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25 Jan 2018
Report

Teacher Value-Added in Charter Schools and Traditional Public Schools

Umut Ozek, AIR
Celeste Carruthers, University of Tennessee at Knoxville
Kristian Holden, AIR

Image of high school teacher student at computerSchool choice is a longstanding and highly debated reform strategy in the U.S. and one promoted by the Race to the Top legislation. Over the past three decades, charter schools have become the most popular form of school choice, especially in urban school districts.

Using school and teacher level data from Florida, this study investigates the degree to which differences in teacher quality explain the effectiveness of charter schools, and seeks to bridge the gap between research on the effectiveness of charter schools and research demonstrating the profound importance of teachers in advancing student outcomes.

Key Findings

  • First, we find that teachers working in above-average poverty charter schools have significantly higher value-added scores compared to traditional public school teachers working in similar settings, which is mainly driven by the right tail of the value-added score distribution, yet we find no such differences in below-average poverty settings.
  • Second, we find that cross-sector differences in observed teacher characteristics such as experience and educational attainment fail to explain any of the observed gaps in teacher effectiveness in higher-poverty settings. Instead, we find that differences in returns to experience on teacher productivity, which is significantly higher in the charter sector, explains most of the observed cross-sector effectiveness gaps.
  • Third, we find considerable differences in teacher support and teacher influence on instructional policies and practices between charter schools and traditional public schools, which might help explain the higher returns to experience on teacher effectiveness as well as the observed effectiveness gaps between charter schools and traditional public schools serving disadvantaged students.
Teacher Value-Added in Charter Schools and Traditional Public Schools

Related Centers

Center

National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER)

The National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) is a joint project of AIR and scholars at Duke University, Northwestern University, Stanford University, the University of Missouri, the University of Texas at Dallas, and the University of Washington.

Related Work

16 May 2015
Report

Misattribution of Teacher Value-Added

The federal Race to the Top competition provided significant impetus for states to adopt “value-added” models as a part of their teacher evaluation systems. This study examines how teacher evaluations are affected by incorrectly attributing changes in student's test scores to the value-added of teachers in spring classrooms, and explores methods that can provide the best approximation in the absence of more detailed data.
Topic: 
Education, Teacher Preparation and Performance
17 Sep 2013
Report

Value-Added Measures in Education

To assess teacher effectiveness in accordance with state and federal policies—such as the Race to the Top program—many states and districts are using growth and value-added models as one component of a comprehensive teacher evaluation system. 

Topic: 
Education, Teacher Preparation and Performance

Further Reading

  • Tracking Teacher Effectiveness Gaps Between Charter Schools and Traditional Public Schools
  • AIR Experts Participate in Association for Education Finance and Policy’s Annual Conference
  • ESSA │Charter Schools and School Choice
  • Experts from the American Institutes for Research to Present at the Annual Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP) Conference
  • Misattribution of Teacher Value-Added
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photo of Umut Ozek

Umut Ozek

Principal Researcher

Topic

Education
Charter Schools and School Choice
Teacher Preparation and Performance

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