The first of (we hope) many efforts to understand Grow Your Own Teachers from a theoretical perspective has been published by two of our colleagues from Northeastern Illinois University:
Schultz, B.D., Gillette, M.D., & Hill, D. (2008). A Theoretical framework for understanding Grow Your Own Teachers. The Sophist’s Bane: The Journal of the Society of Professors of Education, 4(1), 69-80.
(Several other publications about GYO are in the works and we will include them as soon as they are in print. )
Brian Schultz has also gotten great reviews on his new book recounting and analyzing a year he spent teaching (and learning) in a public school in the Cabrini-Green neighborhood:
Schultz, B.D. (2008). Spectacular things happen along the way: Lessons from an urban classroom. New York: Teachers College Press.
Finally, our long time friend and mentor Charles Payne has a new book which should be read by anyone remotely interested in improving schools in low-income urban communities:
Payne, Charles (2008) So Much Reform, So Little Change Cambridge: Harvard Education Press
Read a short interview with Dr. Payne about the book here: http://news.uchicago.edu/news.php?asset_id=1431
Finally, click here to download a PDF of the bibliography on effective teaching prepared for the GYO 2009 Statewide Learning Network Meeting.
A Selective Annotated Bibliography of Research and Practice
Assessment of Diversity in America’s Teaching Force: A Call to Action. (2004). National Collaborative on Diversity in the Teaching Force: Washington, DC. http://www.communityteachers.org/documents/DiversityReport.pdf.
Gay, G., J. Dingus, & C. Jackson (2003). The Presence and Performance of Teachers of Color in the Profession. National Collaborative on Diversity in the Teaching Force. http://www.communityteachers.org/programs/nationalcollaborative.html
This report provides background information on the extent to which racial diversity is (and is not) represented in American classrooms. The most notable finding is that the number of non-white students continues to increase while the percent of teachers who are non-white is decreasing.
Hanushek, E. A., Kain, J. F., O’Brien, D. M., & Rivkin, S. G. (2005). The market for teacher quality. National Bureau of Economic Research; Cambridge, MA.
Using student achievement gains as a measure of teacher quality, the authors found, among other things, that teacher quality was not related to advanced degrees or certification; experience matters but only in the first year of teaching; there is a positive value of matching students by race; and that there is substantial variation in the quality of instruction with a school.
Walsh, K. and Tracy, C. (2005). Increasing the Odds: How Good Policies Can Yield Better Teachers. National Council on Teacher Quality: Washington, DC. http://www.nctq.org/nctq/images/nctq_io.pdf
Lauber, D., Warden, C. & Moon, E. (2007, Forthcoming). How Illinois districts cheat low-income and minority students. Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform: Chicago, IL.
This study examines the access that low-income and minority students have to experienced teachers in the 50 largest Illinois districts. The researchers found moderate to huge gaps in experience and salary spending between teachers working in the highest and lowest income schools and the highest and lowest minority schools in 31 out the 50 districts. The study will be available in Spring 2007 on the Cross City Campaign’s web page http://crosscity.org/ and at http://www.issuelab.com/search/index.php
National Partnership for Teaching in At-risk Schools. (2005). Qualified teachers for at-risk schools: A national imperative. Washington, D.C.
This report, a collaborative effort of the Education Commission of the States, ETS, and Learning Point Associates defines the staffing problems in at-risk schools, the efforts that have been undertaken to address them, the current state of research about the causes of the problems, and the agenda of the National Partnership. http://www.ecs.org/html/projectspartners/NPTARS/npreport.asp
Presley, J. B., White, B. R., & Gong, Y. (2005). Examining the distribution and impact of teacher quality in Illinois. Illinois Education Research Council: Edwardsville, IL.
