Topics: Teacher quality. State and local policy.

Co-Principal Investigators: Backes, Ben; Cowan, James; DeArmond, Michael; Morton, Emily; Theobald, Roddy

Partner Institutions: Research institutions: Basis Policy Research; Georgia State University; Michigan State University; RAND; Stanford University; University of Arkansas; University of Maryland; University of Missouri; University of Washington

Data-sharing states: Arkansas Department of Education; Colorado Department of Education; Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education; Maryland Longitudinal Data System Center; Michigan Department of Education; Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education; North Carolina Department of Public Instruction; Texas Education Agency; Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction

Data-sharing school districts: Atlanta Public Schools; Gwinnett County Public Schools; DeKalb County School District; Fulton County Schools; Houston Independent School District

Purpose: CALDER-R&R examines policies addressing teacher shortages and their impact on teachers, student learning, and equity. Two important perspectives undergird the Center's work. First is the understanding that teacher shortages are not a single phenomenon. Instead, they exist in specific subject areas (for example, science and mathematics), among teachers from specific backgrounds (for example, teachers from historically marginalized racial and ethnic backgrounds), in specific schools (for example, schools serving historically marginalized groups), and in specific locations (for example, rural schools and urban schools). Second, the Center recognizes that efforts to improve teacher recruitment and retention take place at different stages of the processes that determine who teaches. While downstream interventions often get more policy attention, earlier teacher pipeline interventions are also important. Because of the multifaceted challenges facing the teacher workforce, the Center studies policies that target different teacher shortages at various stages in the teacher pipeline.

Project Activities: The Center brings together researchers from 10 institutions to study recruitment and retention policies at varying stages of K–12 teaching pipeline across nine states. Researchers will use state longitudinal data systems and analytic approaches to estimate causal impacts of each policy. The Center will examine implementation of each policy. The Center will carry out leadership activities designed to bring together key groups involved in K–12 teacher recruitment/retention, to inform the focused program of research as well as supplemental research, share out findings from Center research, and build the field's capacity to conduct K–12 teacher recruitment and retention research.

Focused Program of Research: The Center will evaluate the impact of policies on K–12 teacher recruitment and retention as well as student outcomes. Policies include:

• grow-your-own initiatives designed to address shortages of teachers in high-needs districts and increase teacher diversity;
• financial support to teacher candidates in exchange for work commitments;
• provision of labor market information to teacher candidates intended to influence their decisions about specialization and job searching;
• licensure reforms that provide temporary licensure and/or change the cut scores required to pass licensure tests;
• financial incentives, including salary floor policies, pay-for-performance policies, and financial incentives targeted to teachers in low-income schools and/or in specific shortage subject areas; and
• teacher working conditions, including the 4-day school week, Advanced Teaching Roles, and working conditions negotiated in collective bargaining agreements.

The Center will conduct implementation studies to evaluate fidelity of implementation, explore how intended policies were translated into practice (for example, how, if all, the program was adapted during implementation), and identify key contextual factors that may influence the generalizability of the results. In the out-years of the project, the Center will use RAND's American Teacher Panel to survey a nationally representative sample of teachers about the interventions studied to understand how the interventions are viewed outside the study settings and test related hypotheses to understand how teachers view trade-offs associated with different interventions.

National Leadership and Outreach Activities: CALDER-R&R's leadership activities include multiple mechanisms to support the joint engagement of policymakers and researchers with the Center's research program. The Center will convene an advisory board of leaders from the nine CALDER R&R states to facilitate conversations that build from and feed into the research program. The board will preview planned research; discuss the implications of findings for policy, research, and data; and identify just-in-time research needs. The Center will leverage the CALDER Policymaker Council (PMC) to reach a broader set of states and leaders. Experts from AIR's Center on Great Teachers and Leaders (GTL Center) will co-lead CALDER-R&R's national leadership activities and leverage the GTL Center's deep connections to engage the field.

Structured Abstract

Setting: The nine states where the interventions take place (Arkansas, Colorado, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, North Carolina, Texas, Washington) educate over 15 million students each school year, over 30% of all public school students in the United States. The states have varied student demographics and institutional structures. Percentages of students eligible for free and reduced-price lunch  and students with disabilities also vary widely, as do the percentages of rural, urban, and charter schools and the size, experience levels, and certification status of the teacher workforce.

