Attracting and Retaining Teachers in High-Need Schools: Do Financial Incentives Make Financial Sense?

This study synthesizes what we know and do not know about policies to attract and retain teachers in high-need schools and assesses the relative cost-effectiveness of two types of policies. Research consistently shows that teacher quality is likely to be lower in schools with higher proportions of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. This pattern is likely a result of several factors but the most well-documented is teachers’ mobility choices within and across districts. Although there are numerous programs across the country intended to attract and retain highly-skilled teachers in high-need schools, there is very little assessment of their effectiveness. Given the lack of evidence on specific interventions, I use the results from existing studies of teacher mobility and attrition to compare the effect of salary incentives and induction or mentoring programs. Although financial incentives are arguably the most straightforward policies for states and districts to adopt, high-need schools may be better served if policymakers and researchers devoted more attention to more cost-effective alternatives.

Private Contributions and Public School Resources

In the wake of school finance reforms that limit local tax revenue and, more recently, state budget cuts that have threatened K-12 education spending, an increasing number of schools and school districts have appealed to parents and communities for voluntary contributions to augment school resources. Of course, not all schools benefit equally from these contributions leading to a common concern that voluntary contributions create inequities in school funding across communities. In this paper we examine the size and distribution of voluntary contributions to California’s K-12 public schools in 2001. In addition, we examine how contributions have affected the distribution of resources across schools. Our results indicate that while some schools have been quite successful in raising voluntary contributions, overall, contributions have not led to large inequities in the distribution of resources among high- and low-income schools. Specifically, schools raising particularly high levels of contributions, over $500 per pupil, do tend to have more resources, but these schools are rare and very small. Over ninety-nine percent of California elementary students attend schools where contributions have almost no effect on inputs.Voluntary Contributions, Public School Finance, School Resources

Achieving Educational Adequacy Through School Finance Reform

In this report, researchers demonstrate a statistical approach to the measurement of the costs of public education, using data from K-12 school districts in Wisconsin and Texas. They then demonstrate how to integrate information on costs into school aid formulas designed to provide the funding necessary to achieve educational adequacy

Economics 301 Collection and Use of Data in Economics

Economic data gathering via Internet and other sources, data entry into spreadsheets and graphic techniques, statistics using spreadsheets, and introduction to basic regression

Economics 301 Collection and Use of Data in Economics

Economic data gathering via Internet and other sources, data entry into spreadsheets and graphic techniques, statistics using spreadsheets, and introduction to basic regression

Economics 301 Collection and Use of Data in Economics

Economic data gathering via Internet and other sources, data entry into spreadsheets and graphic techniques, statistics using spreadsheets, and introduction to basic regression