Teacher Quality Projects

This project seeks to evaluate the effect of debate programs—in contexts from the Boston Public Schools to the nation of Rwanda—on student academic outcomes, as well as their broader civic competencies, such as the ability to conduct research, analyze public policies, back up arguments with evidence, evaluate the credibility of evidence, distinguish fact from opinion, think critically on your feet, listen to and work collaboratively with peers, consider perspectives that are different from your own, and speak persuasively.

This study explores how principals implement four specific policies (performance evaluation, professional learning, tenure, and mentoring) to realize improved teacher effectiveness and alter the composition of teachers in their school.

This project examines this early period of teachers’ careers in which they typically exhibit the highest returns to experience. We are particularly interested in whether any factors account for this variability, such as the quality of a pre-teaching preparation program, or the characteristics of her first school, colleagues, or principal.

This study explores the District of Columbia Public Schools System’s IMPACT program, an innovative program for assessing teacher performance and improving teacher quality.

In an effort to improve student outcomes, there has been a growing interest in the use of “performance based compensation systems” (PBCS) as a tool for encouraging teacher effectiveness.  The U.S. Department of Education in 2009 encouraged the use these types of systems through the use of Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grants.  This project seeks causal effects of the TIF-funded reforms in order to assess its impact.