Human Capital Policies in Education: Further Research on Teachers and Principals 5 rd Annual CALDER Conference January 27 th, 2012

Certification Requirements and Teacher Quality: A Comparison of Alternative Routes to Teaching Tim R. Sass Department of Economics Georgia State University

Pathways to Teaching Traditional Pathway Complete a university-based teacher preparation program Pass a set of certification exams Alternative Pathways Earn bachelors degree Limited or no prior education coursework required May be required to complete some alternative training, often web based Pass certification exams May have to take some education courses after begin teaching

Economics of Professional Licensure Public Interest View Consumers ill-informed Regulation imposes minimum quality standard which indirectly provides information Avoids “lemons problem” where only low quality is provided Capture View Professionals lobby for strong licensure standards to limit entry Minimum educational requirement may actually keep out most talented potential entrants by differentially raising cost to those with highest opportunity cost

Prior Research on Alternative Certification Quasi-Experimental Evidence Boyd, et al. (2006); Kane, Rockoff and Staiger (2006) Analyze “Teacher for America” (TFA) and NYC Teaching Fellows programs  Both require teachers work toward education degree after initial employment Fellows initially equally effective in math and less effective than traditional-route teachers in ELA, but close gap over time TFA teachers more effective in math initially, particularly at the middle school level Xu, Hannaway and Taylor (2011) analyze effectiveness of TFA teachers in North Carolina high schools TFA teachers more effective on average over all subjects, biggest difference in science and math

Prior Research on Alternative Certification Experimental Evidence Glazerman, Mayer and Decker (2006) Compare TFA and traditionally prepared teachers teaching in same school and grade with random assignment of students Find TFA teachers outperform traditionally prepared teachers in math, but no significant difference in reading Constantine, at al. (2009) Analyze effectiveness of teachers from less selective alternative certification programs using same paired design as Glazerman, Mayer and Decker Found no difference in effectiveness between alternatively certified and traditionally prepared teachers Alternatively certified teachers had significant coursework in education

Pathways to Teaching in Florida Florida Teacher Preparation Program Graduate District Alternative Certification Program No special recruitment procedures No formal education coursework required Must complete competency-based alternative certification program and pass certification exams Course Analysis Requires handful of core education courses May be an education minor or not part of any formal program Out-of-state Teacher Preparation Program Graduate Certified in Another State ABCTE Passport Educator Preparation Institutes Two-semester program at community colleges College Teaching Experience

Pathways of First-Year Teachers by Certification Type, 2000/ /07

Select Characteristics of Teachers by Specific Pathway (Teachers with Any Certification) Traditional Teacher Prep. in FL (n=17392) Course Analysis (n=30052) Certified in Another State (n=12827) Teacher Prep. Outside FL (n=6016) District Alternative Cert. (n=1473) Educator Prep Institute (n=206) ABCTE (n=96) College Teaching Experience (n=55) % from Most Competitive Colleges *7.8*7.5*22.9*22.3* * % from Least Competitive Colleges *21.3*23.3*13.5*14.4* * % Pass GK Math 1 st Try *55.9*76.4*77.2* % Pass GK Reading 1 st Try *71.8*91.0*92.6* % Pass GK English 1 st Try *92.1*95.7* % Pass GK Essay 1 st Try *72.7* * % Non-White *26.9*26.3*18.9*18.8*32.7 % Male *18.8*22.6*31.4*27.2*35.4*47.3* Average SAT Score937955*1029* 1096*

Select Characteristics of Teachers by Specific Pathway (Teachers with Elementary Certification) Traditional Teacher Prep. in FL (n=9707) Course Analysis (n=11011) Certified in Another State (n=5876) Teacher Prep. Outside FL (n=2554) District Alternative Cert. (n=189) Educator Prep Institute (n=31) ABCTE (n=19) College Teaching Experience (n=11) % from Most Competitive Colleges *6.9*6.7*25.7*24.0 % from Least Competitive Colleges * *16.0 % Pass GK Math 1 st Try *78.0*69.2 % Pass GK Reading 1 st Try *92.3* % Pass GK English 1 st Try *88.5 % Pass GK Essay 1 st Try *78.1*94.4*92.3 % Non-White *16.4*22.7*18.0*16.1* % Male *9.7*10.4* Average SAT Score928941*966979

Major of First Bachelor’s Degree by Pathway and Certification Area First Modal Major of Bachelor’s Degree Path of Entry All Cert.Elementary Ed. Middle School MathHigh School MathBiology Traditional Teacher Prep. in FL Elem. Ed. Math EdScience Ed Course Analysis Elem. Ed. Math EdBiology Certified in Another State Elem. Ed. Math EdScience Ed Teacher Prep. Outside FL Elem. Ed. JournalismElem. Ed. District Alternative Cert. English Lang. & Lit. Business AdminCriminal JusticeMathematicsBiology Educator Preparation Institute CommunicationsBusiness Admin Health ProfessionsFood Sciences & Technology ABCTE English Lang. & Lit. Political ScienceFinanceBiology College Teaching Experience Elem. Ed. Business Admin Food Sciences & Technology

