Researchers and policymakers use certification as a metric of teaching quality in subject areas as well as subfields of education. We examined the association between having a teacher with dual certification in elementary and special education and math and reading achievement for students with disabilities (SWDs). We also examined whether dual…

The author's statement to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions on the challenges faced by America's classroom teachers focuses on a few of the factors that lead to teacher frustration and burnout that higher pay, however well-intended, does not change. They include, but are not limited to, poor teacher preparation,…

Across six Sub-Saharan African countries, grade 4 students of teachers who were hired after a free primary education reform perform worse, on average, on language and math tests--statistically significantly so in language--than students of teachers who were hired before the reform. Teachers who were hired just after the reform also perform worse,…

This study presents an extension of the validity argument for the PCK-Fractions measure. PCK-Fractions is designed to assess the effectiveness of professional experiences in facilitating teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for children's fraction reasoning in grades 3-5. We examined data across 101 participants from two Midwest…

Teachers' content knowledge and beliefs about teaching and learning are among the key factors for effective teaching and, in turn, for student achievement-related outcomes. This study explores the extent to which K-8 math teachers'--who teach in high-poverty urban schools--professional background, motivational beliefs, and mathematical knowledge…

Study after study has found that new teachers tend to be less effective than educators with more experience. But despite having more junior staff, charter networks (referred to as CMOs) often outperform their district peers. So what's their secret? To find out, this study explores how teacher effectiveness varies and evolves across traditional and…

Since established by an Appropriations Act in 2006, the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) competitive grant program in the U.S. Department of Education has supported human capital strategies "to ensure that students attending high-poverty schools have better access to effective teachers and principals, especially in hard-to-staff subject…

Teachers' own level of human capital development is commonly believed to be deterministic for the quality and effectiveness of their instruction and management in the classroom. Yet, there still exists an international debate on whether better educated teachers contribute to students' cognitive development. Leveraging a random class-assignment…

UTeach is a well-known, university-based program designed to increase the number of high-quality science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teachers in the workforce. The UTeach program was originally developed by faculty at the University of Texas at Austin but has rapidly spread and is now available at 44 universities in 21 states;…

A fundamental question for education policy is whether outcomes-based accountability including comprehensive educator evaluations and a closer relationship between effectiveness and compensation improves the quality of instruction and raises achievement. We use synthetic control methods to study the comprehensive teacher and principal evaluation…

Current educational reform in mathematics education reflects attempts to incorporate the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The CCSS decrees both content standards and mathematical practices (process standards) that students should master if they are to be sufficiently prepared for college or a career. This paper investigates the confidence…

The fourth cohort of the Teacher Incentive Fund federal grant competition ("TIF4") included special consideration for projects that would identify, develop, and utilize master teachers as leaders of STEM education. In September 2012, the Houston Independent School District (HISD) was awarded a TIF4 grant for $15.9 million to implement a…

Research in this study examined the factors that affect teachers' attitudes, concerns, and self-efficacy toward inclusive education in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) classrooms. The study was driven by the following overarching research question: Is there a significant correlation between teachers' attitudes and teachers'…

The technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) framework provides an understanding of a teacher's knowledge in the three areas and how it is used to effectively teach with technology (Koehler, Mishra, & Cain, 2013). This study explores the TPACK of middle and high school math and special education teachers and how teachers…

We use comprehensive data on student teaching placements from 14 teacher education programs (TEPs) in Washington State to explore the sorting of teacher candidates to the teachers who supervise their student teaching ("cooperating teachers") and the schools in which student teaching occurs. We find that, all else equal, teachers with…