Sample: For the study of grow-your-own initiatives, the samples will be drawn from the statewide data of teacher candidates and K–12 students from three states (Washington, Massachusetts, and Michigan). For the study of financial support to teacher candidates in exchange for work commitment, the samples will be drawn from the statewide data of teacher candidates and K–12 students from 2 states (Maryland and Michigan). For the study of providing labor market information to teacher candidates, the samples will be drawn from teacher candidates at 10 institutions of higher education (public and private; online and traditional programs) across 3 states (Arkansas, Maryland, and Washington). For the study of licensure reforms, the samples will be drawn from the statewide data of K–12 teachers and students across three states (Arkansas, Maryland, Washington). For the study of financial incentives, the samples will be drawn from the data of teachers and K–12 students across 4 states (Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, and North Carolina) in addition to districts in Houston, TX and the Atlanta metro area in GA. For the study of interventions targeting teacher working conditions, the samples will be drawn from the statewide data of teachers and K–12 students across 7 states (Arkansas, Colorado, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas, and Washington).

Research Design and Methods: Researchers will use block randomized experiments to examine the impact of providing labor market information to teacher candidates on teacher candidate outcomes and student outcomes. Researchers will use longitudinal quasi-experimental designs to evaluate the impact of each of the remaining 12 policies on teacher outcomes and student outcomes. Researchers will use qualitative methods (for example, document review, survey, interview) to evaluate fidelity of implementation, explore how intended policies were translated into practice (for example, how, if all, the program was adapted during implementation), and identify key contextual factors that may influence the generalizability of the results.

Data Analytic Strategy: Researchers will conduct difference-in-differences (DID) or regression discontinuity (RD) analyses to examine policy impact. Researchers will conduct descriptive analyses to summarize characteristics of teacher candidates, K–12 teachers, and K–12 students associated with each policy.

Outcomes: Researchers will examine teacher contributions to student outcomes  using value-added (VA) models that rely on student test scores and a variety of non-test outcomes. Test outcomes include standardized state test data for mathematics and English language arts (ELA) courses in tested grades (Grades 4–8 and 9 or 10). Non-test outcomes include absences, disciplinary infractions, grades, and grade progression. School and district hiring outcomes include the number of new hires and the characteristics of new hires, including average teacher effectiveness (as measured by VA models), the proportion of emergency-licensed teachers, and the proportion of teachers hired after the beginning of the school year. Researchers will measure teacher turnover using binary indicators of whether teachers leave the workforce (attrition) or switch schools (mobility) each school year.  They will measure equitable distribution of teacher qualifications and effectiveness across districts, across schools within districts, and across classrooms within schools using the teacher quality gap (TQG) between different kinds of districts, schools, and classrooms (for example, low income vs. other income levels), defined as the difference in average teacher effectiveness or qualifications between settings.

Cost Analysis: The Center will capture cost information from official documents and, for more complex interventions, implementation data about any additional costs borne by local implementers (for example, administrative and personnel costs) not captured in top-line budget documents. Researchers will follow the best practices outlined in the IES Starter Kit for cost analysis (2020) and, when necessary, consult with experts at AIR's Economic Evaluation of Program and Policies (EEPP) Methods Hub for more advanced cost analyses. The Center will conduct estimate cost-effectiveness of policies with statistically significant impact on outcomes.

Related IES Projects:

Assessing the Potential of Outcomes-Based Licensure Test Standards (R305A220058); What Is the Value of Apprenticeship for Teachers? Linking Preservice Mentor Quality to Inservice Teacher and Student Outcomes (R305A180023); National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) (R305C120008); Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) (R305A060067)

Products and Publications

Products: CALDER-R&R produce evidence of the impact of 13 policies intended to address K–12 teacher recruitment and retention. The Center will produce academic research papers first published as working papers and then submitted for publication in academic journals. The Center will publish synthesis briefs that synthesize the results of studies of similar policies (for example, compensation). These briefs, as well as related webinars, will seek to reach policymakers in the nine participating states and the country as a whole.

ERIC Citations: Find available citations in ERIC for this award here.