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The study examined the effect of National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) on social-emotional competencies of fifth and sixth graders in the 2018-19 academic year in Spokane, Washington. The study used archival data and quasi-experimental design with matching to compare social-emotional competencies of students taught by NBCTs and students taught by non-NBCTs. The study examined 10 social-emotional competencies. The results suggest that NBCTs are significantly more effective than non-NBCTs at facilitating students' self-efficacy approximately 2 months after the start of the school year (effect size = 0.21). Results for self-management are in the same direction (effect size = 0.10), however not statistically significant. Findings for the remaining eight social-emotional competencies are not statistically significant, and the effect sizes are small. The results also suggest that NBCTs are effective at developing social-emotional competencies for students who are native English speakers for two social-emotional measures: self-efficacy (effect size = 0.23) and social awareness (effect size = 0.16). The study is the first attempt to rigorously examine the effect of NBCTs on students' social-emotional competencies. Although the evidence is encouraging, additional rigorous research is needed to make confident conclusions, particularly for students who are English language learners and from different racial/ethnic subgroups because of the small number of these students in the current study. [This study was funded by the Supporting Effective Educator Development Grant.]

Statewide teacher shortages are hindering Michigan's efforts to ensure that all students have equitable access to qualified teachers. Implementing teacher supports--which may be policies, practices, or programs--to increase teacher retention offers a way to alleviate shortages. This study identified supports implemented by local education agencies (traditional school districts and charter schools) that are associated with teacher retention. The study examined local teacher retention rates from 2013/14 to 2018/19 and teachers' responses to a survey about teacher supports in their local agencies and their perceptions of those supports. Average annual teacher retention rates among Michigan's local education agencies ranged from 33 percent to 100 percent in the six-year period. The likelihood that teachers would remain teaching in their local education agency was higher in local education agencies that served lower percentages of students who were economically disadvantaged, higher percentages of students who were White, and higher percentages of students proficient in English language arts. And the likelihood was higher in agencies that had regular supportive communication between new teachers and school leaders, implemented mentoring programs, provided new teachers with an orientation to their school, allowed teachers to set goals in their evaluations, and provided teachers with sufficient instructional resources. The study also found that supports associated with teacher retention varied by the type of local education agency and the percentage of students who were economically disadvantaged. Findings from this study can help education agencies in Michigan prioritize which of 30 teacher supports examined merit more rigorous investigation. [For the Study Snapshot, see ED614817. For the appendixes, see ED614818.]

Statewide teacher shortages in Michigan are impeding efforts to ensure all students equitable access to qualified teachers. To alleviate shortages, education leaders have considered recruiting certified teachers who are not currently teaching (both those who have never taught and those who left teaching). This study analyzed teacher certification and employment data and data from a survey of certified teachers who were not teaching in a Michigan public school in 2017/18 to gather information on the viability of this recruitment option. The report describes the characteristics of these nonteaching certified teachers, the three most important reasons why they are not teaching, and the three most important incentives that would motivate them to teach in a public school in the state. The study found that approximately 61,000 teachers certified in Michigan were not teaching in the state's public schools in 2017/18. A survey of nonteaching certified teachers found that they most frequently selected wanting a higher salary as one of the three most important reasons why they were not teaching and that they most frequently selected an increase in salary as one of the three most important incentives that would motivate them to teach. Respondents also frequently selected financial incentives, such as allowing retirees to retain their retirement benefits, improving other benefits, and forgiving student loans, as one of their three most important incentives. Nonteaching certified teachers might consider becoming a public school teacher if it were easier and less costly to earn or renew a teaching certificate, if they could more easily obtain a full-time or part-time position, and if they were assured of school leadership support and smaller class sizes or a lighter student load. [For the study brief, see ED611791; for the study snapshot, see ED611792; and for the appendixes, see ED611794.]

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) is an investment of the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences. Its purpose is to provide educators, policymakers, researchers, and the public with a central and trusted source of scientific evidence on what works in education. The WWC's goal is to produce high-quality products that help education practitioners, teachers, state and local administrators, and researchers make evidence-based decisions. It does so through a systematic review process, replicable documentation, and transparent reporting. The WWC team--which includes numerous contractors, consultants, academic specialists, and federal employees--produces a suite of products in varying formats carefully designed to reach audiences with distinct and sometimes diverging needs. This article provides a brief overview of these products in the hope that the various audiences will access and use them frequently.

