No description available.

This paper examines the impact on pension generosity on teacher turnover in North Carolina Public School teachers. It specifically focuses on the impacts of vesting, employer contribution, and pension generosity for out-of-state teachers in their first five years of teaching. High rates of teacher turnovers, especially teachers in their early career, have been shown to negatively impact North Carolina students. As states search for solutions to decrease turnover and recruit more qualified teachers, the effects of pension programs on teacher turnover has yet to be thoroughly examined. This paper found that there was a slight negative correlation between teacher turnover and the generosity of pension programs.

Chapter 1 begins with the motivation of my study in teachers' labor market. I employ a monopolistic screening model to show that there exist multiple equilibria in the educational system; a pooling equilibrium and a separating equilibrium. The model predicts that the pooling equilibrium is optimal only when the average quality of teacher applicants is high. Using data from the OECD, I examine the relation between teachers' earnings and teacher quality of the U.S. and Korea. Chapter 2 focuses on teachers and their career dynamics, and the data is at teacher level. Using the Current Population Survey for 2001-2010, I show that public school teachers are paid less compared to other comparable college graduates in non-teaching sectors. By studying the change in earnings after career changes, I find the evidence of positive selection when teachers move into the non-teaching sectors and of negative selection when non-teachers move into the teaching sector, which results in the decrease in the average teacher quality. Chapter 3 looks at both teachers and school districts, and I use district-teacher matched dataset, based on the School and Staffing Survey (SASS) for 2007-2008. I employ a multilevel model and a propensity score matching to identify union effects in states with different legal environments for collective bargaining of teachers. I find that collective bargaining is neither necessary nor sufficient for unions to affect teachers' well-being. I show that meet-and-confer is a popular alternative to collective bargaining and that it is an important mechanism for unions to influence teachers' non-wage benefits. Chapter 4 concerns school districts, and I use SASS district level data. I reevaluate the role of teachers unions on pay structure and districts' financial status. In contrasts to previous findings, I find that the variance of teachers' earnings is higher in more unionized settings. Moreover, I show that the financial status of districts with teachers unions is stronger than that of districts without the unions. I confirm that unionism is associated with less usage of performance pay system. / Economics

Teacher compensation reforms have been on the rise in recent years, yet research has yet to fully demonstrate how teachers interpret these policies and how they may influence their instructional practices and professional decisions. This qualitative study of a performance pay program in an urban district in Texas drew on cognitive approaches to policy implementation and theories of sensemaking to examine and explicate these issues. Teachers’ experiences in two schools were examined through interviews, focus groups, and document analysis. The experiences of school principals and district policymakers acting as sensegivers to teachers about the program’s goals, purposes, and theory of action were also examined. District policymakers’ understandings of the program varied, and were informed by their positions in the system and their own interests in the program. These differences resulted in a complex program with an array of objectives for teachers to implement in schools and classrooms, as well as varying expectations for teachers’ work, which were not always understood by teachers. With few clear and consistent messages from policymakers, teachers and principals interpreted the program according to their own ideas about important outcomes, and then shaped it to fit their situations. Although accepting of the program, teachers and principals were not always able to focus on it in ways expected by policymakers given other demands on them, particularly those emanating from the accountability system. Some evidence of goal distortion in terms of teachers’ attention to student assignments and mobility was also found. These findings hold implications for cognitive theories of policy implementation, suggesting that teachers’ responses to policies are influenced by the amount of attention they are able to give them, as well as direct sensegiving about policy goals and expectations on the part of policymakers. The findings also suggest that performance pay programs can be expected to be adapted, co-opted, and selectively attended to in order to fit within the contexts in which they are implemented. Thus, policymakers should consider other demands in the policy environment that may compete with performance incentives, as well as the organizational contexts of schools in which they will be implemented. / text

This research presents the results of general linear modeling (GLM) of 131 school divisions in Virginia. The purpose of this research is to answer the question: What is the relationship between teacher salaries and student achievement as measured by Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)? Utilizing an equity theory and distributive justice perspective, data related to achievement in English and mathematics by high school students, as measured by the requirements of AYP, were culled from the Virginia Department of Education for every school division in Virginia in the subjects of reading, writing, algebra I, geometry, and algebra II. These data represent the dependent variables and are analyzed with teacher salary and principal salary data, which represent the independent variables. Intervening variables identified in the education, public policy and economic literature are also included in the modeling. An analysis of nine general linear models produced evidence that the relationship between teacher salaries and student achievement, as measured by AYP, is relatively weak. Though the results do not support a wide range of policy recommendations, one recommendation is for school divisions in the northern region of the state to consider a readjustment of their pay scales in order for teacher salaries in those Northern Virginia school divisions to be more competitive with other school divisions in the state when adjusted for cost-of-living.

No description available.

This mixed-methods study was conducted to explore the professional opinions of educational leaders regarding selected components in the Race to the Top (RTTT) grant concerning teacher evaluation and compensation and the potential impact on student achievement. A target university was selected that had students who were professionals in the field of education in either instructional or administrative jobs and were pursuing their doctorates in both Education and Educational Leadership. A researcher created survey and follow-up interview were utilized to gather both quantitative and qualitative data for analysis. Quantitative findings revealed that statistically significant differences in the opinions of educational leaders about the potential impact of the RTTT grant teacher evaluation and compensation components on student achievement existed between two types of professional classification (instructional or administrative). No statistically significant relationship was found between self-reported knowledge of the RTTT and opinions of the fairness of the RTTT teacher evaluation and compensation components. Also, no statistically significant difference was found in the professional opinions about the potential impact of the RTTT grant teacher evaluation and compensation components on student achievement when self-reported school poverty percentage was considered. From qualitative findings, themes emerged surrounding the uncertainty and lack of understanding about the RTTT grant’s implementation. Though this study provided baseline data on the opinions of educational leaders on the RTTT teacher evaluation and compensation components, there is still much to be learned about the RTTT grant.