Short-cycle higher education programs (SCPs), lasting two or three years, capture about a quarter of higher education enrollment in the world and can play a key role enhancing workforce skills. In this paper, we estimate the program-level contribution of SCPs to student academic and labor market outcomes, and study how and why these contributions…

According to the 2013 report by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), most teacher education programs are failing in the United States. These programs, NCTQ insists, are not preparing new teachers with sufficiently 'scientific' methods and are, in the process, failing to properly train prospective teachers how to 'lead the classroom' (p.…

Ohio recognizes that high-quality teachers come from high-quality teacher preparation programs. To help improve the quality of educator preparation programs in Ohio, H.B. 1 of the 128th General Assembly directed the Chancellor of the Ohio Department of Higher Education to develop a system for evaluating Ohio's educator preparation programs (ORC…

State and federal accountability policies are predicated on the ability to estimate valid and reliable measures of school impacts on student learning. The typical spring-to-spring testing window potentially conflates the amount of learning that occurs during the school year with learning that occurs during the summer. We use a unique dataset to…

We study personnel flexibility in charter schools by exploring how teacher retention varies with teacher and school quality in Massachusetts. Charters are more likely to lose their highest and lowest value-added teachers. Low performers tend to exit public education, while high performers tend to switch to traditional public schools. To…

The conventional view is that the origin of the black-white student achievement gap can be traced to sociocultural and socioeconomic factors, plus variation in parental style and parental investment, and is maintained and perpetuated by variation in school and teacher quality. This article rejects the conventional view, drawing upon the results of…

Surveys of teacher preparation program (TPP) completers have become one widely used measure for program accountability and improvement, yet there is little evidence as to whether perceptions of preparation experiences predict the workforce outcomes of teachers. In the present study, we use statewide completer survey data from North Carolina to…

We build on research connecting teaching assignments to teacher effectiveness by examining the characteristics of secondary grades mathematics teachers with more course preparations--both the unique number of courses taught and courses never taught before--and by assessing whether additional course preparations predict teacher value-added.…

Can schools that boost student outcomes reproduce their success at new campuses? We study a policy reform that allowed effective charter schools in Boston, Massachusetts to replicate their school models at new locations. Estimates based on randomized admission lotteries show that replication charter schools generate large achievement gains on par…

There is a long history of philosophical inquiry into the concept of explanation in science, and this work has some implications for the ways in which science teachers, particularly in the physical sciences (physics and chemistry), explain ideas to students. Recent work has outlined a constructivist approach to developing, delivering, and refining…

Existing research on "school effectiveness" indicates that differences at the school level contribute significantly towards variation in student outcomes; however, less is known about the effectiveness of schooling in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This paper addresses this gap using quantitative analysis of data from two…

Because the pandemic exacerbated chronic absenteeism in many parts of the country, the need to understand how schools can improve student attendance has never been greater. Accordingly, this study breaks new ground by examining high schools' contributions to attendance after accounting for individual students' prior absenteeism and other…

The Pennsylvania Educator Effectiveness System strives to place an effective teacher in every classroom. This evaluation system incorporates the use of value-added growth measures, not only at the teacher level, but also at the building level. These building level scores are included in every teacher's yearly evaluation. This study sought to…

The current pool of highly qualified secondary mathematics teachers is woefully inadequate to address the needs of schools across the United States and other countries internationally. In STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) areas, providing quality instruction in a changing world requires continuous change and innovation as…

Schools often struggle to attract and retain high-performing teachers and to develop or remove low-performing ones. In this study, the researchers considered whether this is true in New Orleans where almost all schools are charters with flexibility over personnel policies and practices, and where schools compete against one another and face…