Each year, as a team, we will have a common theme to take full advantage of the comparative nature of CALDER’s work, as outlined below.

• Year 1 (2006-2007): Developing and using state administrative databases for research purposes, along with reviewing associated technical issues and conducting initial comparative studies.
  
  
• Year 2 (2007-2008): Teacher incentives and their role in recruiting, retaining and assignment of teachers and effects on student achievement. What works and why? What doesn't?
  
  
• Year 3 (2008-2009): Governance and accountability, and their relationship to teacher labor markets and student achievement.
  
  
• Year 4 (2009-2010): Changing student demographics and their relationship to teacher labor markets and student achievement.
  
  
• Year 5 (2010-2011): TBD. The theme of year 5 will build on the findings of the research of earlier years and critically analyze new policies, some of which we may not have anticipated.
  

Please note that the focus of our work could shift given promising research findings and/or the changing focus of state policies. We plan to remain flexible in our direction so that we can target our efforts opportunistically as unanticipated findings, puzzles and policies emerge that relate to our central questions and that merit close analysis. Our Management and Strategic Planning Group will engage in regular planning to ensure that we focus our effort in ways that can best yield important policy relevant findings in a timely way. Because we draw mainly on existing data that are updated annually by the states, we are able to be relatively nimble in focusing our efforts opportunistically.

Each year we expect to produce a number of academic journal articles as well as articles relevant for education practitioners. In addition, we will hold an annual conference to present findings, focused on that year's work, to the wider policy and research community. The proceedings will result in monographs and briefs as appropriate for the particular conference focus and findings that emerge that year.