| Title: |
Four Years of Pandemic-Era Emergency Licenses: Retention and Effectiveness of Emergency-Licensed Massachusetts Teachers over Time. Working Paper No. 299-0424 |
| Language: |
English |
| Authors: |
Ben Backes; James Cowan; Dan Goldhaber; Roddy Theobald; National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) at American Institutes for Research (AIR) |
| Source: |
National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER). 2024. |
| Availability: |
National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research. American Institutes for Research, 1000 Thomas Jefferson Street NW, Washington, DC 20007. Tel: 202-403-5796; Fax: 202-403-6783; e-mail: info@caldercenter.org; Web site: https://caldercenter.org |
| Peer Reviewed: |
N |
| Page Count: |
54 |
| Publication Date: |
2024 |
| Sponsoring Agency: |
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education |
| Document Type: |
Reports - Research |
| Descriptors: |
Teachers; Emergency Programs; Alternative Teacher Certification; COVID-19; Pandemics; Teacher Persistence; Teacher Effectiveness; Educational Policy; Students; Mathematics Achievement; Science Achievement; Scores |
| Geographic Terms: |
Massachusetts |
| Abstract: |
Most states responded to the onset of the pandemic by temporarily granting teachers Emergency licenses. These licenses allowed teachers to work in classrooms without passing the typical licensure exams. Since then, several states have extended their use of Emergency licenses, raising questions about how these policies impact the composition of the teacher workforce and student outcomes. In this paper, we examine the result of these policies using data on multiple cohorts of Emergency licensed teachers (ELTs) who taught in Massachusetts between 2021 and 2023. We find that ELTs were slightly more likely to remain in the same school and in the teaching workforce than teachers from other entry routes. However, ELTs' students scored significantly lower on standardized tests in math and science than other students in the same school and same year. Our findings are at odds with earlier, more positive assessments of Emergency licensure in Massachusetts. Our updated results appear to be driven by more recent cohorts of ELTs, rather than the teachers who received Emergency licenses at the start of the pandemic. Overall, this study suggests policymakers should be cautious when drawing sweeping conclusions about the impacts of teacher licensure based solely on the earliest cohort of teachers who obtained pandemic-era Emergency licenses. |
| Abstractor: |
As Provided |
| Entry Date: |
2024 |
| Accession Number: |
ED656324 |
| Database: |
ERIC |