Running Head: TEACHER WORKING CONDITIONS AND QUALIFICATIONS. Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications in Schools of Choice

Transcription

1 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 1 Running Head: TEACHER WORKING CONDITIONS AND QUALIFICATIONS Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications in Schools of Choice Marisa Cannata and Roberto V. Peñaloza Vanderbilt University April 2009 This paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA, April 13-17, Please do not cite without author s permission. Address correspondence to: Marisa Cannata, Research Associate, Vanderbilt University, 459 GPC, Wyatt 410G, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN 37203, Marisa.cannata@vanderbilt.edu. This paper is supported by the National Center on School Choice, which is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) (R305A040043). All opinions expressed in this paper represent those of the authors and not necessarily the institutions with which they are affiliated or the U.S. Department of Education. All errors in this paper are solely the responsibility of the authors. For more information, please visit the Center website at

2 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 2 Abstract Given the importance of teachers to student learning, it is important to understand how schools of choice differ in terms of the types and uses of human capital inside schools. Despite research that highlights important differences in the qualifications and working conditions of schools of choice, there is less research on the causes behind these differences and how school choice interacts with the teacher labor market. This paper explores the following questions: How do teacher qualifications and their working conditions vary across charter, magnet, private, and traditional public schools? To what extent are these differences due to choices teachers make about where they want to work? This paper provides evidence of substantial differences between teachers in schools of choice particularly charter school teachers and traditional public schools in their qualifications and working conditions. Charter and private school teachers are less qualified than their peers in traditional public schools and magnet school teachers are somewhat more experienced. There were also differences in teacher working conditions across school types, with charter school teachers again having more different experiences and schools of choice offering more appealing working conditions in general. Consistent with the findings for teacher qualifications and the hypotheses, teachers amount of choice and reasons for their job choices were related to their working conditions in expected ways.

3 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 3 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications in Schools of Choice For almost two decades, increasing school choice has been a prominent feature of education reforms. Charter schools have risen dramatically in number to over 4,000 schools in 40 states. While private and magnet schools have received less attention, they remain the most numerous forms of school choice. Extensive research on school choice, particularly charter schools, has accompanied this increased interest in school choice. Much of this research has tried to determine whether schools of choice have a greater effect on student learning than traditional public schools (Betts, Hill, & The Charter School Achievement Consensus Panel, 2006; Buddin & Zimmer, 2005). The mixed results of research on the relationship of school choice to student achievement has led to calls for research that focuses on the internal operations of schools of choice to explore not only whether schools of choice impact student learning, but also why and how they may do so (Betts et al., 2006; Hess & Loveless, 2005; Zimmer et al., 2003). Given the importance of teachers to student learning, it is important to understand how schools of choice differ in terms of the types and uses of human capital inside schools. Previous research points to observable differences in the qualifications of teachers in charter, magnet, and private schools compared to their colleagues in traditional public schools (Baker & Dickerson, 2006; Cannata, 2008b). Additional work has explored the pay, personnel practices, and professional community of charter schools (Cannata, 2007a; Goldring & Cravens, 2008; Harris, 2006; Podgursky, 2008). Less research has focused on the causes behind these differences. The different characteristics and work experiences of teachers in schools of choice and traditional public schools raise questions about whether these differences are due to teachers being differentially attracted to schools of choice or to schools of choice making different hiring

4 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 4 decisions. How particular teachers end up in particular schools depends on both school and teacher decisions (Boyd, Lankford, Loeb, & Wyckoff, 2006), yet there is little evidence on how schools of choice interact with the teacher labor market. This paper begins to address this gap in existing literature by exploring the following questions: How do teacher qualifications and their working conditions vary across charter, magnet, private, and traditional public schools? To what extent are these differences due to choices teachers make about where they want to work? The next section examines the existing research on teachers and teaching in charter, private, and magnet schools outlines and outlines various reasons why school choice may lead to different teacher qualifications or working conditions. The second section describes the data and analytic model. The results are then presented, followed by implications for policy and practice. Teachers and School Choice Are They Different? Previous research indicates that teachers in schools of choice have different qualifications than their peers in traditional public schools. Charter, private, and magnet school teachers tend to come from more selective colleges than their peers in traditional public schools, but charter and private school teachers are also more likely to be inexperienced and lack certification and advanced degrees (Baker & Dickerson, 2006; Burian-Fitzgerald, Luekens, & Strizek, 2004; Cannata, 2008b; Guarino, 2003; Hoxby, 2002; Podgursky & Ballou, 2001; Texas Center for Educational Research, 2003). They also have somewhat lower salaries that are less dependent on education and years of experience (Gruber, Wiley, Broughman, Strizek, & Burian-Fitzgerald, 2002; Harris, 2006; Podgursky, 2008; Texas Center for Educational Research, 2003).

