Teacher Survey Reveals Much Interest in Hybrid Teaching Roles, Greater Satisfaction in Collaborative Settings
With education reform continuing to make headlines and a planned overhaul of No Child Left Behind, the MetLife Survey of the American Teacher: Collaborating for Student Success series continues to offer important insights regarding the current state of the system. Part 3: Teaching as a Career, the final report from the study, includes the views of teachers and principals and examines collaboration in the context of professional growth and career paths.
According to the study, teachers are reporting significant changes in their profession. These changes come at a time when the teaching profession faces multiple challenges, including the retirement of teachers in the baby boom generation, economic pressures, and a greater emphasis on teacher quality and student achievement. To address these challenges, career pathways in education are changing, the role of the teacher is evolving, and collaboration is being emphasized as never before—and today’s educators are eager to have their voices heard.
According to the study, teachers are reporting significant changes in their profession. These changes come at a time when the teaching profession faces multiple challenges, including the retirement of teachers in the baby boom generation, economic pressures, and a greater emphasis on teacher quality and student achievement. To address these challenges, career pathways in education are changing, the role of the teacher is evolving, and collaboration is being emphasized as never before—and today’s educators are eager to have their voices heard.
The Cost of New Higher Quality Assessments:
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A Comprehensive Analysis of the Potential Costs for Future State Assessments
This paper, one of eight in a series on performance assessments spearheaded by Stanford Professor Linda Darling-Hammond, addresses the notion that instructionally-sensitive tests are too expensive. Using fancy cost-modeling software, analysts found that high-quality assessments (HQAs), such as those with short answer questions and expository writing samples, can compete economically with traditional multiple choice tests.
A Comprehensive Analysis of the Potential Costs for Future State Assessments
This paper, one of eight in a series on performance assessments spearheaded by Stanford Professor Linda Darling-Hammond, addresses the notion that instructionally-sensitive tests are too expensive. Using fancy cost-modeling software, analysts found that high-quality assessments (HQAs), such as those with short answer questions and expository writing samples, can compete economically with traditional multiple choice tests.
Constrained Job Matching: Does Teacher Job Search Harm Disadvantaged Urban Schools?
Theory suggests that early career job changes on balance lead to better matches that benefit both workers and firms, but this may not hold in teacher labor markets characterized by salary rigidities, barriers to entry, and substantial differences in working conditions that are difficult for institutions to alter. Of particular concern to education policy makers is the possibility that teacher turnover adversely affects the quality of instruction in schools serving predominantly disadvantaged children.
Although such schools experience higher turnover on average than others, the impact on the quality of instruction depends crucially on whether it is the more productive teachers who are more likely to depart. The absence of direct measures of productivity typically hinders efforts to measure the effect of turnover on worker quality. In the case of teachers, however, the availability of matched panel data of students and teachers,
Although such schools experience higher turnover on average than others, the impact on the quality of instruction depends crucially on whether it is the more productive teachers who are more likely to depart. The absence of direct measures of productivity typically hinders efforts to measure the effect of turnover on worker quality. In the case of teachers, however, the availability of matched panel data of students and teachers,