Project Activities
Using a quasi-experimental design, the researchers completed an analysis of changes in student outcomes after the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) instituted a change to the teacher tenure policy in 2009–2010.
Structured Abstract
Setting
This project took place in all non-charter NYCDOE public schools serving general education students from 2006–07 through 2014–15.
Sample
The project sample consists of nearly 29,999 teachers teaching grades 4 to 8 in mathematics, English language arts, or both and the 537,534 students taught by these teachers. Teachers and students are observed up to 4 different years.
In school year (SY) 2009–10, NYC linked teacher tenure to measured teacher value-added which led to a reduced tenure rate. Previously, tenure rates were high and had little relation to measured teacher value-added.
Research design and methods
The researchers used a quasi-experimental design: difference-in-difference to compare changes in student outcomes before and after NYC changed their teacher tenure policy. The control group was the set of teachers with tenure prior to 2009–10. These teachers were unaffected by the change in tenure policy because it only affected yet-to-be tenured teachers. Thus, these already-tenured teachers' condition was the same before and after the policy change. The treatment group was the set of teachers with fewer than 4 years of experience in NYC. These teachers were largely untenured. Thus, the set of teachers prior to 2009–10 faced very different incentives than the set of teachers 2009–10 and later.
Control condition
The control group was the set of teachers with tenure prior to 2009–10.
Key measures
The measures included current-year test scores as well as the unincentivized measures: future test scores, current and future attendance rates, and current and future grades on both tested and untested subjects.
Data analytic strategy
The project team first estimated teacher effectiveness on multiple measures using an empirical Bayes approach that was developed as part of the project. Next, they estimated the effect of the incentive on teachers' traditional test score value-added as well as other measures of teacher effectiveness. The team then explored how the magnitude of the changes differed based on teachers' ability to understand how the endogenous response to the policy impacts which teachers received tenure.
Key outcomes
Research project findings reported in an NBER working paper (Dinerstein and Opper, 2023)
- The policy had different short-term and longer-term outcomes:
- In the short-term, the policy focused non-tenured teachers on increasing student test scores and not on supporting other outcomes. Teachers skilled in supporting other student outcomes redirected their efforts to increasing student test scores.
- In the longer term, a greater percentage of the teachers receiving tenure were skilled in supporting other student outcomes and they did so after receiving tenure thereby increase other student outcomes (which may have longer-term beneficial impacts for students).
- For untenured teachers, the NYC policy of tying teacher tenure to teacher value-added increased non-tenured teachers' value-added but had zero or negative effects on other measures of teacher effectiveness.
- Teachers who had greater impact on student outcomes not used in the tenure decision were able to redirect their skills to improve student test scores, increase their value added, and receive tenure.
- Once tenured, teachers' value-added reverted back to their levels lower than those promoted by the tenure policy prior to the introduction of the tenure policy (controlling for increased experience).
- Teachers skilled in improving the student outcomes not included in tenure decisions switched back to supporting those outcomes after receiving tenure.
Research methods findings (Mulhern & Opper, 2021)
- The researchers developed a new approach to estimate and efficiently summarize the multiple dimensions of teacher effectiveness using an empirical Bayes approach.
- The researchers demonstrated that the summarized single dimension of teacher effectiveness explained over half the variation in teacher effects on all the student measures, using the NYC data.
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Project contributors
Products and publications
ERIC Citations: Find available citations in ERIC for this award here.
Select Publications:
Dinerstein, M., & Opper, I. M. (2022). Screening with Multitasking: Theory and Empirical Evidence from Teacher Tenure Reform (No. w30310). National Bureau of Economic Research. Available at: https://www.nber.org/papers/w30310.
Mulhern, C. & Opper, I. (2021). Measuring and Summarizing the Multiple Dimensions of Teacher Effectiveness. CESifo Working Paper No. 9263, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3912373 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3912373.
Questions about this project?
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