Coursework Credit Hours (All Certifications)

Value-Added Analysis of Pathway Effects: Data Achievement Tests “Sunshine State Standards” Test (SSS) Stanford Achievement Test (NRT) Reading and Math for each test Test Scaling Each test score normed by grade and year Coverage 2000/01 – 2006/07 Grades 3-10 Classes students Students Only students taking a single math or reading/language arts course Special education students omitted

Value-Added Analysis of Pathway Effects: Model whereA=student achievement X = time varying student/family inputs P = classroom peer characteristics T = time varying teacher characteristics  = student “fixed effect” Z = time invariant teacher characteristics  = school “fixed effect” indices: individuals (i), classrooms (j), teachers (k), schools (m) and time (t).

Impact of Teacher Pathways on Student Achievement in Math and Reading, 2000/ / Years Experience, Grades 4-10 MathReading Alternative Certification (0.0037) (0.0040) (0.0051) (0.0031) (0.0037) (0.0050) (0.0014) (0.0010) Educator Prep. Inst (0.0089) (0.0117) (0.0031) (0.0012) (0.0059) (0.0039) (0.0028) (0.0009) ABCTE (0.0089) (0.0058) (0.0050) (0.0026) (0.0019) (0.0136) (0.0022) (0.0012) ExamSSSNRTSSSNRTSSSNRTSSSNRT PersistencePartial Student FENo School FEYes No Yes No Clustered standard errors (in parenthesis) : = signif. at 10 pct. = signif. at 5 pct. = signif. at 1 pct..

Impact of Teacher Pathways on Student Achievement in Math and Reading, 2000/ / Years of Experience, Grades 4-10 MathReading Alternative Certification (0.0028) (0.0033) (0.0067) (0.0069) (0.0111) (0.0123) (0.0060) (0.0121) Educator Prep. Inst (0.0218) (0.0453) (0.0250) (0.0359) (0.0334) (0.0413) (0.0167) (0.0426) ABCTE (0.0394) (0.0391) (0.0289) (0.0289) (0.0205) (0.0449) (0.0106) (0.0209) ExamSSSNRTSSSNRTSSSNRTSSSNRT PersistencePartial Student FEYes School FEYes No Yes No Clustered standard errors (in parenthesis) : = signif. at 10 pct. = signif. at 5 pct. = signif. at 1 pct..

Impact of Teacher Pathways on Student Achievement in Math and Reading, 2000/ / Years of Experience, Grades 6-10 MathReading Alternative Certification (0.0021) (0.0024) (0.0051) (0.0020) (0.0037) (0.0051) (0.0007) (0.0005) Educator Prep. Inst (0.0121) (0.0137) (0.0014) (0.0007) (0.0059) (0.0061) (0.0006) (0.0009) ABCTE (0.0157) (0.0061) (0.0024) (0.0025) (0.0019) (0.0165) (0.0023) (0.0012) ExamSSSNRTSSSNRTSSSNRTSSSNRT PersistencePartial Student FENo NO School FEYes No Yes No Unadjusted standard errors (in parenthesis) : = signif. at 10 pct. = signif. at 5 pct. = signif. at 1 pct.

Summary of Findings Characteristics of Alternatively Certified Teachers in Florida (Compared to Traditionally Prepared Teachers) Come from more competitive universities Have higher certification test pass rates Have higher SAT scores Are less likely to be minorities Are more likely to be male

Summary of Findings Majors Modal major of alternatively certified teachers is English Alternatively certified high school math and science teachers tend to have major in content area (rather than math ed. or science ed.) Coursework Traditionally prepared teachers average over 60 credits in education courses, alternatively certified teachers average less than four credits in education Traditionally prepared teachers take about the same number of math courses, but fewer science courses than alternatively certified teachers Traditionally prepared teachers partly compensate by taking more science education courses

Summary of Findings Relative Effectiveness in Promoting Student Achievement In most cases ABCTE teachers have higher value-added than traditionally prepared teachers Differences are sometimes large (~10% of a standard deviation) In most cases no difference between traditionally prepared and district alternatively certified teachers EPI teacher tend to perform worse than traditionally prepared teachers Only first cohort of EPI teachers in sample

Policy Implications Must be Careful Not to Lump all Alternative Certification Programs Together When Making Policy Judgments Lowering entry cost, but still requiring substantial non- transferrable coursework may be counter-productive Possible adverse selection Very-Low-Cost Entryway Into Teaching Appears to be Beneficial, Particularly for Middle and High School Better content preparation appears to trump pedagogical knowledge