Thoughts of Leaving: An Exploration of Why New York City Middle School Teachers Consider Leaving Their Classrooms

This report explores the conditions under which middle-school teachers in New York City leave their schools, and the consequences of this turnover. The focus on middle schools stems from the widely-held view that the middle grades are a critical turning point in the lives of children, and that many New York City school children lose academic momentum in these grades, setting them on trajectories of failure as they move towards high school and life beyond it. This report is based on a survey of more than 4,000 full-time middle school teachers working in 125 of the nearly 200 middle schools in New York City serving children in grades six through eight in the 2009-10 school year. The participating teachers reported whether they had considered leaving their current school or leaving teaching during that school year, and the reasons that they considered leaving. The report links their responses to teachers' reports about their own backgrounds and experiences, to the demographic characteristics of the schools in which they teach, and to the collective perceptions of all of the teachers in a school about that school as a workplace. This report is part of a three-year, mixed-methods study of teacher turnover in New York City middle schools

An examination of ex ante fund performance: Identifying indicators of future performance

Although there has been a substantial flow of money over the last twenty years into indexed funds and ETFs, the vast majority of equity investment in mutual funds is still being managed on a discretionary basis. In this paper we investigate whether there exist variables that might be able to give an indication of future superior or inferior benchmark-adjusted active performance. Our results suggest that investors should avoid investing in, or should disinvest from funds that: produce a bottom decile information ratio; produce top decile levels of turnover; experience top decile levels of net inflows; and have top decile levels of fees. We conclude our paper with a suggestion as to how this information might help investors make more informed fund choices

Ensuring access to essential services : demand-side housing subsidies

This paper examines the strengths and weaknesses of demand-side subsidy approaches for improving poor households'access to housing services. It begins with a discussion of the rationale for stand-alone housing assistance programs, and a description of the ongoing transition away from traditional supply-side housing assistance to demand-side subsidies. The paper presents model demand-side approaches, but also draws on real world examples to highlight various aspects of program design related to targeting, transparency, price distortion, institutional capacity, administrative complexity, and funding. It also describes how variations in the design of housing-related subsidy programs can appear in response to philosophical, political, and resource considerations. The paperconcludes with a discussion of the appropriateness of different subsidy approaches for various situations.Banks&Banking Reform,Housing&Human Habitats,Public Sector Economics,Municipal Financial Management,Public&Municipal Finance