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Is the "War on Teachers" a Victory for Students? Estimating the Impact of Teacher Labor Market Reforms on Student Achievement

Fri, April 5, 12:00 to 1:30pm, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Floor: 200 Level, Room 202D

Abstract

In recent years, many states have enacted substantial reforms to the teacher labor market, including changes to teacher tenure, evaluation, and collective bargaining, with the goal of improving teacher quality. Proponents argue these polices may enable school and district leaders to retain and promote the most effective teachers and remove the ineffective ones, ultimately improving student achievement. However, some teacher advocates have viewed such reforms as part of a “war on teachers,” and that this atmosphere creates negative consequences including teacher turnover that could harm students. Evidence to discern between these perspectives remains limited. In this study, we use two identification strategies identifying reform effects using different exogenous sources of variation. First, we use a difference-in-differences identification strategy, exploiting the plausibly exogenous timing of collective bargaining agreement contract expiration dates, to test whether a series of labor market reforms in Michigan affected student achievement or school-level effectiveness. Secondly, we use a comparative interrupted time series that compares changes in trends in student achievement in school districts with varying degrees of reform exposure based on the degree of restrictiveness of the district’s last pre-reform collectively bargained agreement. We use detailed student-, school-, and district-level data from all Michigan traditional public schools from 2005 to 2017. We estimate the reform impact on student achievement overall, in disadvantaged districts, or for disadvantaged subgroups of students, and overall, find very little evidence that student achievement was affected by these reforms.

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