The study examined the effect of National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) in instructional leadership roles, operationalized as mentors to novice teachers, on (a) classroom practices of mentored novice teachers in Grades K-12 and (b) student achievement of mentored teachers' students in Grades 4-8. The study compared outcomes between NBCT mentors and non-NBCT mentors. The study examined the effect of NBCT mentors after one academic year and was conducted in San Francisco Unified School District. Using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System, we examined novice teachers' classroom practices on the domains of Emotional Support, Classroom Organization, Instructional Support, and across all three domains. The results did not reach statistical significance, but the effect sizes for Emotional Support, Classroom Organization, and a global measure across all domains suggest meaningful differences between classroom practices of novice teachers mentored by NBCTs and non-NBCTs. These effect sizes were 0.28, 0.28, and 0.21 standard deviations, respectively. The effect size for the domain of Instructional Support was near zero at -0.06 standard deviations. Our sample size for the analysis of classroom practices did not have sufficient power to estimate differences at a statistically significant level. We examined student achievement using the state's standardized test scores in mathematics and English language arts. Our achievement measure includes either subject: That is, we did not estimate effects separately for mathematics and English language arts. The results suggest that students taught by teachers mentored by NBCTs had a higher level of achievement than students mentored by non-NBCTs. The difference was statistically significant at a p value of 0.05, and the effect size was meaningful at 0.18 standard deviations. Small sample sizes and low statistical power prevent us from making confident conclusions about the effect of NBCTs in instructional leadership roles on classroom practices of supported teachers and student achievement. However, the evidence is encouraging and warrants additional rigorous research on the impact of NBCTs as instructional leaders.

Schools in the Internationals Network for Public Schools (Internationals) are public middle schools, high schools, and academies (i.e., schools within schools) that serve secondary English language learners (ELLs)--in particular, ELLs who have been enrolled in U.S. schools for fewer than 4 years and who are at the lowest levels of English proficiency. With funding from a 5-year Investing in Innovation (i3) development grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Innovation and Improvement, Internationals received an opportunity to implement key components of its model in comprehensive high schools that serve both ELLs and non-ELLs. Internationals designed an intervention--Project RISE (Realizing Instructional Supports for English Language Learners)--that aimed to improve the educational outcomes of ELLs in Grades 9-12 in two schools by changing teachers' instructional practices and several key structures in which students and teachers are organized. The American Institutes for Research (AIR), an external evaluator of Project RISE, was charged with providing both a formative evaluation and an impact evaluation. The purpose of this document is to summarize the findings of formative and impact evaluations of Project RISE. First, the report presents the results of the formative evaluation accumulated during the 4-year evaluation period while the project was being implemented. Then the report presents the results of the impact evaluation conducted after Project RISE was completed.

The purpose of this work was to examine the effect of classroom teachers who earn certification as a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT) by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards on mathematics and reading achievement and behavioral outcomes (attendance and discipline referrals) for students in Grades 4 and 5. Two studies were conducted separately to examine the effect of NBCTs in North Carolina and Kentucky, which are two states with relatively high concentrations of NBCTs. In each study, propensity score matching was used to match students of NBCTs to similar students of non-NBCTs. Within each grade and within each study, propensity score matching yielded similar student groups (those taught by NBCTs and those not taught by NBCTs) on observed characteristics such as prior-year outcomes and demographics. For each grade level, the academic and behavioral outcomes of students of NBCTs were compared with the outcomes of the matched students taught by non-NBCTs. In North Carolina, there were no statistically significant student achievement differences at either grade between students of NBCTs and students of non-NBCTs. However, Grade 5 students of NBCTs had higher attendance rates than students of non-NBCTs by 0.02 standard deviations. There were no statistically significant effects on the likelihood of a student receiving an in-school or out-of-school suspension in North Carolina. In Kentucky, Grade 5 students taught by NBCTs scored higher than students of non-NBCTs on state student achievement in mathematics and reading by 0.06 standard deviations. There were no statistically significant differences in the behavioral outcomes between the student groups at either grade level in Kentucky.