Teacher Turnover Affects All Students' Achievement

In light of the Kasich education cuts, and the looming sequestration that will lead ot large education cuts, this article appearing in Education Week should be bourne in mind by law makers.

When teachers leave schools, overall morale appears to suffer enough that student achievement declines—both for those taught by the departed teachers and by students whose teachers stayed put, concludes a study recently presented at a conference held by the Center for Longitudinal Data in Education Research.

The impact of teacher turnover is one of the teacher-quality topics that's been hard for researchers to get their arms around. The phenomenon of high rates of teacher turnover has certainly been proven to occur in high-poverty schools more than low-poverty ones. The eminently logical assumption has been that such turnover harms student achievement.

But a couple years back, two researchers did an analysis that showed, counter-intuitively, it's actually the less- effective teachers, rather than the more- effective ones, who tend to leave schools with a high concentration of low-achieving, minority students. It raised the question of whether a degree of turnover might be beneficial, since it seemed to purge schools of underperforming teachers.

When reporting on that study, I played devil's advocate by pointing out that it didn't address the cultural impact of having a staff that's always in flux. The recently released CALDER paper suggests I may have been right in probing this question.

Written by the University of Michigan's Matthew Ronfeldt, Stanford University's Susanna Loeb, and the University of Virginia's Jim Wyckoff, the new paper basically picks up on the same question. Even if overall teacher effectiveness stays the same in a school with turnover, it's well documented that turnover hurts staff cohesion and the shared sense of community in schools, the scholars reasoned. Could that have an impact on student achievement, too?

To find out, they looked at a set of New York City test-score data from 4th and 5th graders over the course of eight years. The data were linked to teacher characteristics.
(All the usual caveats about limitations of test scores apply, of course.)

Among their findings:

• For each analysis, students taught by teachers in the same grade-level team in the same school did worse in years where turnover rates were higher, compared with years in which there was less teacher turnover.
• An increase in teacher turnover by 1 standard deviation corresponded with a decrease in math achievement of 2 percent of a standard deviation; students in grade levels with 100 percent turnover were especially affected, with lower test scores by anywhere from 6 percent to 10 percent of a standard deviation based on the content area.
• The effects were seen in both large and small schools, new and old ones.
• The negative effect of turnover on student achievement was larger in schools with more low-achieving and black students.

Read the whole piece here.

Support kids not cuts

Across the board cuts (also know as sequestration), scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 2, 2013, are a bad idea and would be devastating to the programs and services ordinary Americans depend on including education, transportation, public safety, medical research, and environmental protection. These cuts could also lead to the loss of nearly 80,000 education jobs.

Here's a broad look at what these cuts mean at the national level

Across the board cuts would be particularly devastating for education, where cuts would result in:
• Services cut or eliminated for more than nine million students
• Funding for children living in poverty, in special education, and Head Start slashed by billions
• Class sizes ballooning
• After-school programs eliminated
• Programs for our most vulnerable – homeless students, English Language Learners, and high-poverty, struggling schools – decimated
• Financial aid for college students slashed
• Nearly 80,000 education jobs lost – at early childhood, elementary and secondary, and postsecondary levels.

Despite the fact that 5.4 million more students are in our schools today and that costs have increased by 25 percent since 2003, these cuts could actually cause education programs to drop to pre-2003 levels.

And in Ohio

Ohio Sequestration

School levies on the March ballot

465 questions and issues appearing on the 2012 primary election ballot. Below is the list of issues by type:

  • 9 bond issues (7 are school issues)
  • 280 tax issues (85 are school issues)
  • 124 local liquor options

9 combination questions – as explained below:

  • 7 are school bond issues with a tax levy
  • 2 are school income tax issues with a bond issue

43 miscellaneous questions (broken down as follows)

  • 6 electric aggregation questions
  • 5 charter amendments
  • 3 zoning amendments
  • 25 tax changes (11 are school issues)
  • 4 miscellaneous questions

Below is the list of school issues, where duplicates appear it indicates more than one issue for that distrcit appears on the ballot.