5 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 5 There are also differences in their working conditions. For example, charter school teachers report feeling more empowered in their classrooms and better teaching conditions (Bomotti, Ginsberg, & Cobb, 1999; Hoxby, 2002). Many teachers are attracted to charter and private schools because of the ability to work with colleagues who share their values or educational vision and engage in educational reform (Cook, 2002; Johnson & Landman, 2000; Miron, Cullen, Applegate, & Farrell, 2007). Teachers in schools of choice also report higher levels of teacher professional community than traditional public schools (Cannata, 2007b; Christenson et al., 2003; Gawlik, 2007; Goldring & Cravens, 2008; Royal, DeAngelis, & Rossi, 1997). Yet other research finds that the reduced time for teacher collaboration in charter schools restricts the collegial community (Bomotti et al., 1999; Johnson & Landman, 2000). There is more consistent evidence that private and school teachers have greater influence over school policy than their counterparts in traditional public schools (Bauch & Goldring, 1996; Cook, 2002; Ingersoll, 2003; Schaub, 2000). Evidence on the relative influence of charter school teachers is more ambiguous (Bomotti et al., 1999; Crawford, 2001; Crawford & Forsyth, 2004; Johnson & Landman, 2000; Malloy & Wohlstetter, 2003). Patterns of mobility and attrition between school types may shed light on the relative attractiveness of schools of choice to teachers. There is mixed evidence about the fluidity of teachers movement between private and public schools. Two-thirds of teachers in private independent schools would consider working in a public school (Kane, 1987) and one-third began their career in a public school before moving to an independent school (Kane, 1986). Teachers in public schools, however, were most likely to have spent their whole career in a public school, even though they considered teaching in a private school (Kane, 1986). While

6 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 6 many private school teachers do move into public schools, only certified teachers do so and private school teachers who recently earned certification are the most likely to switch into public schools (Holt, McLaughlin, & McGrath, 2006). Public schools teachers are unlikely to move into private schools (Luekens, Lyter, Fox, & Chandler, 2004). There is little evidence about whether traditional public school teachers move into charter schools. While some charter school teachers do have prior experience teaching in a traditional public school (Malloy & Wohlstetter, 2003; Miron et al., 2007), very few traditional public school teachers move into charter schools (Carruthers, 2008; Harris, 2007). Further, there is a bimodal pattern to the qualifications of teachers who move from traditional public schools to charter schools; they are less likely to be certified but among certified teachers have higher licensure exam scores (Carruthers, 2008). The institutional and social context of charter schools may serve as barriers for individuals looking for teaching jobs in traditional public schools to also apply to charter schools (Cannata, 2008a). There is also limited movement from charter schools to traditional public schools as teachers are more likely to leave the profession altogether than move to a different type of school (Harris, 2007; The Ohio Collaborative, 2003). Overall, the evidence on mobility between school types suggests there is more movement from schools of choice to traditional public schools, although how this mobility is related teacher quality is complicated. Why Might They be Different? The key rationale for the proposition that schools of choice have a different composition of teachers or different work contexts than traditional public schools focus on the autonomy given to school leaders in choice schools and the competitive pressure they feel to create

