Papers

"Universal vouchers and racial and ethnic segregation" (with Eric Brunner and Stephen Ross), Review of Economics and Statistics (forthcoming)

"Meeting the Challenge: Performance Trends in California Schools," PACE Policy Brief (2008)

"Tiebout Choice and Universal School Vouchers” (with Eric Brunner), Journal of Urban Economics 63 (2008), 253-279

"Assessing the Costs of Adequacy in California Public Schools: A Cost Function Approach," Education Finance and Policy 3 (Winter 2008) 90-108.

"School Funding Formulas: What Works and What Doesn't? Lessons for California," Report for the Senate Office of Research (commissioned through the CSU Faculty Research Fellows Program) (2007)

“Assessing the Costs of K-12 Education in California Public Schools”, part of the Getting Down to Facts project, Institute for Research on Education Policy and Practice (2007).

“Does No Child Left Behind Place a Fiscal Burden on States? Evidence from Texas” (with Andrew Reschovsky), Education Finance and Policy 1 (Spring 2006), 217-246.

“Fiscal Stress and Voluntary Contributions to Public Schools” (with Eric Brunner), Developments in School Finance (2005), National Center for Education Statistics.

“Assessing the Use of Econometric Analysis in Estimating the Costs of Meeting State Education Accountability Standards: Lessons from Texas” (with Andrew Reschovsky), Peabody Journal of Education 80 (2005), 96-125.

“Teacher Salaries and Teacher Attrition,” Economics of Education Review 24 (2005), 431-449.

“Is No Child Left Behind an Un(or under)funded Federal Mandate? Evidence from Texas” (with Andrew Reschovsky), National Tax Journal 57 (2004), 571-588.

“School Finance Reform in Texas: A Never Ending Story?” (with Andrew Reschovsky), Helping Children Left Behind: State Aid and the Pursuit of Educational Equity, John Yinger, ed., MIT Press (2004), 251-281.

“Financing Adequate Education in Rural Settings” (with Andrew Reschovsky), Journal of Education Finance 29 (Summer 2003), 137-156.

“Let No Child Be Left Behind: Determining the Cost of Improving Student Performance” (with Andrew Reschovsky), Public Finance Review 31 (May 2003), 263-290.

"Class-Size Reduction and Teacher Quality: Evidence from California," School Finance and Teacher Quality: Exploring the Connections, David Monk and Margaret Plecki, eds. (2003), 159-178.

"Teacher Attrition and Mobility in Urban Districts: Evidence from Wisconsin," Fiscal Issues in Urban Schools; Research in Education: Fiscal Policy and Practice, Volume 1, Jennifer King Rice and Christopher Roelke, eds. Information Age Publishing Inc.: Greenwich, CT (2002), 119-136.

“Achieving Educational Adequacy through School Finance Reform” (with Andrew Reschovsky), Journal of Education Finance 26 (Spring 2001), 373-396.

"The Development of School Aid Formulas to Guarantee Adequacy" (with Andrew Reschovsky), in Developments in School Finance 1997, National Center for Education Statistics, 121-148.

Probation Length and Teacher Salaries: Does Waiting Pay Off? (with Eric Brunner), 2008.

Although tenure for elementary and secondary school teachers is a contentious topic in many states, there is virtually no empirical evidence on how tenure affects teacher labor markets. This paper begins to fill this research void by using cross-state variation in tenure policies to identify the effects, if any, of the length of the probationary period on teacher wages. Using data from the Schools and Staffing Survey, we ask whether districts in states with longer probationary periods respond by offering higher wages. Our results suggest that they do, although effects are concentrated in districts that are most likely to be competing for teachers with districts in neighboring states with shorter probation periods. We also find that the relationship between probation length and wages is stronger for experienced teachers and in districts that engage in collective bargaining.

This study synthesizes what we know and do not know about policies to attract and retain teachers in high-need schools and assesses the relative cost-effectiveness of two types of policies. Research consistently shows that teacher quality is likely to be lower in schools with higher proportions of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. This pattern is likely a result of several factors but the most well-documented is teachers’ mobility choices within and across districts. Although there are numerous programs across the country intended to attract and retain highly-skilled teachers in high-need schools, there is very little assessment of their effectiveness. Given the lack of evidence on specific interventions, I use the results from existing studies of
teacher mobility and attrition to compare the effect of salary incentives and induction or mentoring programs. Although financial incentives are arguably the most straightforward policies for states and districts to adopt, high-need schools may be better served if policymakers and researchers devoted more attention to more cost-effective alternatives. (presented at APPAM conference, November 2007)