The Effects of Student Teaching in Underserved and Hard-to-Staff Schools

• In Event: Student Teaching in Urban Districts: Implications for Teacher Quality, Career Paths, and Policy

Abstract

This study is motivated by an ongoing debate about the kinds of schools that make for the best field placements during pre-service preparation. On the one hand, easier-to-staff schools may support teacher learning because they are typically better-functioning institutions that offer desirable conditions for professional practice (Loeb, Darling-Hammond, and Luczak, 2005, National Academy of Education, 2009). On the other hand, such field placements may leave new teachers unprepared to work in difficult-to-staff schools and with underserved student populations that need high quality teachers the most (Haberman and Post, 1998). Given the great need to prepare teachers to work in underserved communities, placing new teachers in difficult-to-staff schools for field experiences during pre-service preparation - when university and school mentors are readily available to offer support - may be the best way to prepare them to succeed in similar kinds of schools as they become full-time professionals.

However, there is little empirical support for either side of this debate. Using administrative and survey data on almost 3,000 New York City teachers, their students, and their schools, the following research questions guide this study: Are teachers who learn to teach in difficult-to-staff, underserved field placements more or less likely to leave the profession in their first five years of teaching? Do these teachers have higher or lower student achievement gains than similar teachers who had field placements in easier-to-staff, less underserved settings? Do the results differ for teachers who become teacher of record in difficult-to-staff, underserved schools? To analyze effects on teacher retention, the study uses discrete-time hazard models to estimate the likelihood of leaving NYC schools as a function of teacher characteristics, field placement school characteristics, and current school characteristics. The study uses linear regression to model a teacher’s value added to students’ math achievement as a function of characteristics of the teacher, his or her field placement school, and his or her current school.

The study finds that learning to teach in easier-to-staff field placement schools has positive effects on teacher retention and student achievement gains, even for teachers who end up working in the hardest-to-staff schools. These effects are not explained by the characteristics of students in these schools. Teachers who learn to teach in field placement schools with more poor, black, or lowest-achieving students are no more or less likely to leave the profession and are no more or less effective at raising student test scores after becoming teacher of record. The findings have important policy implications for how teacher preparation programs select school placements for teacher learning as they suggest that easier-to-staff schools are significantly better sites to learn instructional practice. In choosing field placements, preparation programs might consider teacher turnover rates as a signal for identifying better sites for teacher learning.

Author

• Matthew Ronfeldt, University of Michigan