7 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 7 efficient personnel practices (Podgursky, 2008). Giving greater flexibility to schools in staffing practices allows school leaders to design schools around a focused mission (Hassel, 1999; Manno, Finn, Bierlein, & Vanourek, 1998; Wohlstetter & Griffin, 1998). State and local policy constraints and union work rules are often criticized as they restrict whom schools can hire and how they can structure teachers work. The flexibility available to schools of choice, on the other hand, may allow these schools to hire the most effective teachers and organize their work in the most efficient manner. Private schools and some charter schools are free of state requirements such as teacher certification, required professional development, tenure, and class size mandates. Private and charter school teachers also usually do not have agreements with teacher unions, giving them further flexibility over teacher work contexts, salary, teacher hiring, and evaluation. While magnet schools do not have greater flexibility than traditional public schools, the presence of an identified instructional emphasis may also influence teacher work contexts. Coupled with competitive pressure to raise enrollments, schools of choice should have the incentive and flexibility to hire the most effective teachers and use them more efficiently (Podgursky, 2008). Yet this explanation attributes any observed differences between teachers across school types to schools of choice making different decisions about whom to hire. As the matching of teachers to schools depends on both demand and supply factors, teacher behavior and job search decisions also influence who ends up working in schools of choice (Boyd et al., 2006). As noted above, the working conditions in schools of choice are different than traditional public schools, thus teachers may be differentially attracted to schools of choice. Teachers may seek out the collegial environments of charter and private schools or the focused instructional approach of

8 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 8 magnet schools, leading to more qualified teachers in schools of choice. On the other hand, if traditional public schools offer more enticing work environments than schools of choice, schools of choice may be forced to hire teachers from a pool of individuals who could not secure jobs in traditional public schools, leading to less qualified teachers in schools of choice. Further, as teachers have heterogeneous preferences (Boyd et al., 2006), these forces may interact as teachers with preferences for specific school features seek out schools with those features. This leads to two hypotheses that will be tested in this paper. The first hypothesis is that teachers who had more choice in where they worked would have more qualifications and better working conditions. They would have better working conditions because their lack of choice means they could not choose schools with more appealing work environments. The second hypothesis is that teachers reasons for choosing their school will be related to their working conditions. If teachers are taking these school features into account when making job decisions, then they should end up in schools that are more appealing on those measures. Methods Sample Characteristics and Data To study differences in teacher qualifications and working conditions across different school types, we relied on a convenience matched sample of schools, and of the principals, teachers, and students in those schools. The schools for our study were selected from the set of 7,500 schools (mostly traditional public schools) with which the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) had partnered to monitor student achievement through the administration of computerized adaptive tests in math, reading and language arts every spring and fall of the school year. We linked the NWEA schools to the public NCES-CCD and PSS files to obtain

9 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 9 school characteristics. After correctly classifying some schools that were incorrectly classified as magnet schools and other minor data problems, our sample frame was defined as the set of schools that could be found in the latest available CCD and PSS files (i.e. the files), tested by NWEA in , with at least one grade having over 50% testing coverage in both math and reading, and at least 10 students tested. We excluded special education, vocational and alternative schools, schools that were no longer testing with NWEA, and schools that did not have all the variables that we needed for school matching. With all these requirements, our sample frame ended up consisting of 223 charter, 65 magnet, 33 private, and 5,864 traditional public schools as potential matches. The process of matching traditional public schools to schools of choice consisted of two stages. Details of this matching process are in the Appendix. At the first stage, we used CCD data on the schools to identify the best match. The school match had to be in the same state, and be the closest possible to the school of choice in terms of geographical distance, grade range, ethnic composition, socio-economic status, and size. Due to differences in grade configurations between schools of choice and traditional public schools, there are cases where we had more than one match for a school of choice to match all the grade levels in the school. Some traditional public schools were also used as matches for more than one school of choice. The sample of schools that were initially contacted for participation consisted of 321 schools of choice (i.e. 223 charter, 65 magnet, 33 private) and 345 traditional public schools. The second stage of the matching process was obtaining school participation in the teacher and principal surveys. When a traditional public school or its district declined participation, had recently closed or stopped testing with NWEA, we found a replacement for it.

10 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 10 Unfortunately the replacement was almost always of lower match quality than the original match. In addition, despite our school-type verification process, a few schools were found to be misclassified: when a school of choice turned out to be a traditional public school, it was reclassified and placed in the pool of traditional schools; when a traditional public school turned out to be a school of choice, it was re-classified and a match or matches were found for it. After all these changes, our school sample changed to 217 charter, 60 magnets, 32 private, and 480 traditional public schools. Of these, only 117 (53.9%) charter, 34 (56.7%) magnet, 17 (53.1%) private, and 128 (26.7%) traditional public schools agreed to participate. Teachers and principals of the schools that agreed to participate were asked to fill out online, confidential questionnaires. The teacher questionnaire included measures of working conditions, instructional innovation, instructional conditions, influence on schoolwide decisions, professional development, principal leadership, career decisions, and qualifications. The questionnaire completion rates for the teachers were 2,108/2,636=80.0% for charter, 987/1,399=70.6% for magnet, 208/262=79.4% for private, and 2,872/3,963=72.5% for regular public schools. The completion rates for principals (and assistant principals) were 156/194=80.4% for charter, 38/66=57.6% for magnet, 19/19=100.0% for private, and 140/187=74.9% for regular public schools. This paper uses mostly data from the teacher questionnaire, although some items on school demographic characteristics were obtained from the principal questionnaire. Although 296 schools agreed to participate, only 281 schools (i.e., 103 charter, 22 magnet, 17 private, and 103 traditional) actually completed teacher questionnaires. Table 1 includes descriptive statistics on the schools used in this sample.

