Measuring the value of teachers from traditional certification pathways in Texas: A comprehensive study

Abstract

While teacher preparation in the United States continues a long period of decline, the largest-producing state, Texas, is experiencing substantial changes in how it prepares teachers. The number of teachers prepared by traditional university pathways continues to decline, and the number from alternative pathways is rising. Using extensive data from Texas, we find that traditionally prepared teachers from universities obtain significantly higher student learning gains than alternatives. We use value-added models to estimate changes in student test scores in many grade levels and test subjects as a function of teacher preparation pathway. We compare all Traditional programs to all Alternative programs, and we compare all For-Profit programs to all Not for-Profit programs. For most subjects and grade levels, students learn significantly more from Traditional or Not for-Profit program teachers: 0.02 to 0.05 in standard deviation units. There is not one significant estimate in any model where students learn more from Alternative and For-Profit programs teachers than they do from Traditional and Not For-Profit program teachers.