Staff Quality

Dixon and colleagues proposed that faculty publication rates were a reasonable metric for judging the quality of practitioner training programs.  In this commentary, it is suggested that publication rates may be a poor measure of a quality training program.

For much of the past decade, states have engaged in the difficult work of establishing a shared vision of educator effectiveness and strengthening the educator workforce. Recently, as part of the 2015 Excellent Educators for All initiative, states developed equity plans to identify gaps in student access to great teachers and detail strategies to address these gaps.

Student teachers consider cooperating teachers to be one of the most important contributors
to their teacher preparation program. Therefore, the ways in which cooperating teachers
participate in teacher education are significant.

There is mounting evidence of substantial “teacher quality gaps” (TQGs) between advantaged and disadvantaged students but practically no empirical evidence about their history. We use longitudinal data on public school students, teachers, and schools from two states—North Carolina and Washington—to provide a descriptive history of the evolution of TQGs in these states.

Practicing school psychologists were surveyed to determine if differences exist among practitioners in the various U.S. Census regions. 

A salary increase in an urban school district can attract more applicants. The policy attracted applicants who would have only applied to higher-paying school districts in the absence of the salary increase. Improvements in the applicant pool can lead to an increase in the quality of new-hires.

This paper provides the history and summarizes the development of the Campbell Collaboration. The Campbell Collaboration is a “nonprofit organization with the mission of helping people make well-informed decisions about the effects of interventions in the social, behavioral, and educational domains. The paper looks at the organization’s efforts to build a world library of accurate, synthesized evidence to inform policy and practice and improve human well-being worldwide. The Education section of the Campbell research library produces reviews on issues in early childhood, elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education. Topics range from academic programs, teacher qualifications, testing, to a wide variety of school-based interventions. Campbell systematic reviews and related evidence synthesis provide unbiased summaries of bodies of empirical evidence. 

This research suggests that the effectiveness of principals in managing the recruitment and advancement of teachers will contribute to improvements in student learning. One of the key ways these managers influence performance is through human capital management: the attraction, development and retention of the employee talent the organization needs.