11 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 11 Missing data were imputed using a multiple imputation procedure. Before multiple imputation, the behavior of the missing and non-missing values for the selected variables were studied. For the teacher file, there was always at least one teacher per school with non-missing value for each one of the variables considered. The variables that had the greatest proportion of missing values overall and per school type (i.e. charter, magnet, private, and traditional) were also identified. For the teacher file, practically all variables had missing-value proportions below 5%, indicating that for them imputation would have little effect on analysis results. The teacher variable with the greatest overall proportion of missing values was COLLEGESELECT (selectivity of College attended, 7.34%), and some of the items used to calculate TOTEXPER (total teaching experience) had too high missing-value proportions for magnet schools (around 9%); this indicated the existence of problems. Multiple imputation was done using the SAS PROC MI and under the assumption that the data were multivariate normally distributed and the missing data are Missing at Random (MAR). With both files having non-monotonous patterns of missing data, the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) imputation method with a single chain and a non-informative prior was used to create five imputations. In the absence of a known imputation model, I decided to use all the analysis variables and items for the imputation analysis. Among these variables, I included school-type dummy variables and the school-level mean values of each one of the analysis variables as long as the analysis variable had at least one missing value. Because the teacher file had more schools than the principal file, school demographic variables for missing schools were obtained from the CCD and PSS files. The multiple imputed values were rounded when

12 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 12 appropriate to match the original variables formats and were corrected when they fell out of range. Analytic Methods Bivariate analyses were first conducted to identify overall mean differences in teacher qualifications and working conditions across school types. Yet students are not randomly distributed across schools and thus we need to control for the self-selection of students into schools of choice (Hoxby & Murarka, 2008). To predict each outcome (i.e., teacher qualification or working condition), we use two-level Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) regressions assuming that teachers are nested within schools. The dependent variables are less than full certification, college selectivity, advanced degree, total years of experience, professional learning community, principal leadership, teacher influence, contact with parents, differing teaching strategies, and salary. For the baseline HLM regressions, we have the following level-1 equation: Outcome jk =π 0k + ε jk where Outcome jk is each outcome variable listed above for teacher j in school k; π 0k is the mean outcome variable within school k. As usual, the error term ε ikj is assumed to be independently and normally distributed with a zero mean and constant variance. For the model with salary as the dependent variable, the teachers total years of teaching experience and whether they have an advanced degree were also included in the level-1 equation due to the role of experience and degrees in teacher salaries. Lack of full certification and having an advanced degree are dichotomous variables. These models were estimated with similar regressors, but were estimated as a multilevel logistic model. We assume that the outcome variable varies across schools, represented by the following level 2 equations:

13 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 13 π 0k =β 00 +β 01 (School demographic Characteristics) +β 02 (School type) + r 0k where school demographic characteristics are the grade level designation of the school, school size, percentage of students eligible for free- or reduced-price lunch, and percentage of students that are Hispanic, Black, and other racial minority. The error term, r 0ikj, is assumed to have the usual distribution. This baseline model thus estimates the differences between school types in teacher qualifications and working conditions when controlling for the student composition of schools. After this baseline model is estimated, two mediating variables are added to the level-1 equation that represent teachers degree of choice in working at that school. These are dummy variables indicating whether the teacher indicated this was the only school with an opening for which they were qualified or if they were assigned to the school. It is hypothesized that teachers who work in their schools due to a lack of employment choice would have lower qualifications and work in schools with less appealing working conditions. The extent to which these mediating variables explain the school type effects in the baseline model represents the extent to which teachers job choices are influencing the observed differences between school types. The third set of models focuses on those teachers who indicated they chose to work in their school over other positions. These teachers actively chose to work in the school. Even among teachers who had job options, their decisions and preferences could explain observed differences between schools as teachers may have heterogeneous preferences. That is, teachers with a strong preference for working in a school with a particular characteristic should be more likely to end up working in such a school. Teachers indicated which school features were among their top three reasons for working in their school. Certification and the working conditions

