Publications

This report by the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research finds that Chicago Public Schools teachers with low-end scores on Recognizing Educators Advancing Chicago’s Students (REACH), Chicago’s new teacher evaluation system, are overrepresented in schools with the most high-need students while highly evaluated teachers are overrepresented in low-poverty schools. The report also finds that schools with better organizational and learning climates attract teachers with higher REACH scores, even in high-poverty schools.

This study presents findings from a preliminary analyses of the Leading Educators Fellowship, a professional development program for highly effective, experienced teachers intended to improve retention rates of teachers in high-need schools and boost student outcomes. This study looks at early analyses of the impact of program fellows and those mentored by fellows on student achievement and teacher retention rates in Louisiana and Missouri.

This brief presents findings from a five-year study of 1,990 public school teachers who began teaching in 2007–08. The study found that teachers were more likely to stay in the profession if they had a mentor and participated in an induction program in their first year, earned a base salary in excess of $40,000, or taught in schools where the population eligible for free or reduced-price lunch (an indication of a high-need school) was below 50 percent.

Working from the premise that effective principals play an important role in improving student outcomes by creating a positive work culture, this report looks at actions that state policymakers can take to ensure all schools have excellent principals. The report examines the policies, policy levers, and contextual factors that states should consider as they identify and determine state policy priorities for developing and supporting excellent principals.

Using data from Los Angeles Unified School District and Washington state, this report seeks to quantify the impact of layoffs on teacher productivity. The report finds an association between the impacts of the layoff process and decreased productivity, and concludes that this is a result of teachers’ uncertainty about the layoff process and their perceived lack of job security.

This paper analyzes the impact of the Florida Critical Teacher Shortage Program (FCTSP), which is aimed at increasing recruitment and stemming attrition of teachers in subject areas with shortages. The FCTSP adopted a three-pronged approach to increase the supply of teachers in “hard-to-staff” subjects: loan forgiveness, tuition rates in designated subjects, and one-year bonuses. The analysis found that two of the three approaches reduced attrition rates, while the loan-forgiveness program was found to attract high-quality candidates.

This three-volume report describes the “SAM” process, which is intended help principals spend more time on improving classroom instruction and less time on administrative and managerial tasks. Research shows that instructional leadership is highly influential in improving student outcomes. The SAM approach is currently used by around 700 schools across the country.

This report examines the progress made in recent years in increasing teacher diversity in public schools. The report discusses the benefits of a diverse teaching population for all students, particularly minority students, and investigates the hiring, distribution, and turnover of minority teachers in nine major U.S. cities.

This working paper presents findings from an investigation on the impact of demographic matches or mismatches  on teacher expectations for students in high schools. Findings indicate that non-black teachers of black students have lower expectations for their students than their black counterparts, particularly for male students and in math, providing additional support for the hiring of a more diverse and representative teaching force.

In California, seven out of 10 of the state’s fastest growing occupations are in STEM fields. Low-income, minority students have less access to STEM learning opportunities and experience less success in STEM subjects compared to their more advantaged peers. This report examines how the shortage of STEM teachers in California is impacting low-income students’ access to a high-quality STEM education.