Dr. Katharine Strunk
Education Week’s Teacher Beat blog recently highlighted a study by Katharine Strunk and Jason Grissom of Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College which found that districts with collective bargaining appeared more likely to have back-loaded salary schedules.
The post, titled “Analysis Probes the Shape of the Teacher-Salary Schedule,” also spoke about whether the findings related to student achievement.
The authors also attempted to determine whether the type of schedule had any relationship to student achievement. To do that, they matched the SASS data with aggregate student-achievement data collected by the American Institutes of Research. Availability of data slimmed the sample down to districts in 28 states. Controlling for differences in state cut scores, the authors found that having a front-loaded schedule was linked to a small, positive increase in the proportion of students who achieved the “proficient” bar on state reading and math tests.
>> Read the Education Week post
