What the Research Says About Effective Pathways to Teaching

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What the Research Says About Effective Pathways
to Teaching

• Jim Wyckoff
• Curry School of Education,
• University of Virginia
• NCEI, NCAC Conference on Effective Pathways to
  Teaching, April 6, 2009
• www.teacherpolicyresearch.org

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The Stakes are High
New York State Elementary Schools, 2000
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Teachers Matter But Why?

• Lots of evidence that teachers matter greatly in
  gains in student achievement (Sanders Rivers,
  1996 Aaronson et al, 2003 Rockoff, 2004
  Rivkin et al, 2005 Kane et al, 2006).
• But not clear there are individual attributes
  that are important (Gordon et al, 2006)
• Likely that many, difficult to observable
  attributes distinguish more able teachers

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Characterizing Effective Pathways

• Selection Who enters and how does that matter?
• Preparation What preparation makes a
  difference?
• Timing Does it matter when teachers receive
  preparation?
• Retention How does retention vary?

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The Teacher Workforce and Student Outcomes
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Research Says Evidence

• Causality preparation leads to student
  achievement
• Teacher sorting to students problem is
  important but difficult to measure factors
• Experiments randomly assign preparation to
  students
• Statistical controls control for sorting and
  other factors

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Alternative v. Traditional Paths

• Lots of good evidence that either pathway can
  produce roughly equal achievement growth (Boyd et
  al 2006 Kane et al 2008 Decker et al 2004,
  Constantine et al 2009)

CR
TF
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Alternative Paths May Not Be Alternative, but

• Variation within exceeds variation across
• Achievement growth (Kane et al, 2008 Boyd et al
  2006)
• Features (Humphrey et. al. 2008 Walsh and
  Jacobs, 2007 Feistritzer 2008 Boyd et al 2008)
• Teachers (Boyd et al 2006 Humphrey et al 2008
  Feistritzer 2008)
• Often timing not, content differences (Peterson
  and Nadler, 2009), but even here may not be that
  different (Boyd et al 2008)
• Nonetheless, alternative paths have changed the
  discussion

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Selection Matters Some

• Academic ability (Boyd et al 2008, 2009
  Clotfelter et al 2008)
• Skills and practices (Pianta et al, 2007 Rockoff
  et al 2008 Constantine et al 2009 Boyd et al
  2009)

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Certification Exam Failure Rate of Entering NYC
Teachers by School Poverty, 2000-2005
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Math Achievement Resulting from Teacher
Qualifications, Rich and Poor Deciles, 2001 2005
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Preparation Probably Matters

• Many studies but few with designs that permit
  causal inference.
• Some recent work suggests that preparation in
  some areas can make a difference
• Opportunities to practice classroom activities
  (Boyd et al 2008)
• Probably not just coursework (Harris and Sass,
  2008)
• However, other work finds no significant effect
  (Constantine et al 2009)

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Timing of Preparation?

• Effectiveness Improves with Experience (Rockoff,
  2004 Rivkin et al, 2005 Kane et al, 2006)

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Timing of Preparation?

• Anecdotal reports of novice teachers overloaded
  with coursework
• Would a model that created a systematic
  connection of pre-service and in-service
  preparation/induction/mentoring be more
  effective?

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Retention

• Preparation routes make a difference

Adjusted for grade School and Year
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Retention, but be careful

• Good evidence that many teachers who leave early
  are less effective (Hanushek et al, 2005
  Goldhaber et al, 2007 Boyd et al, 2008)

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MPR Comprehensive Teacher Induction Year 1 RCT
Impacts

• Control group received support
• but treatment group received more
• No impact on classroom practices
• No positive impact on test scores
• No impact on teacher retention

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MPR Teachers Trained Through Different Routes
Experimental Design

• Design Pairs of AC-TC novice teachers in same
  grade and school, randomly assigned to students,
  2600 students, 174 teachers, 63 schools low and
  high coursework within each group. All of the AC
  programs had to be less selective (min GPA not gt
  3.0)
• Findings
• Preparation substantial overlap between AC TC
• Timing most TC complete coursework prior to
  teaching,
• high coursework AC teachers receive 150 hours
  (35 of total) prior to teaching

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Experimental Results AC Relative to TC
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Results for Subgroups

• Students in California with AC teachers scored
  statistically lower in math than students of TC
  counterparts (effect size -.13)
• Students of AC teachers taking coursework scored
  lower in math than students of TC counterparts
  (effect size -.09)
• No other subgroups showed statistically
  significant differences

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Non-Experimental Results

• Differences in AC teachers' charactersitics,
  practices, and training explained about 5 percent
  of math scores and 1 percent of reading scores
• Students of AC teachers taking coursework scored
  lower than TC comparisons in reading
• Students of AC teachers with master's degrees
  scored lower than TC comparisons in reading
• No other differences were statistically
  significant

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MPR Teachers Trained Through Different Routes

• What the study does not address
• Whether different models of best practice are
  more effective
• Separates selection from preparation
• Does not account for differential selection to
  schools

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Summary

• Increasingly good evidence that pathways to
  teaching matter for student achievement
• selection,
• preparation,
• timing (?) and
• retention
• The aptitudes of candidates, quality of their
  preparation/induction probably matter much more
  than the route.
• What aptitudes? What preparation?

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