Labor Market Outcomes for Teachers Endorsed in High-Needs Areas

• In Event: 61.036 - Using Statewide Data to Improve Teacher Education Through a Research-Policy Partnership

Abstract

Discussion of teacher shortages is not a new topic in teacher education policy. Since the 1990s, the US Department of Education has published a list of shortage areas in each state. More recently, Dee and Goldhaber (2017) have suggested that these shortages could be caused by a combination of supply and demand factors. On the supply side, state policies and specific EPPs could attract teacher candidates to some certification areas over others. On the demand side, local school district conditions could make employment more or less attractive to teacher candidates on the job market.

In this current study, we use EPP completer data from Tennessee to describe the supply of new teachers in Tennessee. We are interested in describing the preparation, employment, instructional effectiveness, and retention patterns for teachers who receive an endorsement in a high-needs area (HNA) in the state. Tennessee’s HNAs include endorsements in secondary mathematics, science and technology (e.g., computer science and career technical education), special education, bilingual education, and English as a second language.

Findings show substantial heterogeneity across Tennessee’s EPPs in the number of graduates in HNAs as well as in their employment rates in the state. On the employment side, we observe that teachers endorsed to teach a HNA are more likely to be employed in the state and have a higher attrition rates than teachers not endorsed to teach in a HNA. On the other hand, we find that, compared to non-HNA endorsed peers, teachers endorsed in a HNA appear to receive lower observation ratings based upon district evaluation rubrics and lower value-added measures; we are currently investigating the degree to which these results may be explained by differences in the populations of students that these groups teach. Taken together, these results seem to suggest that state and EPP policies are effective at recruiting teachers for HNAs and that future policy should address retention and professional development during teachers’ early careers.

Authors

• Emanuele Bardelli, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• Matthew Ronfeldt, University of Michigan