Optimal Bond Trading with Personal Taxes: Implications for Bond Prices and Estimated Tax Brackets and Yield Curves

The assumption that bondholders follow either a buy-and-hold or a continuous realization trading policy, rather than the optimal trading policy,is at variance with reality and, as we demonstrate, may seriously bias the estimation of the yield curve and the implied tax bracket of the marginal investor. Tax considerations which govern a bondholder's optimal trading policy include the following: realization of capital losses, short term if possible; deferment of the realization of capital gains, especially if they are short term; changing the holding period status from long term to short term by sale of the bond and repurchase, so that future capital losses may be realized short term; and raising the basis through sale of the bond and repurchase in order to deduct from ordinary income the amortized premium. Because of the interaction of these factors, no simple characterization of the optimal trading policy is possible. We can say, however, that it differs substantially from the buy-and-hold policy irrespective of whether the bondholder is a bank, a bond dealer, or an individual. We obtain these strong results even when we allow for transactions costs and explicitly consider numerous IRS regulations designed to curtail tax avoidance.

Why Do High-Poverty Schools Have Difficulty Staffing Their Classrooms with Qualified Teachers?

The failure to ensure that the nation’s classrooms, especially those in disadvantaged schools, are all staffed with qualified teachers is one of the most important problems in contemporary American education. The conventional wisdom holds that these problems are primarily due to shortages of teachers, which, in turn, are primarily due to recent increases in teacher retirement and student enrollment. Unable to compete for the available supply of adequately trained teachers, poor school districts, especially those in urban areas, the critics hold, end up with large numbers of underqualified teachers. The latter is, in turn, held to be a primary factor in the unequal educational and occupational outcomes of children from poor communities. Understandably, the prevailing policy response to these school staffing problems has been to attempt to increase the supply of teachers. In recent years, a wide range of initiatives has been implemented to recruit new candidates into teaching, especially to disadvantaged settings. This report investigates the possibility that other factors – those tied to the characteristics and conditions of schools – are behind the teacher shortage crisis. Unlike earlier research, this analysis focuses on those kinds of schools deemed most disadvantaged and the most needy – those serving rural and urban, low-income communities. The data utilized in this investigation are from the Schools and Staffing Survey and its supplement, the Teacher Follow-up Survey conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics, the data collection arm of the U.S. Department of Education. This is the largest and most comprehensive source of data on teachers available

The Realities of Out-of-Field Teaching

Requiring teachers to teach classes for which they have not been trained or educated harms teachers and students

An Agenda for Research on Teachers and Schools: Revisiting NCES\u27 Schools and Staffing Survey

This paper outlines an agenda of research on teachers and schools utilizing NCES\u27 Schools and Staffing Survey. SASS is an unusual education survey. Unlike most major large-scale nationally representative surveys, SASS does not focus on students, nor on feature measures of student achievement and student outcomes. Instead, SASS focuses on teachers and schools. Indeed, it is probably the largest and most comprehensive survey of teachers in existence. SASS consists of linked surveys of schools, districts, principals, and teachers. It has obtained a wealth of information on teachers-their backgrounds, training, attitudes, behavior-and on schools-their principals, working conditions, contexts, characteristics, processes, and climate

National Assessments of Teacher Quality

This report addresses the issue of evaluating and measuring the quality of school teachers. In particular, it speaks to the problem of assessing the competence, performance and effectiveness of elementary and secondary teachers through large-scale national sample surveys. Its objective is to provide a foundation and springboard for thinking about the conceptual and methodological issues underlying the development of national survey measures of teacher quality. This paper will not attempt to conceive or construct such measures or indicators themselves. Rather, it seeks to provide background to such efforts. Its role is to review the range of contemporary thought on assessing teacher quality and to discuss the possibilities and problems of adapting existing methods and measures for use in large-scale surveys, such as those undertaken by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) of the U.S. Department of Education

A Quarter Century of Changes in the Elementary and Secondary Teaching Force: From 1987 to 2012 - Statistical Analysis Report

This report utilizes the nationally representative Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) to examine changes in the elementary and secondary teaching force in the United States over the quarter century from 1987-88 to 2011-12. The report focuses on three key demographic characteristics: the size of the teaching force, the level of teaching experience of the teaching force, and the racial/ethnic composition of the teaching force

Do We Produce Enough Mathematics and Science Teachers?

For years, we\u27ve been told that we don\u27t produce enough math and science teachers. Increasing teacher retirements and increasing student enrollments, we\u27re told, have forced many school systems to lower standards to fill teaching openings, leading to high levels of underqualified teachers and, in turn, to lower student performance. Numerous high-profile reports have directly tied mathematics and science teacher shortages to a host of education and social problems, including the inability to meet student achievement goals, low U.S. performance compared to other nations, the minority achievement gap, poor national economic competitiveness, and even threats to national security

What Are the Effects of Induction and Mentoring on Beginning Teacher Turnover?

In recent years there bas been an increase in the number of programs offering support, guidance, and orientation for beginning teachers during the transition into their first teaching job. This study examines whether such programs - collectively known as induction - have a positive effect on the retention of beginning teachers. The data used in the analysis are from the nationally representative 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Survey. The results indicate that beginning teachers who were provided with mentors from the same subject field and who participated in collective induction activities, such as planning and collaboration with other teachers, were less likely to move to others schools and less likely to leave the teaching occupation after their first year of teaching

Do Teacher Induction and Mentoring Matter?

In recent years there has been a growing interest in support, guidance, and orientation programs-collectively known as induction - for beginning elementary and secondary teachers during the transition into their first teaching jobs. This study examines whether such supports have a positive effect on the retention of beginning teachers. The study also focuses on different types and components of induction, including mentoring programs, collective\u27 group activities, and the provision of extra resources and reduced workloads. The results indicate that beginning teachers who were provided with multiple supports, were less likely to move to other schools and less likely to leave the teaching occupation altogether after their first year. Some forms of assistance and support, however, did not appear to increase beginners\u27 retention

The Minority Teacher Shortage: Fact or Fable?

For several decades, shortages of minority teachers have been a big issue for the nation\u27s schools. Policy makers and recent presidents have agreed that our elementary and secondary teaching force should look like America. But the conventional wisdom is that as the nation\u27s population and students have grown more diverse, the teaching force has done the opposite —grown more white and less diverse