Ongoing or recently completed across the United States are a series of lawsuits via which teacher plaintiffs are contesting how they are being evaluated using value-added models (VAMs) as part of states'/districts' teacher accountability systems. To investigate the empirical and pragmatic matters addressed in court, researchers conducted a case…

A growing literature uses value-added (VA) models to quantify principals' contributions to improving student outcomes. Principal VA is typically estimated using a connected networks model that includes both principal and school fixed effects (FE) to isolate principal effectiveness from fixed school factors that principals cannot control. While…

The clinical teaching experience is one of the most important components of teacher preparation. Prior observational research has found that more effective mentors and schools with better professional climates are associated with better preparation for teacher candidates. We test these findings using an experimental assignment of teacher…

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 students' reading proficiency gaps persist across the United States, educational leaders have turned to alternative methods to foster effective instructional literacy practices. One approach to combat this dilemma is the implementation of scripted reading programs. The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of scripted reading…

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…

The purpose of this study was to understand how a school-based personalized learning approach can help improve literacy achievement among middle grades students in a rural area. This study followed two cohorts of schools serving students in grades 6-8 in northeast Tennessee for one year each (2018-19 and 2021-22), to assess student and school…

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…

In this study, we seek to illuminate teachers' constructions of US teacher evaluation policies through close analysis of the way teachers in one district describe these policies. We conducted a thematic discursive analysis of 60 teachers' speeches, recorded during local school board meetings in a Tennessee school district. Using discursive…