Precollege Science and Mathematics Teachers Monitoring Supply, Demand, and Quality (1990) / Chapter Skim
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5. Statistics Related to the Quality of Science and Mathematics
5. Statistics Related to the Quality of Science and Mathematics
Pages 116-156
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From page 116... ...
The problem is that assessment of quality is an extraordinarily difficult enterprise, and existing research does not go very far in identifying the factors that determine quality. It is the panel's view that the right dimensions of teacher or teaching quality are factors that produce a positive influence on student outcomes that is, higher quality in our view should be defined to mean better student outcomes, given the influence of other forces besides teachers or school system factors that influence student outcomes.
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From page 117... ...
That is, better formal credentials, better preparation in terms of course work more years of teaching experience, better scores on standard tests of teacher qualifications, etc., do not generally show up as teacher characteristics that are strongly related to better or worse outcomes (Druva and Anderson, 1983; Hanushek, 1986, 1989~. It has often been found that teacher verbal ability is positively related to better student outcomes, but the relationship is not exceptionally strong; most other factors do not show up at all (Darling-Hammond and Hudson, 1986~.
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From page 118... ...
By teacher quality we mean those personal characteristics of individuals that enable them to be more effective in classroom settings: education level, subject matter knowledge, interpersonal skills in working with students, degree of inservice training, formal credentials, etc. By teaching quality we have in mind a somewhat broader notion that encompasses not only teacher characteristics but also the school setting in which classroom teaching takes place.
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From page 119... ...
Next we look at the qualifications of incoming teachers their college and professional preparation, their level of achievement in science and mathematics, their cognitive abilities, and so on. Finally, we examine other factors that also influence student outcomes but do- not fall neatly under either school system policies and practices or teacher qualifications and characteristics: curriculum and textbook selection issues, time-on-task issues, and issues relating to the home environments of students.
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From page 120... ...
Personnel policies are also affected by the enrollment size of a particular school system, the enrollment size of a high school, the extent to which the curriculum is taught by specialists, and the match among educational background, teaching assignment, and teacher and student cultures. Recruitment and Hiring Practices Certain policies set by the school district, teacher organization, or state school finance plan can have deleterious effects on the ability to hire the most talented teachers.
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From page 121... ...
With a tendency for junior high science and mathematics teachers to request high school positions, and for elementary teachers to request junior high positions, the process of considering all transfer applications and then determining which positions were actually vacant continued well into the summer. Job offers could not be made until August.
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From page 122... ...
State-mandated minimum competency test scores and state schoolfinance formula constraints on local funds for laboratory equipment and supplies, computers, teacher aides, or teacher salaries are other external factors that local personnel officials must take into consideration in hiring teachers. An unintended consequence of decisions made under these conditions may be a loss in teacher or teaching quality.
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From page 123... ...
There may be a need for one but not two science teachers. The same type of misassignment can occur in mathematics, when a teacher is trained to teach areas of mathematics other than that assigned or some other subject altogether.
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From page 124... ...
For science teachers, the percentages are 25 for grades 7-9 and 20 for grades 10-12 (Weiss, 1987:77-88~. Transfer policies can sometimes lead to a misassignment and thwart a teacher's potential for advancement.
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From page 125... ...
District practices regarding inservice and continuing higher education for teachers in place affect teacher quality directly and can make it more or less attractive for a teacher to continue in a district. School districts have been the primary sponsors of inservice programs, but such programs are highly vulnerable to district budget cuts.
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From page 126... ...
The Office of Technology Assessment notes by comparison that a $40 million education program equates to a spending of $1 per pupil or $20 per teacher (1988:123~. NSF's Teacher Enhancement Program funds a small program of teacher institutes emphasizing teaching techniques in science and mathematics.
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From page 127... ...
amount of time outside the school day teachers spend on planning and preparation, grading classroom assignments, contacting parents, working with students, completing administrative paperwork, reading professional journals, and participating in other professional development activities. With regard to the former category time use during the school day the National Research Council's Committee on Indicators of Precollege Science and Mathematics Education found that "the amount of time given to the study of a subject is consistently correlated with student performance as measured by achievement tests .
