The challenge of transforming underperforming schools and improving student achievement drives RAND's commitment to education. RAND research on teachers and teaching explores a wide range of topics, including instructional practices, technology in the classroom, class size, teacher recruitment and retention, and teacher quality and effectiveness.
Many factors contribute to a student's academic performance, but research suggests that, among school-related factors, teachers matter most. What's less clear is how to measure an individual teacher's effectiveness. A new RAND Education website features fact sheets, blog posts, research briefs, and more on this important issue.
The goal of this study is to examine whether three recently implemented pay-for-performance programs had similar effects on teachers' motivation and reported practices.
Using data from the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project, researchers developed a model to compile data from multiple sources that could be used to make inferences about a teacher's impact on student achievement.
This report presents an in-depth discussion of the technical methods, findings, and implications of the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project's random assignment study of teaching effectiveness measures.
One of the best ways to increase student learning is to simultaneously increase the time spent on learning and the quality of instruction.
In this paper, we outline a practical guide for policymakers interested in developing institutional performance measures for the higher education sector.
This article develops a validity argument approach for use on observation protocols currently used to assess teacher quality for high-stakes personnel and professional development decisions.
This paper focuses on explaining how 21st century skills should be taught, given what we know about how students learn.
In this article, we discuss controlling simultaneous errors in classification of teachers or schools by a decision-theoretic approach.
This article examines what constitutes, contributes to, and is associated with high-quality coaches and coaching. Authors find that coaches generally held many of the qualifications recommended by state and national experts and principals and teachers rated their coaches highly on many indicators of quality. However, several common concerns about recruiting, retaining, and supporting high-quality coaches emerged.
Child care studies that have examined links between teachers' qualifications and children's outcomes often ignore teachers' and children's transitions between classrooms at a center throughout the day and only take into account head teacher qualifications.
This article examines a program in which bonuses were awarded to teams of middle school teachers based on their collective contribution to student test score gains.
This article summarizes the results of two studies that investigated the properties of measures of instruction based on a teacher-generated instrument (the Scoop Notebook) that combines features of portfolios and self-report.
The authors consider the challenges and implications of controlling for school contextual bias when modeling teacher preparation program effects.
Through its positive influence on teachers' classroom practices and their students' learning, effective professional learning of teachers is an important condition for school improvement. The concept of dissonance between values and practice is a strong theme in the findings and for policy development.
The goal of this study is to examine whether three recently implemented pay-for-performance programs had similar effects on teachers' motivation and reported practices.
We use a regression discontinuity design to analyze an understudied aspect of school accountability systems—how schools use financial rewards.
In this timely collection, leading education scholars challenge market-based models of school improvement and argue that merely holding teachers accountable for scores on end-of-the-year exams will not lead to educational improvement.
This study examined teacher roles in the implementation of a district-wide suicide prevention program through focus groups and interviews with middle school teachers, administrators, and other school personnel.
In 2007, New York City schools commenced a school-level pay-for-performance program for teachers and staff in about 200 schools. The authors found that the program didn't improve schools or student outcomes.
The purpose of this article is to bring together findings developed from the Schools and Continuing Professional Development in England – State of the Nation Study.
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