The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine principals' perspectives on the impact of Tennessee Teacher Residency (TTR) residents on their school's culture and student achievement. The researchers explored TTR program residents' perspectives of teacher self-efficacy, culturally responsive classroom management self-efficacy, mentoring,…

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine principals' perspectives on the impact of Tennessee Teacher Residency (TTR) residents on their school's culture and student achievement. The researchers explored TTR program residents' perspectives of teacher self-efficacy, culturally responsive classroom management self-efficacy, mentoring,…

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine principals' perspectives on the impact of Tennessee Teacher Residency (TTR) residents on their school's culture and student achievement. The researchers explored TTR program residents' perspectives of teacher self-efficacy, culturally responsive classroom management self-efficacy, mentoring,…

For decades, school districts across the Nation have been pressured to close the achievement gap among students and have been held accountable for student outcomes. According to past researchers, there is a need to revise completely the teacher evaluation practices used in the 1980s and 1990s to better measure teacher effectiveness. More recently,…

Many prior studies have explored average differences in initial levels of teaching effectiveness among graduates from different teacher preparation programs (TPPs) and the features of preparation that predict these differences. We focus on another important dimension of effectiveness--how graduates from different TPPs improve over time. Examining…

As teacher quality is judged and tenured teachers are rated ineffective, educators are challenging teacher evaluation systems in the courts as they adversely affect their employment. Teachers have lost jobs, pay, tenure, and career advancement. This article reports on these cases, providing an interpretation in light of court cases about teacher…

Previous reports suggest that administrators rarely dismiss low-performing teachers despite the changing policy landscape allowing them to do so. This brief uses survey data from Tennessee to investigate the underlying reasons explaining administrators' decisions to retain low-performing teachers. The presented analysis suggests that…

A review of the literature indicates that public school districts, especially those in rural areas, are heavily dependent upon a traditional salary schedule. This may have prevented these districts from leveraging incentives to retain high-performing teachers. This study examines the effects of strategic teacher compensation on teacher quality as…

Many prior studies have examined whether there are average differences in levels of teaching effectiveness among graduates from different teacher preparation programs (TPPs); other studies have investigated which features of preparation predict graduates' average levels of teaching effectiveness. This is the first study to examine whether there…

Increasingly, states and teacher education programs are establishing minimum requirements for cooperating teachers' (CTs') years of experience or tenure. Undergirding these policies is an assumption that to effectively mentor preservice teachers (PSs), CTs must themselves be instructionally effective. We test this assumption using statewide…

Increasingly, states and teacher education programs are establishing minimum requirements for cooperating teachers' (CTs') years of experience or tenure. Undergirding these policies is an assumption that to effectively mentor preservice teachers (PSTs), CTs must themselves be instructionally effective. We test this assumption using statewide…

With more rigorous standards and testing at the forefront of educational reform across the nation, the rural school district in this study developed a strategic compensation plan with bonus pay based on student test scores as a teacher success incentive. A causal-comparative study was conducted to examine the effect of teacher merit pay levels on…

In 2018, The RAND Corporation and the American Institutes for Research (AIR) published an evaluation of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching (IP) initiative, which was designed to improve achievement among low-income minority (LIM) students. The initiative provided support for several reforms that…

Educational leaders are struggling with the issue of academic reform as it pertains to accountability for student achievement. With increasing pressures to improve student achievement, many states have adopted value-added measures to monitor student growth and teacher effectiveness. This study undertook a quantitative approach to examine the…

It is common to assume that worker productivity is normally distributed, but this assumption is rarely if ever tested. We estimate the distribution of worker productivity where individual productivity is measured with error, using the productivity of elementary school teachers as an example. Proposals to improve teacher productivity often focus on…