Teacher Attitudes about Compensation Reform: Implications for Reform Implementation
By Dan Goldhaber, Michael DeArmond, and Scott DeBurgomaster
June 2010

Reform advocates and policymakers concerned about the quality and distribution of teachers among schools support proposals of alternative compensation for teachers in hard-to-staff schools and subject-areas. But the successful implementation of such proposals depends on teacher attitudes. Results from a 2006 survey of teachers in Washington State linked to school and district data confirm that teacher opinion about pay reform is not uniform, and illustrate teacher preferences for different pay structures vary substantially by individual and workplace characteristics.

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Scaling the Digital Divide: Home Computer Technology and Student Achievement
By Jacob L. Vigdor and Helen F. Ladd
June 2010

Does differential access to computer technology at home compound the educational disparities between the rich and the poor? Authors examine the arrival of broadband service in North Carolina between 2000 and 2005, using data on the state's public school students and earlier surveys documenting broad racial and socioeconomic gaps in home computer access and use. The introduction of home computer technology is associated with modest but statistically significant and persistent negative impacts on student math and reading test scores, thus broadening math and reading achievement gaps. They conclude that home computer technology is put to more productive use in households with more effective parental monitoring.
 

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Competitive Effects of Means-Tested School Vouchers
By David N. Figlio and Cassandra M.D. Hart
June 2010

Voucher options like tuition tax credit-funded scholarship programs have become increasingly popular in recent years. Authors examine the effects of private school competition on public school student achievement in the wake of Florida’s FTC program, which offered scholarships to eligible low-income students to attend private schools. Students in public schools faced with increased private school competition showed greater gains in test scores than those in other public schools. The gains appear to be much more pronounced in the schools most at risk of losing students and in schools on the margin of Title I funding.

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