementing a package of reforms centered on high-stakes evaluation systems. We examine the effect of these reforms on the supply and quality of new teachers. Leveraging variation across states and time, we find that accountability reforms reduced the…

Teacher education struggles with the challenge of preparing and retaining high-quality teachers who can work effectively with all students. While educator preparation is a strong correlate of student achievement, traditional university-based programmes are not available to all potential teachers. This manuscript describes CalStateTEACH, an online…

In this paper I use a rich longitudinal database from Florida to compare the characteristics of alternatively certified teachers with their traditionally prepared colleagues. I analyze the relative effectiveness of teachers who enter the profession through different pathways by estimating value-added models of student achievement. In general,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the quality of teachers based on education and training provided under new reform policies in Malaysia affects their earnings outcomes. The study conducted a benefit and returns analysis guided by human capital theory. Design/methodology/approach: The study used survey research methods to…

A critical issue in educator preparation is how to ascertain if program graduates are sufficiently prepared to be effective through the acquisition of meaningful evidence of graduates' impact on their students. Challenges to proving specific impact of educator-preparation programs on student learning include identifying and following program…

Current educational reform in mathematics education reflects attempts to incorporate the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The CCSS decrees both content standards and mathematical practices (process standards) that students should master if they are to be sufficiently prepared for college or a career. This paper investigates the confidence…

We use comprehensive data on student teaching placements from 14 teacher education programs (TEPs) in Washington State to explore the sorting of teacher candidates to the teachers who supervise their student teaching ("cooperating teachers") and the schools in which student teaching occurs. We find that, all else equal, teachers with…