Urban Institute

Texas

CALDER Authors

author Eric Hanushek

author Dan O'Brien

author Steven Rivkin


 

Related Publications


Constrained Job Matching:Does Teacher Job Search Harm Disadvantaged Urban Schools?
Working Paper 42
Author(s): Eric A. Hanushek and Steven G. Rivkin

Search theory suggests early career job changes lead to better matches that benefit both workers and firms, but this may not hold true in teacher labor markets characterized by salary rigidities, barriers to entry, and substantial differences in working conditions. Education policy makers are particularly concerned that teacher turnover may have adverse effects on the quality of instruction in schools serving predominantly disadvantaged children. Although these schools experience higher turnover, on average, than other schools, the impact on the quality of instruction depends on whether more productive teachers are more likely to depart. In Texas, the availability of matched panel data of students and teachers enables the isolation of teachers' contributions to achievement. Teachers who remain in their school tend to outperform those who leave, particularly those who exit Texas public schools entirely. This gap is larger for schools serving mainly low income students— evidence that high turnover is not nearly as damaging as many suggest.

Published: May 2010 | Download: pdf icon new Full Text (PDF 701KB) | printer_friendly Printer-Friendly Summary




Distribution of Benefits in Teacher Retirement Systems and Their Implications for Mobility
Working Paper 39
Author(s): Robert M. Costrell and Michael J. Podgursky

While it is generally understood that defined benefit pension systems concentrate benefits on career teachers and impose costs on mobile teachers, there has been very little analysis of the magnitude of these effects. The authors develop a measure of implicit redistribution of pension wealth among teachers at varying ages of separation. Compared to a neutral system, often about half of an entering cohort's net pension wealth is redistributed to teachers who separate in their fifties from those who separate earlier. There is some variation across six state systems. This implies large costs for interstate mobility. Estimates show teachers who split a thirty-year career between two pension plans often lose over half their net pension wealth compared to teachers who complete a career in a single system. Plan options that permit purchases of service years mitigate few or none of these losses. It is difficult to explain these patterns of costs and benefits on efficiency grounds. More likely explanations include the relative influence of senior versus junior educators in interest group politics and a coordination problem between states.

Published: December 2009 | Download: pdf icon new Full Text (PDF 569KB) | printer_friendly Printer-Friendly Summary | journal article Journal Publication | podcast Podcast
['Peaks, Cliffs, and Valleys'. Education Finance and Policy 4(2):175-211(2009)]




Estimating Principal Effectiveness
Working Paper 32
Author(s): Gregory F. Branch, Eric A. Hanushek, and Steven G. Rivkin

Much has been written about the importance of school leadership, but there is surprisingly little systematic evidence on this topic. This paper presents preliminary estimates of key elements of the market for school principals, employing rich panel data on principals from Texas State. The consideration of teacher movements across schools suggests that principals follow patterns quite similar to those of teachers – preferring schools that have less demands as indicated by higher income students, higher achieving students, and fewer minority students. Looking at the impact of principals on student achievement, there are some small but significant effects of the tenure of a principal in a school. Moreover, the variation in principal effectiveness tends to be largest in high poverty schools, consistent with hypothesis that principal ability is most important in schools serving the most disadvantaged students. Finally, principals who stay in a school tend to be more effective than those who move to other schools.

Published: December 2009 | Download: pdf icon new Full Text (PDF 290KB)




Before or After the Bell?: School Context and Neighborhood Effects on Student Achievement
Working Paper 28
Author(s): Paul A. Jargowsky and Mohamed El Komi

This paper explores the relative effects of school and neighborhood characteristics on student achievement in Texas. Previous empirical studies have estimated one of these effects in the absence of controls for the other, leading to potentially misleading results. School variables are more robust and explain a greater degree of the variance in test scores than neighborhood characteristics. Neighborhood level variables, as a group, are statistically significant even in the presence of school variables. The particular pattern of effects varies by the manner in which the school context was controlled, by poverty status, move status, and location in the conditional achievement distribution. But neighborhood always mattered. Even if neighborhood conditions are less robust than school context effects, concern about neighborhood conditions is still justified. Reducing the concentration of poverty and economic segregation may be the easiest way to decrease the "savage inequalities" that exist between schools.

Published: July 2009 | Download: pdf icon new Full Text (PDF 282KB)




The Texas FERPA Story
Policy Brief 5
Author(s): Daniel M. O'Brien

This research brief describes the legal and operational structure of the Texas longitudinal data system related to recent changes in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA)—which establishes the rights of parents to access their children's educational records and protects the confidentiality of student information—that more closely align law and practice. The U.S. Department of Education's FERPA Final Regulations Amendments took effect January 8, 2009.

Published: November 2008 | Download: pdf icon new  Full Text (PDF 257KB) | printer_friendly Printer-Friendly Summary




The Stability of Value-Added Measures of Teacher Quality and Implications for Teacher Compensation Policy
Policy Brief 4
Author(s): Tim R. Sass

There is little doubt that teacher quality is a key determinant of student achievement, but finding ways to identify and reward the best teachers has proven illusive. This research brief considers the stability of value-added measures of teacher effectiveness over time and the resulting implications for the design and implementation of performance-based teacher compensation schemes.

Published: November 2008 | Download: pdf icon new Full Text (PDF 246KB) | printer_friendly Printer-Friendly Summary


 



The research reported here was supported in part by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305A060018 to the Urban Institute. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute of Education Sciences, the U.S. Department of Education, or the Urban Institute.

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