County District Type N/R
ALLEN Allen East L.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
ALLEN Bath L.S.D Bond New
ALLEN Delphos C.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
ALLEN Lima C.S.D Tax Levy New
ASHTABULA Ashtabula Area C.S.D Tax Levy New
ASHTABULA Grand Valley L.S.D Tax Levy New
ASHTABULA Jefferson Area L.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
ASHTABULA Jefferson Area L.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
AUGLAIZE New Bremen L.S.D Bond & Tax Levy New
COLUMBIANA Beaver L.S.D Bond & Tax Levy New
CRAWFORD Crestline Exempted V.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
CRAWFORD Wynford L.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
CRAWFORD Wynford L.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
CUYAHOGA Berea C.S.D Tax Levy New
CUYAHOGA Chagrin Falls Exempted V.S.D Tax Levy New
CUYAHOGA Cuyahoga Heights L.S.D Tax Levy New
CUYAHOGA Garfield Heights C.S.D Tax Levy New
CUYAHOGA Mayfield C.S.D Tax Levy New
CUYAHOGA Parma C.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
CUYAHOGA Rocky River C.S.D Tax Levy New
CUYAHOGA Strongsville C.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
DARKE Greenville C.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
DARKE Tri Village L.S.D Tax Levy New
DARKE Versailles Exempted V.S.D Income Tax New
DEFIANCE Ayersville L.S.D Income Tax Renewal
DEFIANCE Central L.S.D Bond & Income Tax New
DEFIANCE Central L.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
DEFIANCE Defiance C.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
FAIRFIELD Lancaster C.S.D Bond & Tax Levy New
FAYETTE Miami Trace L.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
FRANKLIN South-Western C.S.D Bond New
FRANKLIN Westerville C.S.D Tax Levy New
FULTON Evergreen L.S.D Income Tax New
FULTON Four County J.V.S.D Tax Levy New
FULTON Swanton L.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
GEAUGA West Geauga L.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
GREENE Beavercreek C.S.D Tax Levy New
GREENE Fairborn C.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
GUERNSEY Cambridge C.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
HAMILTON Forest Hills L.S.D Tax Levy New
HAMILTON Mt. Healthy C.S.D Tax Levy New
HAMILTON Princeton C.S.D Tax Levy New
HAMILTON Wyoming C.S.D Bond New
HANCOCK Arcadia L.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
HANCOCK Arcadia L.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
HANCOCK Findlay C.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
HANCOCK Van Buren L.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
HARDIN Ada Exempted V.S.D Income Tax Renewal
HARDIN Ridgemont L.S.D Bond & Tax Levy New
HENRY Napoleon Area C.S.D Bond New
HENRY Napoleon Area C.S.D Income Tax New
HENRY Patrick Henry L.S.D Tax Levy New
HIGHLAND Fairfield L.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
HOLMES East Holmes L.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
HOLMES East Holmes L.S.D Tax Levy New
HURON Norwalk C.S.D Tax Levy New
JEFFERSON Edison L.S.D Tax Levy New
JEFFERSON Indian Creek L.S.D Bond & Tax Levy New
JEFFERSON Jefferson County J.V.S.D Tax Levy New
LAKE Willoughby-Eastlake C.S.D Tax Levy New
LAWRENCE Lawrence County J.V.S.D Tax Levy New
LORAIN Avon L.S.D Bond New
LORAIN Avon L.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
LORAIN Lorain County J.V.S.D Tax Levy New
LORAIN Midview L.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
MADISON London C.S.D Tax Levy New
MAHONING Poland L.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
MAHONING Poland L.S.D Tax Levy New
MAHONING Youngstown C.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
MEDINA Brunswick C.S.D Tax Levy New
MEDINA Buckeye L.S.D Income Tax New
MERCER Coldwater Exempted V.S.D Tax Levy New
MONTGOMERY Brookville L.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
MONTGOMERY Kettering C.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
MONTGOMERY Mad River L.S.D Tax Levy New
MONTGOMERY Oakwood C.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
MONTGOMERY Vandalia-Butler C.S.D Tax Levy New
OTTAWA Benton-Carroll-Salem L.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
OTTAWA Genoa Area L.S.D Tax Levy New
PORTAGE Field L.S.D Tax Levy New
PORTAGE Waterloo L.S.D Tax Levy New
RICHLAND Madison L.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
RICHLAND Ontario L.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
SANDUSKY Woodmore L.S.D Bond & Tax Levy New
SCIOTO Green L.S.D Tax Levy New
SENECA Tiffin C.S.D Tax Levy New
STARK Alliance C.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
STARK Canton L.S.D Bond New
SUMMIT Cuyahoga Falls C.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
SUMMIT Manchester L.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
SUMMIT Woodridge L.S.D Tax Levy New
TRUMBULL Champion L.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
TRUMBULL Howland L.S.D Tax Levy New
TRUMBULL Lakeview L.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
TRUMBULL Niles C.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
TRUMBULL Warren C.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
TRUMBULL Weathersfield L.S.D Bond & Tax Levy New
WARREN Carlisle L.S.D Bond & Tax Levy New
WASHINGTON Marietta C.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
WASHINGTON Marietta C.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
WASHINGTON Wolf Creek L.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
WAYNE Chippewa L.S.D Income Tax New
WAYNE Norwayne L.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
WAYNE Triway L.S.D Income Tax New
WILLIAMS Bryan C.S.D Bond New
WILLIAMS Montpelier Exempted V.S.D Income Tax New
WILLIAMS Stryker L.S.D Tax Levy New
WOOD Bowling Green C.S.D Income Tax Renewal
WOOD North Baltimore L.S.D Income Tax Renewal
WOOD Rossford Exempted V.S.D Tax Levy Renewal
WOOD Rossford Exempted V.S.D - I Tax Levy Renewal
WOOD Rossford Exempted V.S.D - II Tax Levy Renewal