14 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 14 explored in this paper were represented in the list of school features. For these outcome measures, the mediating variable(s) included are the teachers reports that the outcome was one of the top three most important preferences in their job search decision. The mediating variable used in this set of models is listed under the relevant outcome variable below. Finally, to address a potential limitation of this paper, the sample was restricted to only teachers who have been teaching in their current school for three or fewer years. This is because as time passes and school conditions change, it is less likely that the current school conditions were not present when the teacher was making choices about where to work and thus it would not be appropriate to model the outcomes based upon teachers preferences or amount of choice. For teachers who are new to the school, the current school conditions are assumed to be similar to the conditions when they were hired and started working at the school. Variables Teacher qualifications Teacher certification is the certification teachers hold in their main assignment field. Regular and standard state certification is combined with probationary certification that is issued after teachers satisfy all requirements except for a probationary period. The dummy variable for less than full certification includes teachers with provisional certification given to teachers who are still participating in an alternative certification program, temporary certifications that require additional coursework, teachers who are not certified, emergency certifications or waivers, and those who do not fall into any of the above categories. The mediating variable in the third model is whether being able to teach without certification or completing a teacher education program was one of the three most important factors.

15 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 15 Total experience is measured as the teacher s total years of teaching experience in charter, magnet, private, and traditional public schools. The highest degree earned is categorized as bachelor s, advanced degree (master s, education specialist, or doctorate), and teachers who could not be categorized in either the bachelor s or advanced degree categories. College selectivity is the competitiveness rating from the Barron s Profile of American Colleges. (6=Most competitive, 5=Highly competitive, 4=Very competitive, 3=Competitive, 2=Less competitive, and 1=Noncompetitive). Criteria used to determine rankings include entrance examination scores, class rank, and GPA of admitted students. The mediating variable in the third model is whether being able to teach without certification or completing a teacher education program was one of the three most important factors. Teacher working conditions Influence over school decisions is a measure of the teacher s perception of his or her influence over schoowide policies. Reliability is.85. The factor loadings of each item are: Hiring professional staff (.62), Planning the use of discretionary school funds (.67), Determining which books and instructional materials are used in classrooms (.72), Establishing the curriculum and instruction program (.72), Determining the content of in-service programs (.77), Setting standards for student behavior (.68), and Determining goals for improving the school (.79). The mediating variables in the third model are whether being involved in school governance and influencing school policies and/or curriculum were one of the three most important factors. Professional learning community is a measure of the teacher s perception of the school s professional community. Reliability is.90. The factor loadings of each item are: Teachers respect

16 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 16 other teachers who take the lead in school improvement efforts (.76), Many teachers openly express their professional views at faculty meetings (.71), Most of my colleagues share my beliefs and values about what the school s central mission should be (.76), Teachers at this school trust each other (.82), Teachers are willing to question each other s views on issues of teaching and learning (.76), We do a good job of talking through views, opinions, and values (.87), Teachers are expected to continually seek out and learn new ideas (.72), Teachers are encouraged to take risks in order to improve their teaching (.69), and Teachers typically go beyond their classroom teaching to address the needs of students (.64). The mediating variables in the third model are whether working with like-minded colleagues and agreeing with the central mission/vision of the school were one of the three most important factors. Principal leadership is a measure of the teacher s perception of the leadership of their principal or school head. Reliability is.95. The factor loadings of each item are: Clearly communicates expected standards for instruction (.89), Carefully tracks student academic progress (.83), Knows what is going on in my classroom (.87), Actively monitors the quality of instruction (.91), Works directly with teachers who are struggling to improve their instruction (.86), Makes expectations clear to the staff for meeting instructional goals (.93), Communicates a clear vision for our school (.89), and Evaluates teachers using criteria directly related to the school s improvement efforts (.87). The mediating variable in the third model is whether being supported by my principal or school head was one of the three most important factors. Contact with parents is a measure of the frequency with which contact between the teacher and parents occurs. Reliability is.75. The factor loadings of each item are: I require students to have their parents sign-off on homework (.66), I assign homework that requires direct

