The Labor Market for Teachers under Different Pay Schemes

Compensation of most US public school teachers is rigid and solely based on seniority. This paper studies the effects of a reform that gave school districts in Wisconsin full autonomy to redesign teacher pay schemes. Following the reform some districts switched to flexible compensation. Using the expiration of preexisting collective bargaining agreements as a source of exogenous variation in the timing of changes in pay, I show that the introduction of flexible pay raised salaries of high-quality teachers, increased teacher quality (due to the arrival of high-quality teachers from other districts and increased effort), and improved student achievement. (JEL J31, J45, J52, H75, I21)

Personnel Management and School Productivity: Evidence from India

This paper uses new data to study school management and productivity in India. We report four main results. First, management quality in public schools is low, and ~2σ below high-income countries with comparable data. Second, private schools have higher management quality, driven by much stronger people management. Third, people management quality is correlated with both independent measures of teaching practice, as well as school productivity measured by student value added. Fourth, private school teacher pay is positively correlated with teacher effectiveness, and better managed private schools are more likely to retain more effective teachers. Neither pattern is seen in public schools.

Classroom Interaction In English Speaking Class (A Study At Sma Santu Fransiskus Ruteng, Flores)

<em>Classroom interaction emphasizes on the effectiveness of the students participation in the dialogue, and finally improving the ability of speaking. It involves all participants; teacher, learners and learning sources. There are some different purpose of using speaking. Each purpose implies knowledge of the rules that account for how spoken language reflects the context in which the speech occurs (Richard and Renandya, 2002:201). The study aims at finding out how classroom interaction employed in speaking class at SMA Santu Fransiskus Ruteng, Flores. It’s used mixed method combining the use of descriptive quantitative and qualitative study design with phenomenological approach. It’s used random sampling, with 45 students taken as the samples. Meanwhile, employing a qualitative research design and phenomenological approach, the data for this study are mostly collected through interview completed by observation and documentation. For the purpose of deep interview, the participants are 1 English teacher and 4 students taken purposively. The study showed that 1) there is one aspect of classroom interaction mostly categorized as high level of implementation; Response and Asks Questions (28=62.2%). Data of interviewed confirmed that students needs appreciation for learning progress or achievement they may make. It encourages them to be more active and participative. 2) Feelings acceptance, praises or encouragement, and ideas use or acceptance implementation (40=88.9%) and giving directions, criticisms or authority justification (38=84.4%) were mostly in the category of medium level. Meanwhile, initiation was mostly in the category of low level (24=53.3%). Data of interview confirmed that low initiation is caused by students learning habit. Most students do the activities of learning English when English teacher fosters them to learn. It’s in the form of quiz, assignment, mid test or final test. Leaning is merely conducted to improve and increase English score. Other activities such as memorizing vocabularies, writing stories, answering questions based on the passages, building up sentences and other classroom activities designed are done under teacher’s control and design. In the next phase, students find it difficult to accomplish complex tasks. They are only able to accomplish simple tasks. Learning autonomy which is oriented to build up speaking ability hardly ever done. To this extend, English teacher pay more attention to the topic chosen in teaching learning processes. It determines whether the students initiate interaction or not.</em>

Effective resource utilization in Arkansas public schools

PurposeTeacher pay in Arkansas public schools varies widely from district to district across the state. This pay discrepancy is driven by both the funds available to a district and by how these funds are allocated. A standard per student budget is given to districts across the state, but this budget can be supplemented by additional property taxes collected on property within a district. This leaves districts with more highly valued property at an advantage. Districts are free to allocate their budget for teacher pay as they see fit, with constraints on number of students per teacher and minimum teacher salary.Design/methodology/approachUsing public data available through the Arkansas Department of Education, this research investigates what variables affect student performance in Arkansas public schools using feature selection and predictive modelling and determine the cost-effectiveness associated with changing possible decision variables in terms of improving student performance.FindingsIt was found that the most cost-effective ways for districts to increase student performance are to (1) increase average teacher salary and (2) increase average years of teacher experience. This result is validated by education research, as both of these methods have been identified in literature as being effective ways to increase teacher quality and increase student performance. Furthermore, districts should consider increasing student–teacher ratio and applying the resulting savings toward teacher salaries.Originality/valueThis methodology gives a fresh perspective on the most cost-effective use of resources in publicly funded schools.

Teacher Wage Penalty and Decrease in Teacher Quality: Evidence from Career-Changers

This paper examines the relation between teacher pay and teacher quality through the career dynamics of teachers and non-teachers. I find that public school teachers earn considerably less than their comparable college graduates in the non-teaching sector. By tracking wage differentials before and after career changes, I find evidence of positive selection, in which high-paid teachers are more likely to move to non-teaching occupations, and of negative selection, in which low-paid non-teachers tend to move to the teaching sector. These selection patterns, which ultimately contribute to a decrease in teacher quality, are more significant in union-unfriendly states.

“Do it all but don’t kill us”: (Re)positioning teacher educators and preservice teachers amidst edTPA and the teacher strike in West Virginia

We explore how two “happenings” representing different political, social, historical and economic influences converge to shape the narratives of preservice teachers and teacher educators in West Virginia. These happenings are the 2017-2018 edTPA roll out and the teacher strike of February 2018. We use the framework of sensemaking to explore preservice teacher and teacher educator identity/agency using a phenomenological analysis of narratives accessed through narrative portfolios, artifacts, and interviews with pre-service teachers, mentors (supervising teachers), and teacher educators. We found that the confluence of these political moments reinforced a neoliberal orientation for both preservice teachers and teacher educators, positioning preservice teachers to expect teacher educators to intensively support the edTPA and ensure their success while silencing the collective history and moral imperative of protest. Preservice teachers and some mentors reframed the edTPA as a pathway to increased teacher pay/meritocracy by linking it with the National Boards, yet there were pockets of resistance within this among both preservice teachers and teacher educators. These findings are important for informing educational policy and practice around both corporate involvement in assessment/accountability policy and preservice teachers’ and teacher educators’ roles in protest at this moment when both are expanding simultaneously.

GOOD TEACHING AND GOOD PERFORMANCE REQUIRES THE ESTABLISHMENT OF REFERENCE – TEACHING REFORMS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Evaluation of teacher performance can also be used to determine career advancement, award performance rewards or establish sanctions for under-performing teachers. It constitutes an opportunity to recognize and reward teaching competence and performance, which is essential to retain effective teachers in schools as well as to make teaching an attractive career choice. (OECD, 2005) In general, teacher evaluation frameworks might have consequences at the following levels: Career advancement. Most countries do not link directly teacher evaluation results with teacher· pay but, instead, to career progression (therefore establishing an indirect link with salaries). An example is England where teachers who meet the standards for “Post Threshold, Excellent and Advanced Skills Teachers” also access the higher pay scale.