The Illinois Education Research Council created the Illinois Teacher Quality Index (TQI), a composite measuring teacher quality based on teacher characteristics associated with student outcomes including the competiveness of the teachers’ colleges, years of experience, type of credentials, performance on the Illinois Basic Skills Test, and their ACT scores. The researchers found that high poverty and high minority schools are much more likely to have lower TQIs, no matter where they are located in the state. http://ierc.siue.edu/iercpublication.asp
Roza, M. & Hill, P. (2004). How within-district spending inequities help some schools to failA chapter in the 2004 edition of Brookings Book on Education Policy (Diane Ravitch, ed.). p. 201-227.
This report looks at per-pupil spending for teacher salaries, how schools serving low income children get less qualified and experienced teachers, and how districts’ resource distribution policies perpetuate these inequities. The authors recommend more open funding and budgeting practices to help make school budgets more equitable.
Sanders, W. L. & Rivers, J. C. (1996). Culmative and residual effects of teachers on future student academic achievement.Knoxville, TN.: University of Tennessee Value-Added Research and Assessment Center.
Sanders and Rivers found that students with similar abilities and initial achievement levels can have very different academic outcomes due to the teachers to whom they are assigned. They reported that students who had the most effective teachers for three years in a row scored between 52 and 54 percentiles higher on achievement tests than students who were taught by the least effective teachers. They further found that as teacher effectiveness increased, lower achieving students were the first to benefit.
Shapiro, S. K. & Laine, S. W. (2005). Adding the critical voice: A dialogue with practicing teachers on teacher recruitment and retention in hard-to-staff schools. Learning Points Associates: Naperville, IL.
Seeking the opinions of public school teachers from Illinois, Ohio ,and Wisconsin, researchers conducted focus groups to find out what teachers thought about the controversies sabotaging their profession, especially the efforts to attract, retain and support teachers in hard-to-staff schools. http://www.learningpt.org/page.php?pageID=140
Boyd, D., Lankford, H., Loeb, S. and Wyckoff, J. (2003). The Draw of Home: How Teachers’ Preferences for Proximity Disadvantage Urban Schools. National Bureau of Economic Research: Cambridge, MA. http://www.nber.org/papers/w9953.
This study analyzes teachers’ preferences with regard to the geographic location of their first teaching position. Findings include teachers’ strong preferences to teach within 40 miles of their childhood home and, to a lesser extent, near their college. The authors also discuss implications of these findings for urban school districts.
Frost, S. (2005). Here One Year, Gone the Next. Illinois ACORN: Chicago, IL. http://www.acorn.org/fileadmin/ACORN_Reports/ACORN_turnover_study.pdf
Report of the ACORN study of teacher turnover in 65 Chicago schools.
Ingersoll, R. (2003). Is There Really a Teacher Shortage? Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy: University of Washington. http://www.gse.upenn.edu/inpress/Is There Really a Teacher Shortage.pdf
Ingersoll provides the most recent national data on teacher turnover rates, using the Schools and Staffing Survey. He also studies the reasons teachers leave schools or the profession.
National Center for Education Statistics (2007). Teacher attrition and mobility: Results from the 2004-05 Teacher Follow-up Survey.Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2007307
This report provides information about teacher mobility and attrition among elementary and secondary school teachers who teach in grades K–12. The report looks at those who stay in the teaching profession and those who leave, including retirees.
National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future. (2003). No dream denied. A pledge to America’s children. Washington, DC. http://www.nctaf.org/index.html.
The Commission concluded that teacher retention is a national crisis causing districts to hire too many unqualified teachers. They call for every child to have a high quality teacher and to do this there needs to be a coordinated system of teacher recruitment, quality teacher preparation, clinical practice, induction, mentorship, and continuing professional development, with accountability.
U. S. Department of Education. (2000). Eliminating barriers to improving teaching.
The report looks at a long list of barriers to effective teaching including barriers in recruitment, retention, teacher preparations, professional development, and development of effective leaders. The report also describes some programs that were designed to eliminate these barriers.
Bushrow, K., Breck, S., and Bushrow, J. (2004). Recruitment of “High Quality” Middle Level Teachers. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville: Edwardsville, IL. http://www.ibhe.state.il.us/TQE/PDF/RWP/SIUE.pdf.
