Professional development (PD) for teachers is a ubiquitous feature of the American educational landscape. Yet we know little about how districts navigate the variation in teacher learning needs when designing and implementing district-wide PD programs. In this paper, we describe how the District of Columbia Public Schools implemented an ambitious…

We apply a difference-in-difference design to measure the causal effect of a teacher obtaining an endorsement in Sheltered English Immersion under Massachusetts's Rethinking Equity in the Teaching of English Language Learners initiative on student's learning outcomes. More than 35,000 in-service public school teachers completed the semester-long…

Improving teacher selection is an important strategy for strengthening the quality of the teacher workforce. As districts adopt commercial teacher screening tools, evidence is needed to understand these tools' predictive validity. We examine the relationship between Frontline Education's TeacherFit instrument and newly hired teachers' outcomes. We…

We contextualize the magnitude of teacher attrition during the pandemic, including from the 2020-2021 school year to the 2021-2022 school year, using longitudinal data on teachers in Washington since the 1984-1985 school year. The teacher attrition rate after the 2020-2021 school year (7.3%) increased by almost one percentage point from the…

In this article, we explore whether the evaluation instruments used in the teacher selection process in Peru are good predictors of teacher effectiveness. To this end, we estimate teacher value-added (TVA) measures for public primary school teachers and test their relationship with Peru's results of two rounds of the teacher evaluation (i.e., a…

We estimate the effects of Race to the Top (RTTT) on teacher qualifications, work environments, and job attitudes. Drawing on the Schools and Staffing Survey and the National Teacher and Principal Survey, we create a nationally representative data set of public school teachers from 1988 to 2018. We adopt an event study difference-in-differences…

Racial gaps in teacher performance ratings have emerged nationwide across newly implemented educator evaluation systems. Using Chicago Public Schools data, we quantify the magnitude of the race gap in teachers' classroom observation scores, examine its determinants, and describe the potential implications for teacher diversity. Between-school…

Most U.S. public school teachers participate in defined benefit retirement plans, which base benefits on years of service and their last few years of salary. These plans are often backloaded and include sharp economic incentives. We consider the implications of transitioning to a cost-equivalent defined benefit plan under which teachers would earn…

We examine the effect of Michigan's 2011 reforms to teacher evaluation and tenure policies on teacher retention. Our data are drawn from administrative records containing the population of public school employees from 2005-2006 through 2014-2015. To identify the causal effects of these reforms on teacher attrition, we utilize a…

Educators raise concerns about what happens to students when they are exposed to new or new-to-school teachers. However, even when teachers remain in the same school they can switch roles by moving grades and/or subjects. We use panel data from New York City to compare four ways in which teachers are new to assignment: new to teaching, new to…

We report on research examining the revealed preferences of teachers in Denver Public Schools who were given the opportunity to select between remaining on a traditional salary schedule and opting into one of the nation's high-profile pay reform systems, Denver's Professional Compensation System for Teachers. The incentive structure creates…

In practice, teacher turnover appears to have negative effects on school quality as measured by student performance. However, some simulations suggest that turnover can instead have large positive effects under a policy regime in which low-performing teachers can be accurately identified and replaced with more effective teachers. This study…

Retaining effective teachers is a key policy priority nationwide, particularly in districts that serve large numbers of disadvantaged students. We investigate whether a change in the Miami region's Teach for America (TFA) placement strategy was accompanied by changes in teacher attrition and mobility decisions. Our results suggest that the…

We use data from Washington State to examine two stages of the teacher pipeline: the placement of prospective teachers into student teaching assignments and the hiring of prospective teachers into their first teaching positions. We find that prospective teachers are likely to complete their student teaching near their college and hometowns but…

Describes five case studies of high-performing public schools that have organized professional resources in innovative ways. Outlines principles of successful resource allocation. Presents a framework and methodology for examining a school's current use of resources. (MAK)