5564 cover front.qxp 1/15/2007 10:40 PM Page C1 The Future of Children PRINCETON - BROOKINGS Excellence in the Classroom VOLUME 17 NUMBER 1 SPRING 2007 3 Introducing the Issue 15 What Is the Problem? The Challenge of Providing Effective Teachers for All Children 45 The Effect of Certification and Preparation on Teacher Quality 69 Pay, Working Conditions, and Teacher Quality 87 Using Performance-Based Pay to Improve the Quality of Teachers 111 Learning in the Teaching Workforce 129 The Challenges of Staffing Urban Schools with Effective Teachers 155 Recruiting and Retaining High-Quality Teachers in Rural Areas 175 Teachers Unions and Student Performance: Help or Hindrance? 201 Teacher Labor Markets in Developed Countries 219 Teacher Labor Markets in Developing Countries A PUBLICATION OF THE WOODROW WILSON SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS AT PRINCETON UNIVERSITY AND THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION 00 5564-7 TOC.qxp 1/15/2007 10:31 PM Page 1 The Future of Children PRINCETON - BROOKINGS VOLUME 17 NUMBER 1 SPRING 2007 Excellence in the Classroom 3 Introducing the Issue by Susanna Loeb, Cecilia Rouse, and Anthony Shorris 15 What Is the Problem? The Challenge of Providing Effective Teachers for All Children by Richard J. Murnane and Jennifer L. Steele 45 The Effect of Certification and Preparation on Teacher Quality by Donald Boyd, Daniel Goldhaber, Hamilton Lankford, and James Wyckoff 69 Pay, Working Conditions, and Teacher Quality by Eric A. Hanushek and Steven G. Rivkin 87 Using Performance-Based Pay to Improve the Quality of Teachers by Victor Lavy 111 Learning in the Teaching Workforce by Heather C. Hill 129 The Challenges of Staffing Urban Schools with Effective Teachers by Brian A. Jacob 155 Recruiting and Retaining High-Quality Teachers in Rural Areas by David H. Monk 175 Teachers Unions and Student Performance: Help or Hindrance? by Randall W. Eberts 201 Teacher Labor Markets in Developed Countries by Helen F. Ladd 219 Teacher Labor Markets in Developing Countries by Emiliana Vegas www.futureofchildren.org 00 5564-7 TOC.qxp 1/15/2007 10:31 PM Page 2 01 5564-7 introduction.qxp 1/15/2007 9:54 PM Page 3 Introducing the Issue Susanna Loeb, Cecilia Rouse, and Anthony Shorris high-quality education is criti- cymakers and parents to demand reform of cal to the future well-being of a the educational system. But for reform— child—and thus also to the na- whether increased education revenues, tion as a whole. By one esti- smaller class sizes, or greater accountability— mate, a high school dropout in to make a difference, it must penetrate the Athe United States will earn nearly a quarter of classroom and affect the quality of teaching. a million dollars less over his lifetime than a Indeed teachers are so important that, ac- high school graduate who completes no fur- cording to one estimate, a child in poverty ther education. He will also contribute who has a good teacher for five years in a row $60,000 less in tax revenues. Aggregated over would have learning gains large enough, on a cohort of eighteen-year-olds who never average, to close completely the achievement complete high school, these losses add up to gap with higher-income students.3 Improving $200 billion.1 Moreover, gaps in the educa- the quality of teachers is thus crucial to ef- tional achievement of children by race and forts to raise student achievement and narrow social class are large and persistent. For ex- achievement gaps. But schools with high con- ample, among eighth graders in 1988, 95 per- centrations of black students, Hispanic stu- cent from the most advantaged families had dents, and students in poverty have serious received a high school diploma within six problems in recruiting and retaining effective years, compared with only 66 percent from teachers. According to one study, three times the least advantaged families.2 According to as many black students as white students in the National Assessment of Educational New York State had teachers who failed their Progress, 9 percent of black and 13 percent general knowledge certification exam on their of Hispanic eighth graders perform at or first attempt (21 versus 7 percent).4 above the proficient level in mathematics, compared with 39 percent of whites. But although almost everyone recognizes the importance of effective teachers, it is much Concern about the overall quality of U.S. ed- less clear how to improve the teaching work- ucation, and in particular about the trouble- force. One difficulty is the sheer size of that some gaps in achievement, has led many poli- workforce. Teachers make up about 10 per- www.futureofchildren.org Susanna Loeb is associate professor of education and director of the Institute for Research on Education Policy and Practice at Stanford University. Cecilia Rouse is the Theodore A. Wells ’29 Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, director