Clewell, B. and Villegas, A. (2001). Absence Unexcused: Ending Teacher Shortages in High-Need Areas. The Urban Institute: Washington, DC. http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/310379_AbsenceUnexcused.pdf.
Clewell, B. and Villegas, A. (2001). Ahead of the Class: A Handbook for Preparing New Teachers from New Sources. The Urban Institute: Washington, DC. http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/ahead_of_the_class.pdf.
DeWitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund. (1997). Recruiting, Preparing and Retaining Teachers for America’s Schools. DeWitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund: New York, NY. http://www.wallacefoundation.org/NR/rdonlyres/91A32435-0526-4C47-B2F5-1DD7D6E47E25/0/RecruitingPreparingandRetainingTeachers.pdf.
The above previous three items are related to the DeWitt Wallace Foundation's Pathways Program, a five-year multi-site initiative to create access to teacher training for nontraditional candidates, many of them school paraprofessionals.
Neild, R., Useem, E., and Farley, E. (2005). The Quest for Quality: Recruiting and Retaining Teachers in Philadelphia. Research for Action: Philadelphia, PA. http://www.researchforaction.org/PSR/PublishedWorks/QuestforQuality.pdf.
Paraprofessional Task Force Final Report. (2003). Illinios State Board of Education and Illinois Community College Board: Springfield, IL. http://www.iccb.state.il.us/html/pdf/reports/parapro/paraprotfreport4-03.pdf
Alliance for Excellent Education (2004). Tapping the potential: Retaining and developing high-quality new teachers. Washington, DC.
Focusing on high teacher turnover among new teachers, the report discusses the importance of comprehensive induction that not only dramatically reduces new teacher attrition, it is less expensive than the cost of replacing teachers. http://www.all4ed.org/publications/TappingThePotential/index.html
Fulton, K., Yoon, I., and Lee, C. (2005). Induction Into Learning Communities. National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future: Washington, DC. http://www.aera.net/uploadedFiles/News_Media/News_Releases/2005/STE-WhatWeKnow1.pdf
Kapadia, K., Coca, V., & Easton, J. Q. (2007). Keeping new teachers:
A first look at the influences of induction in the Chicago Public Schools. Consortium on Chicago School Research: Chicago, IL.
This study provides a look at first- and second-year Chicago Public School teachers and what influences their early experience and intentions to stay in teaching including: their background, preparation, classroom demands, school climate, mentoring and other school supports. http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/content/index.php
Leigh, A. and Mead, S. (2005). Lifting Teacher Performance. Progressive Policy Institute: Washington, DC. http://www.ppionline.org/documents/teachqual_0419.pdf.
Education Commission of the States
One of ECS’ projects is Teacher Quality. The organization’s web page on this issue
lists selected reading and research on teacher quality and has multiple sub-topics including hard-to-staff schools, recruitment/retention, and induction/mentoring. Each topic has accompanying policy briefs. http://www.ecs.org/html/issue.asp?issueid=129
Illinois State Board of Education
Each year the Illinois State Board of Education releases Educator supply and demand, a study of the shortages and oversupply of Illinois teachers. http://www.isbe.net/research/htmls/supply_and_demand.htm
National Center for Education Statistics
The survey, Characteristics of schools ,districts, teachers, principals, and school libraries in the United States 2003-04 schools and staffing survey, published in 2006, has an enormous amount of data on students, teachers, schools, libraries, and districts including statistics on race/ethnicity, size, location, graduation, limited-English proficient, etc. http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2006313
National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality
The National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality’s (NCCTQ) web page http://www.ncctq.org/ is a resource on teacher quality including teacher preparation, recruitment, teacher quality in at-risk schools, and certification and licensure. NCCTQ has a quarterly newsletter, TQ Research and Policy Updates, that updates a variety of topics related to teacher quality. http://www.ncctq.org/tqnews.php