17 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 17 parent involvement or participation (.73), I send home examples of excellent student work to serve as a model (.49), For students who are having academic problems, I provide parents with specific activities they can do to improve their student s performance (.75), When I contact parents and ask for a face-to-face meeting, they agree and attend (.46), and For students whose academic performance improves, I send messages home to parents (.67). The mediating variable in the third model is whether having positive relations with parents in this school was one of the three most important factors. School size is the total number of students in the school, as reported by the principal questionnaire. The mediating variable in the third model is whether working in a small school was one of the three most important factors. Salary is a categorical variable indicating the teacher s total academic year salary from the school system, including any additional compensation for extracurricular or additional activities, merit pay bonus, state supplement, and other school sources. The lowest category is Less than $15,000. The categories increment by $5,000 until $49,999, at which they increment by $10,000. The highest category is $80,000 or more. The mediating variable in the third model is whether having a high salary was one of the three most important factors. Differing teaching strategies is a measure of the teacher s overall perception of how different their school s teaching methods are from the typical teaching methods at most schools in the area. The mediating variable in the third model is whether using innovative instructional strategies was one of the three most important factors.

18 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 18 Findings Table 2 shows the means for various teacher qualifications and working conditions across charter, magnet, private, and traditional public schools. There are noticeable differences in the qualifications of teachers across school types, with charter and private school teachers having fewer qualifications than their peers in traditional public schools. Charter and private school teachers are less likely than traditional public school teachers to have advanced degrees and full certification and come from less selective colleges. Charter school teachers also have fewer years of experience than teachers in other school types. Magnet school teachers, in contrast, have higher qualifications than traditional public school teachers. Magnet school teachers come from more selective colleges, are more likely to have advanced degrees, and have more experience than their peers in non-magnet public schools. Teachers working conditions also vary by school type. Private and charter school teachers generally report more positive working conditions but lower salaries. Private and charter school teachers report a higher sense of professional learning community, more frequent contact with parents, and use of more innovative teaching strategies. Private school teachers also report greater influence over schoolwide decisions. Magnet school teachers report more similar working conditions to traditional public school teachers, although they do report more frequent contact with parents and more innovative teaching strategies. Traditional public school teachers report higher salaries than teachers in magnet, charter, and private schools, although the difference between magnet and non-magnet public schools is small. Private school teachers report the lowest salaries.

19 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 19 There are also differences in the amount of choice teachers in different school types had in working at their school and the most important factors they chose their school, especially for charter school teachers (see Table 3). While all teachers made some choice to work in their school over options such as non-teaching jobs or leaving the workforce, some teachers may accept jobs because it is the only teaching job offered to them rather than because they want to work in that school. Also, public school districts may have teacher assignment or hiring policies that give teachers, especially new teachers, little choice about where they work. Almost twothirds of traditional public school teachers said they chose to work in their school and one-third indicated either they took that job as it was the only one available or were assigned to the school. Magnet school teachers were more likely to make an active choice to work in their school and less likely to say they were assigned to the school. While magnet schools may still be subject to districts teacher assignment policies, their status in the district may mean that few teachers actually work in them due to an undesired assignment. Private and charter school teachers were less likely to say they were assigned to their school, which is not surprising as they hire teachers outside of the public district hiring procedures. Charter school teachers were less likely to say they chose to work in their school over other schools and more likely to say this was the only job available to them. Over 40% of charter school teachers are working in their schools because it was the only job available to them. This may indicate that charter schools are hiring teachers unable to obtain jobs in other types of schools. Among teachers who chose to work in their schools, there were differences in how teachers made those choices, particularly for charter school teachers. Charter school teachers were more likely than traditional public school teachers to name being able to teach without

