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Urban Institute: Education Policy
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Urban Institute reports from: Education Policy - The Urban Institute is a nonprofit nonpartisan policy research and educational organization established to examine the social, economic, and governance problems facing the nation.
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Scaling the Digital Divide: Home Computer Technology and Student Achievement
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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What Makes Special-Education Teachers Special? : Teacher Training and Achievement of Students with Disabilities
This paper examines the impact of pre-service preparation and in-service formal and informal training on the ability of teachers to promote academic achievement among students with disabilities. Using student-level longitudinal data from Florida over a five-year span the authors estimate "value-added" models of student achievement. There is little support for the efficacy of in-service professional development courses focusing on special education. However, teachers with advanced degrees are more effective in boosting the math achievement of students with disabilities than are those with only a baccalaureate degree. Also pre-service preparation in special education has statistically significant and quantitatively substantial effects on the ability of teachers of special education courses to promote gains in achievement for students with disabilities, especially in reading.
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Teacher Attitudes about Compensation Reform : Implications for Reform Implementation
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. Policymakers interested in implementing new pay systems should carefully assess teacher opinion in determining where (and how) they invest in them.
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Scrambling the Nest Egg: How Well Do Teachers Understand Their Pensions, and What Do They Think about Alternative Pension Structures?
This paper addresses two questions: How well do teachers understand their current pension plans? And, what do they think about alternative plan structures? The data come from administrative records and a 2006 survey of teachers in Washington State. The results suggest Washington's teachers are fairly knowledgeable about their pensions, though new entrants and mid-career teachers appear to be less knowledgeable than veteran teachers. As for teachers' preferences for plan structure, the survey suggests that when it comes to investing additional retirement savings, a plurality of teachers favor defined contribution plans which offer more portability and choice, but more risk than traditional defined benefit plans. All else equal, teachers newer to the profession are more likely than veteran teachers to favor a defined contribution structure.
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Measure for Measure: The Relationship between Measures of Instructional Practice in Middle School English Language Arts and Teachers' Value-Added Scores
In this study, the authors ask what classroom practices, if any, differentiate teachers with high impact on student achievement in middle school English Language Arts from those with lower impact. The study further explores the extent to which value-added measures signal differences in instructional quality. Even with the small sample used in the analysis, there is evidence that high value-added teachers have a different profile of instructional practices than do low value-added teachers. Teachers in the top quartile as measured by value-added scores score higher than second-quartile teachers on all 16 elements of instruction that were measured. The differences are statistically significant for a subset of practices including explicit strategy instruction.
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