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From page 128... ...
The SASS and NAEP teacher questionnaires and the NSF survey of science and mathematics education collect general, self-reported opinions by teachers on these aspects of quality. While it would be difficult to measure the effects of these practices with survey instruments, they are noted because researchers have found them to be related to teaching quality.
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From page 129... ...
Certification as the Basic Proxy for Teacher Quality When measuring quality of the supply of teachers of science and mathematics, certification is the obvious first standard. Despite differences amens states in certification rules and the level of preparation implied by the different standards, as shown in Appendix Table 5.1 (the tables in this chapter appear at the end of the chapter)
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From page 130... ...
Course preparation required to earn certification to teach physical sciences or life sciences can affect teacher quality in a rather unexpected
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From page 131... ...
These teachers are likely to have content-specific methods courses in both science and mathematics.3 Mathematical content courses designed specifically for elementary teachers help explain the increase among these teachers in their confidence to teach mathematics. Either they feel that they are well qualified, or their perception of elementary school mathematics is limited to arithmetic computation, which they feel comfortable teaching (Weiss, 1987~.
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From page 132... ...
The Weiss data show that secondary science teachers do tend to concentrate in life sciences. The Galambos and Weiss methodologies have limitations, and in some aspects their results are not comparable.
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From page 133... ...
The recommendations of professional associations of mathematics and science teachers call for more than certification for measuring the quality
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From page 134... ...
For science teachers, the frequent mismatch between preparation and assignment leads to instructional situations in which the published professional standards are not met. For secondary mathematics teachers, these standards are more likely to be breached in terms of the pattern and quality of preparation, not in terms of the total number of courses taken in mathematics, or the fact that one majored in mathematics.
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From page 135... ...
The Carnegie group has proposed a three-stage voluntary assessment process covering subject matter mastery, education courses taken, and actual teaching performance, all under the aegis of a National Board for Professional Caching Standards. Researchers at Stanford have classroomtested measures of teacher quality for elementary school mathematics and high school history teachers.
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From page 136... ...
As these approaches are refined and implemented more widely, more sophisticated measurements or data on aspects of teacher quality should emerge. The changes called for by these groups, to the extent that they are adopted, will revamp many existing practices and give rise to new questions some of which center on the supply response to changes in quality requirements.
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From page 137... ...
to compare their level of professional development with that of a comparison group who were members of NCTM. A list of 21 professional development activities was given to all the participants to rate for importance to their own professional development.
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From page 138... ...
Student outcomes are positively correlated with teachers' science training and general educational preparation. And this correlation between teachers' science training and cognitive student outcome is progressively higher in higher-level science courses.
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From page 139... ...
Research relating teacher qualifications and student outcomes may be pursued using student and teacher questionnaire data from the 1985-86 NAEP assessment for science and mathematics as a starting point. NELS:88 is another useful source of information, especially for longitudinal research.
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From page 140... ...
However, the collection and use of more statistics related to teacher quality must be tempered as their limitations are recognized. There are some statistics not included in SASS, such as NTE scores, grade point averages, and other information that transcripts would provide.
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From page 141... ...
Since the basic text is the primary resource used by most precollege mathematics teachers (Weiss, 1987:31, 39) , and since the text usually favors breadth and memorization of facts over depth (Office of Technology Assessment, 1988:30-34)
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From page 142... ...
Forthcoming data from SASS will provide more recent information on classroom time; the SASS teacher questionnaire asks elementary school teachers in self-contained classes for hours per week spent in each of the core subjects, including science and mathematics. Other studies based on careful observation of actual classroom time spent on mathematics in three cities (one each in the United States, Japan, and Taiwan)
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From page 143... ...
If students' low skills and test scores in science and mathematics were known conclusively to be due simply to the relative amounts of time spent on these subjects, the solution would be relatively simple provided school systems can be encouraged or induced to change the structure of their curricula. But if time spent or curriculum structure are the basic problems, then the issue is not one of teacher or teaching quality, but simply one of relative emphasis within the curriculum.
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From page 144... ...