20 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 20 certification, agreeing with the school mission, being involved in school governance, and influencing school policies as one of the most important reasons for choosing their school. In comparison, charter school teachers were less likely to say that being supported by their principal was one of the most important reasons they chose their school. Magnet school teachers were more likely to care about agreeing with the school mission and using innovative instructional strategies. Private school teachers were more likely to report agreeing with the school mission and having positive relations with parents were among their top criteria and less likely to use having a high salary as a top criterion. Table 4 presents the results of three multilevel regression models predicting their qualifications. The first column shows the school type dummy variables for differences in these qualifications once school demographic characteristics are controlled. As charter schools serve more Black and FRL students, the fewer qualifications of charter school teachers may be due to poor matching in our sample rather than real differences between school types. Yet controlling for differences in the student composition of schools of choice, charter and private school teachers are still less likely to have full certification and advanced degrees and charter school teachers have less experience. However, once student demographics are controlled, charter school teachers graduated from colleges with similar selectivity ratings as traditional public school teachers and private school teachers went to colleges that were slightly less competitive. The second column includes the first set of mediators about the amount of choice teachers had in working at their school. The third column includes only those teachers who chose to work at their school and includes the mediator whether the teacher indicated being able to teach with certification as one of the most important factors in their decision. Consistent with the first

21 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 21 hypothesis, having a limited amount of choice in where they worked was associated with lower qualifications. Teachers who accepted their job because it was the only option available to them were more likely to have less than full certification, less likely to have an advanced degree, and have fewer years of experience. A notable exception is that having limited choice in where to work was not associated with teachers college selectivity. Yet being assigned to a school was not associated with lower qualifications. Indeed, teachers who were assigned to their school had more years of experience, perhaps due to the fact that many districts assignment policies use seniority to make assignments. Among teachers who did have a choice, the most important reasons for choosing their were related to their qualifications. Not surprisingly, teachers who chose their school to be able to work without certification were more likely to lack full certification. This supports the second hypothesis about the relationship between job choice and teacher qualifications. Despite the importance of amount of choice and reason for choice in explaining teacher qualifications, charter and private schools are still more likely to have teachers that are not fully certified and lack advanced degrees. Charter school teachers also still have less experience and magnet school teachers have more experience. Indeed, the addition of the mediating variables generally does not reduce the coefficients for the school type dummies. This suggests that the qualification differences of teachers across school types are influenced by other factors as well, such as how schools are making hiring decisions. Table 5 shows the results with the various working conditions as dependent variables. The first column provides evidence that even when controlling for student demographic differences, there are observed differences in teacher working conditions across school types,

22 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 22 especially for charter schools. Charter school teachers report a greater sense of a professional learning community, more influence over schoolwide policies, more innovative teaching strategies, but lower salaries than traditional public school teachers. Magnet and private school teachers also report lower salaries and more innovative teaching strategies than traditional public school teachers. The coefficient of school type on salary is smaller is smallest in magnet schools and largest for private schools, although all three types of schools have teachers with lower salaries than traditional public school teachers. Despite private school teachers greater preference for having positive relations with parents, once student demographics were controlled, private school teachers reported less frequent contact with parents. The second column includes the mediators for amount of choice. Similar to the findings for teacher qualifications, having limited choice in where to work was associated with reduced working conditions. For all working conditions, teachers who are working in that school because it was the only job available to them reported worse conditions. In contrast to the findings for qualifications, being assigned to a school was also generally associated with worse conditions. Teachers who were assigned to their school reported a lower level of professional learning community, less principal leadership, less influence over schoolwide policies, and less frequent contact with parents. This provides evidence in support of hypothesis 1. The third column includes mediators for the reasons behind teachers choices for the subset of teachers who indicated they did have a choice in where they worked. Consistent with hypothesis 2, teachers preferences for where to work were related to the working conditions in the schools they chose. Teachers who strongly preferred working in a school where they shared the school mission and had likeminded colleagues reported higher levels of professional learning

23 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 23 community. Teachers who strongly preferred working in a school with a supportive principal reported more principal leadership. Teachers who strongly preferred having influence over school policies worked in schools where teachers had more influence. Teachers who strongly preferred having positive relations with their students parents reported more frequent contact with parents. Teachers who strongly preferred having a high salary did have a higher salary. Finally, teachers who strongly preferred working in a school with innovative instructional strategies reported being in a school with more innovative teaching strategies. Although it is not clear that these conditions were in place at the time teachers were first hired at the school, this does provide some evidence that teachers preferences are related to where they actually work and perhaps indicates teachers are able to identify schools that match those preferences. One limitation of this approach is that the working conditions are measured for the current school year and not the conditions when the teacher was hired. Thus it s not clear if these conditions were present at the time teachers were making their choices or they developed subsequently to the teacher entering the school, possibly because the teacher cared about these school conditions. For example, teachers who want to have influence over schoolwide decisions may exert their influence once they are in a school regardless of whether the in-school conditions facilitate teachers involvement in governance or decision-making. For this reason, the sample was limited to only teachers who have been in the school for three or fewer years to make more appropriate comparisons of the school conditions at the time teachers were hired at the school. It should also be noted that with the exception of salary and contact with parents, the working conditions measured here use the whole school as a reference, not just the individual teacher.

