What Can We Learn About Effective Mathematics Teaching?:A Framework for Estimating Causal Effects using Longitudinal Survey Data.

This study investigates the impact of teacher characteristics and instructional strategies on the mathematics achievement of students in kindergarten and first grade and tackles the question of how best to use longitudinal survey data to elicit causal inference in the face of potential threats to validity due to nonrandom assignment to treatment. We develop a step-by-step approach to selecting a modeling and estimation strategy and find that teacher certification and courses in methods of teaching mathematics have a slightly negative effect on student achievement in kindergarten, whereas postgraduate education has a positive effect in first grade. Various teaching modalities, such as working with counting manipulatives, using math worksheets, and completing problems on the chalkboard, have positive effects on achievement in kindergarten, and pedagogical practices relating to explaining problem solving and working on problems from textbooks have positive effects on achievement in first grade. We show that the conclusions drawn depend on the estimation and modeling choices made and that several prior studies of teacher effects using longitudinal survey data likely neglected important features needed to establish causal inference

Emotional Labor in Mathematics: Reflections on Mathematical Communities, Mentoring Structures, and EDGE

Terms such as "affective labor" and "emotional labor" pepper feminist critiques of the workplace. Though there are theoretical nuances between the two phrases, both kinds of labor involve the management of emotions; some acts associated with these constructs involve caring, listening, comforting, reassuring, and smiling. In this article I explore the different ways academic mathematicians are called to provide emotional labor in the discipline, thereby illuminating a rarely visible component of a mathematical life in the academy. Underlying this work is my contention that a conceptualization of labor involved in managing emotions is of value to the project of understanding the character, values, and boundaries of such a life. In order to investigate the various dimensions of emotional labor in the context of academic mathematics, I extend the basic framework of Morris and Feldman [33] and then apply this extended framework to the mathematical sciences. Other researchers have mainly focused on the negative effects of emotional labor on a laborer's physical, emotional, and mental health, and several examples in this article align with this framing. However, at the end of the article, I argue that mathematical communities and mentoring structures such as EDGE help diminish some of the negative aspects of emotional labor while also accentuating the positives.Comment: Revised version to appear in the upcoming volume A Celebration of EDGE, edited by Sarah Bryant, Amy Buchmann, Susan D'Agostino, Michelle Craddock Guinn, and Leona Harri

Reinterpreting the Skill-biased Technological Change Hypothesis: A Study of Technology, Firm Size, and Wage Inequality in the California Hospital Industry

This study examines data from the 1983-1993 California hospital industry to test whether observed patterns of wage inequality growth can be explained by the skill-biased technological change hypothesis. The study finds little evidence of a direct link between technological inputs and skill premia, particularly when growth in firm size is taken into account. The findings challenge the notion that technological change is skill biased and suggest that economies of scale permit hospitals to compete for clientele on the basis of labor force quality. Since technological expenditures often promote consolidation, a reassessment of the relationship between wages and technology is suggested.

Faculty Service Loads and Gender: Are Women Taking Care of the Academic Family?

This paper investigates the amount of academic service performed by female versus male faculty. We use 2014 data from a large national survey of faculty at more than 140 institutions as well as 2012 data from an online annual performance reporting system for tenured and tenure–track faculty at two campuses of a large public, Midwestern University. We find evidence in both data sources that, on average, women faculty perform significantly more service than men, controlling for rank, race/ethnicity, and field or department. Our analyses suggest that the male–female differential is driven more by internal service—i.e., service to the university, campus, or department—than external service—i.e., service to the local, national, and international communities—although significant heterogeneity exists across field and discipline in the way gender differentials play out

Mathematics Instruction in Kindergarten and First Grade in the United States at the Start of the 21st Century

Understanding how mathematics is taught in the classroom is an important first step in connecting mathematics instruction to student learning. This study sheds light on mathematics teaching in kindergarten and first grade—the grades at which initial understandings, as well as obstacles to later progress, begin to emerge. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K) survey, we consider (i) how much time teachers spend on mathematics on days when they teach this subject, (ii) the content of mathematics instruction, and (iii) the pedagogical techniques used. We find that time spent on mathematics instruction, content coverage, and pedagogical techniques varies between teachers as a function of school location and type, classroom composition, and a range of teacher attributes that includes demographics, preparation, level of effort, and professional development activities

Can districts keep good teachers in the schools that need them most?

This study investigates how school demographics and their interactions with policies affect the mobility behaviors of public school teachers with various human capital characteristics. Using data from North Carolina from 1995 to 2006, it finds that teachers' career stage and human capital investments dominate their decisions to leave public school teaching and school demographic characteristics play a dominant role in intra-system sorting. Schools serving at-risk children struggle to attract and retain teachers with desirable observable characteristics. We find evidence to suggest that across-the-board school-based pay-for-performance policies have small but significant associations with mobility decisions and appear to exacerbate inequities in the distribution of teacher qualifications.Teacher labor markets Economics of education

What Can We Learn About Effective Early Mathematics Teaching? A Framework for Estimating Causal Effects Using Longitudinal Survey Data

This study investigates the impact of teacher characteristics and instructional strategies on the mathematics achievement of students in kindergarten and first grade and tackles the question of how best to use longitudinal survey data to elicit causal inference in the face of potential threats to validity due to nonrandom assignment to treatment. We develop a step-by-step approach to selecting a modeling and estimation strategy and find that teacher certification and courses in methods of teaching mathematics have a slightly negative effect on student achievement in kindergarten, whereas postgraduate education has a positive effect in first grade. Various teaching modalities, such as working with counting manipulatives, using math worksheets, and completing problems on the chalkboard, have positive effects on achievement in kindergarten, and pedagogical practices relating to explaining problem solving and working on problems from textbooks have positive effects on achievement in first grade. We show that the conclusions drawn depend on the estimation and modeling choices made and that several prior studies of teacher effects using longitudinal survey data likely neglected important features needed to establish causal inference