Poor student outcomes are thus not uniquely correlated with inadequate quantity or quality of teachers, but could easily be due to factors that are largely unrelated to teacher quality. One cannot conclude that poor science and mathematics outcomes on the part of students necessarily reflect inadequacies in the background or ability of their teachers and to try to remedy the problem only by enhancing the numbers or the quality of precollege science and mathematics teachers.
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From page 145... ...
Also of concern is the distribution of qualified teachers across districts when classified by enrollment size; by racial/ethnic characteristics of its students; by geographic characteristics of urban, suburban, rural; and by socioeconomic status. We have identified some district policies and practices that influence teaching quality, and note in particular the importance of information on recruitment practices, seniority- rules, potential for teacher advancement, teacher assignment and misassignment, and continuing professional development, as well as external factors, primarily state mandates and policies, that affect the quality of the supply pool.
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From page 146... ...
Other factors beyond teacher quality-such as textbook use, time commitments, the structure of science and mathematics curricula, and home environment were noted as influences on teaching quality and student outcomes. These factors complicate any attempts to link outcomes with particular teacher qualifications.
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From page 149... ...
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From page 150... ...
al Em o o Id o c)
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From page 151... ...
Secondary level General standards for all science specialization areas: 1. Minimum 50 semester hours of course work in 1 or more sciences, plus study in related fields of mathematics, statistics, and computer applications.
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From page 152... ...
at least 1 additional mathematics elective course Specialized standards Specialized standards 1. Biology: minimum 32 semester hours of biology plus 16 semester hours in other sciences.
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From page 153... ...
STATISTICS RELATED TO QUAL17-Y 153 APPENDIX TABLE 5.3 States That Have Enacted Testing Programs for Initially Certifying Teachers: Fall 1987 State Enacted Effective Test Useda Alabama 1980 1981 State Arizona 1980 1980 State Arkansas 1979 1983 NTE California 1981 1982 CBEST Colorado 1981 1983 CAT Connecticut 1982 1985 State Delaware 1982 1983 PPST Florida 1978 1980 State Georgia 1975 1980 State Hawaii 1986 1986 NTE Idaho 1987 1988 NTE Illinois 1985 1988 State Indiana 1984 1985 NTE Kansas 1984 1986 NTE and PPST Kentucky 1984 1985 NTE Louisiana 1977 1978 NTE Maine 1984 1988 NTE Maryland 1986 1986 NTE Massachusetts 1985 b b Michigan 1986 1991 b Minnesota 1986 1988 PPST Mississippi 1975 1977 NTE Missouri 1985 1988 b Montana 1985 1986 NTE Nebraska 1984 1989 b Nevada 1984 1989 PPST and State New Hampshire 1984 1985 PPST and NTE New Jersey 1984 1985 NTE New Mexico 1981 1983 NTE New York 1980 1984 NTE North Carolina 1964 1964 NTE North Dakota 1986 b b Ohio 1986 1987 NTE Oklahoma 1980 1982 State Oregon 1984 1985 CBEST Pennsylvania 1985 1987 State Rhode Island 1985 1986 NTE South Carolina 1979 1982 NTE and State South Dakota 1985 1986 NTE Tennessee 1980 1981 NTE
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From page 154... ...
Source: National Center for Education Statistics (1988f:249-250~.
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From page 155... ...
Need coherent program in schools and institutions of higher education that will support advanced study. Create professional development schools, similar to teaching hospitals, in which prospective teachers would receive their clinical training.
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From page 156... ...
156 APPENDIX TABLE 5.4, continued PRECOLLEGE SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS TEACHERS Category of Recommendation Carnegie Report a Holmes Group b Evaluation/ Assessment Differential Restructure teaching force Staffing and introduce new category of lead teachers with proven ability to provide active leadership in redesign of schools and in helping colleagues to uphold high standards of learning and teaching. Use multiple evaluations o Test basic mastery of writing and speaking o Demonstrate mastery of subject, skill in lesson planning, and instructional delivery prior to clinical internship 0 Evaluate variety of teaching styles during internship-including own -- and present analytic evidence as part of professional portfolio for advancement Recognize differences in teacher's knowledge, skill, and commitment in their education, certification, and work.
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