Teacher Training, Teacher Quality and Student Achievement

Teacher Training, Teacher Quality and Student Achievement Douglas HarrisTim R. Sass Dept. of Educational Dept. of Economics Policy Studies Florida State Univ. Univ. of Wisconsin

Teacher Training and Educational Policy • Strong evidence that teacher quality has a large impact on student achievement • Aaronson, et al. (2003) • Ballou, et al. (2004) • Nye, et al. (2004) • Rockoff (2004) • Hanushek, et al. (2005) • Rivkin, et al. (2005)

Teacher Training and Educational Policy • Wide array of proposals to improve teacher training • strengthening traditional teacher preparation • “highly qualified teachers” required by NCLB • enhancements to professional development • alternatives to traditional teacher preparation programs • Teach for America, state alternative certification routes

Previous Studies of the Effects of Teacher Training • Recent panel data/random assignment studies using U.S. data • In-service professional development • Jacob and Lefgren (2004) • College major • Betts. et al. (2003) • Experience and/or advanced degrees • Clotfelter, et al. (2006), Dee (2004), Ding and Lehrer (2005), Hanushek, et al. (2005), Jepsen (2005), Nye, et al. (2004), Rivkin et al. (2005), Rockoff (2004) • Alternative certification • Boyd, et al. (2006), Kane, et al. (2006)

Summary of Results from Recent Studies

Three Methodological Issues • Non-random assignment of teachers to training • Non-random assignment of teachers to students • Measurement of teacher training • pre-service (undergraduate) • in-service (professional development and post-graduate degrees) • experience (on-the-job training)

Value-Added Model • Computational issues estimating 3-level fixed effects models with large data sets • Solutions • teacher-school “spell” effects • iterated OLS where A=student achievement X=time varying student/family inputs P=classroom peer characteristics T=time varying teacher characteristics indices: individuals (i), classrooms (j), schools (m) and time (t).

Florida’s K-20 Education Data Warehouse • Census of all students attending public schools in Florida, 1995/96 – 2004/05 • Student records linked over time • Includes student test scores and student demographic data, attendance, disciplinary actions and program participation • Statewide testing began in 1999/2000 • Includes all employee records including individual teacher characteristics and means of linking students and teachers to classrooms • Includes undergraduate records of teachers who attended Florida public colleges and universities

Sample for Analysis • All students in Florida, grades 3-10 • Elementary students in self-contained classrooms • Middle and high school students in math and reading/language arts/English classes • Sample restricted to: • Classes with 10-50 students per class • Classes with a single “primary instructor” • Students enrolled in only a single course in the relevant subject area at a point in time

Two-Stage Estimation • First Stage • estimate student achievement gains as a function of teacher fixed effects, professional development and experience • model includes time-varying student characteristics, student fixed effects, exogenous peer characteristics, class size and teacher/school fixed effects • Second Stage • Regress estimated teacher/school fixed effects from first stage on teacher pre-service variables and school fixed effects • since college information only available back to 1995, can only include relatively young teachers

Effects of Teacher Experience and Professional Development on Student Achievement(No Teacher Fixed Effects)

Effects of Teacher Experience and Professional Development on Student Achievement(With Teacher Fixed Effects)

Effects of Teacher Professional Development onStudent Achievement(With Teacher Fixed Effects)

Impacts of Pre-Service on Estimated Teacher Fixed Effect: College Major

Impacts of Pre-Service on Estimated Teacher Fixed Effect: Course Content

Summary of Findings • Experience matters, even after controlling for unmeasured teacher characteristics • Positive correlations between in-service professional development and teacher effectiveness only found for middle-school math teachers • No evidence that education majors perform better than non-education majors • Limited evidence that subject content course work in education is correlated with improved teacher effectiveness in high school math

Teacher Training, Teacher Quality and Student Achievement