of the Education Research Section at Princeton University, and a senior editor of The Future of Children. Anthony Shorris is Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and former director of the Policy Research Institute for the Region at Princeton University. VOL. 17 / NO. 1 / SPRING 2007 3 01 5564-7 introduction.qxp 1/15/2007 9:54 PM Page 4 Susanna Loeb, Cecilia Rouse, and Anthony Shorris cent of all college-educated workers. With Nevertheless, researchers have established more than 40 percent of schools’ operating that carefully designed public policies can expenditures going to instructional salaries, strengthen teacher quality. The articles in even small changes in compensation or in the this volume explore key tools available to pol- number of students per teacher can have icymakers to do just that—from changes in huge revenue implications. Total spending on the way teachers are certified, to investments teacher salaries in U.S. public schools is more in professional development, to wage poli- cies, to financial and other incentives, to poli- cies that affect unions and collective bargain- With more than 40 percent ing. The volume also examines the special challenges facing rural and urban districts of schools’ operating expen- and synthesizes relevant experiences from ditures going to instructional other developed and developing nations. salaries, even small changes What Have We Learned? in compensation or in the Before reviewing the main findings of the ar- ticles in this volume, we must stress how hard number of students per it is to know whether a particular policy teacher can have huge makes a difference. Although most observers would agree that good teachers do more than revenue implications. simply raise the test scores of their students, measuring other outcomes is problematic. In addition, when student learning improves, it than $160 billion a year.5 Thus, a 5 percent is difficult to be certain whether the gain is in salary increase—$2,338 for an average fact attributable to a particular policy inter- teacher—would cost taxpayers more than $8 vention, such as a new professional develop- billion a year.6 ment program. Perhaps the gain would have happened even in the absence of the inter- A second difficulty for schools and districts is vention. how to identify effective teachers. On one level, most people know a good teacher when The challenge is to determine what social sci- they see one. As Lee Shulman, president of entists call the counterfactual—what learning The Carnegie Foundation for the Advance- gains students would have made had their ment of Teaching, notes (see box 1), good teacher not, for example, received profes- teachers engage the class and motivate stu- sional development. To construct the coun- dent participation. They inspire students to terfactual, researchers might look at similar challenge themselves and help them develop students, similar classrooms, and similar values, commitments, and identities. But how teachers who have not participated in the re- districts are to pick out such people before form, or they might look at the same student they enter a classroom, or educational institu- during two different periods. By making such tions are to guide them to reach this ideal, is comparisons, researchers hope to tease out much less clear. Equally problematic is pre- the causal effect of the policy on students. cisely which qualities of the ideal teacher But because researchers can rarely be com- should form the basis of policy reform. pletely confident of the accuracy of the coun- 4 THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN 01 5564-7 introduction.qxp 1/15/2007 9:54 PM Page 5 Introducing the Issue terfactual—are the students, classrooms, and 16:1 by 2001—increased the demand for teachers they are comparing similar in all re- teachers by 41 percent. spects or just in the few characteristics ob- served?—the research base on many policies When considering a job, a prospective is surprisingly thin, a fact that is reflected in teacher looks at both wages and working con- the articles in this volume. ditions. Salary schedules almost always re- flect years of teaching experience and educa- A Framework tional attainment, though there is some The first step in recognizing potential weak- leeway to provide added pay for added re- nesses in the nation’s system of public educa- sponsibilities (such as coaching) or, in rare in- tion, and in seeing how to address those stances, for performance as a teacher. Within weaknesses, is to understand the institutional districts, salary schedules are usually the framework within which teachers and their same for all schools and for all teachers, re- employers work. In the leadoff article in this gardless of field. This salary structure creates volume, Richard Murnane and Jennifer difficulties for schools with less desirable Steele provide just such a framework.