24 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 24 Table 5 also presents the results when the sample is limited to only teachers who are new to the school. In general, the charter, private, and magnet school coefficients are smaller when the sample is restricted to new teachers to the school, although the pattern of statistical significance is similar to the whole sample. The exceptions are the model for teacher influence, where the coefficient for charter schools is no longer statistically significant, and the model for different teaching strategies, where the coefficient for private schools is slightly higher. Also the coefficients for the amount of choice mediating variables the only school available and being assigned to the school are larger when the sample is restricted, suggesting that the effects of limited choice are stronger when the working conditions are measured closer to when the teacher first started working at the school. The reasons for choice mediators are still associated with more positive working conditions, although the size of the coefficients do differ slightly from the full sample. Conclusions This paper provides evidence of substantial differences between teachers in schools of choice particularly charter school teachers and traditional public schools in their qualifications and working conditions. Charter and private school teachers are less qualified than their peers in traditional public schools and magnet school teachers are somewhat more experienced. While most of these differences are consistent with previous research on teachers in schools of choice, the findings presented here conflict with other work in that teachers in private and charter schools did not come from more selective colleges than their traditional public school counterparts (Baker & Dickerson, 2006; Cannata, 2008b). This difference may be due to the convenience sample used here and the resulting clustering of teachers in particular geographic

25 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 25 areas with few highly competitive colleges (Baker & Dickerson, 2006). Teachers with limited choice about where to work had fewer qualifications, although the amount or reasons for teachers job choices did not explain the differences for school type. Thus it is likely that other conditions in charter and private schools contribute to their lower qualifications. As teacher qualifications do not always indicate teacher quality, it may be that charter and private school teachers use characteristics other than those included when hiring teachers. There were also differences in teacher working conditions across school types, with charter school teachers again having more different experiences and schools of choice offering more appealing working conditions in general. Consistent with the findings for teacher qualifications and the hypotheses, teachers amount of choice and reasons for their job choices were related to their working conditions in expected ways. The importance of teachers decisions in explaining differences between teachers in schools of choice and traditional public schools is supported by the evidence that teachers in schools of choice particularly charter schools used different criteria when deciding where to teach. Yet teachers choices did not explain all the differences between school types. There are likely other differences between schools of choice and traditional public schools than just the types of teachers who choose them. Further, given the lack of information available to teachers on the job search (Liu & Johnson, 2006) and their use of unstated preferences when making job search decisions (Cannata, in press), it is not expected that their job choices do not completely mediate the differences of school type on working conditions. Not all working conditions were more enticing, however. Charter and magnet school teachers had lower salaries. There were no differences in teachers perception of the leadership

26 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 26 exhibited by their principal or school head. Also, once school demographics were controlled, charter and magnet school teachers had similar amounts of contact with parents as traditional public school teachers and private school teachers had less contact with parents despite having a stronger preference for positive relations with parents. Future research should explore if principals leadership behavior is similar across school types or if teachers in schools of choice expect different forms of leadership from their principals. Finally, the findings about working conditions and qualifications present a paradox. Charter and private schools offer more appealing working conditions yet had lower qualified teachers, although one would expect schools with appealing working conditions to be able to hire the most qualified teachers. One explanation for this paradox is that teachers do strongly care about salary even if this is not reflected in their stated preferences and the low salaries in charter and private schools dissuade many qualified teachers despite their enticing work environments (Brewer, 1996; Dolton & van der Klaauw, 1999; Murnane & Olsen, 1990; Stinebrickner, 2001). Another explanation is that schools outside of traditional public school districts are overlooked in teachers job searches and that social and institutional barriers limit the extent to which teachers identify openings in charter and private schools (Cannata, 2008a).

27 Teacher Working Conditions and Qualifications 27 References Baker, B. D., & Dickerson, J. L. (2006). Charter Schools, Teacher Labor Market Deregulation and Teacher Quality: Evidence from the Schools and Staffing Survey. Educational Policy, 20(5), Bauch, P. A., & Goldring, E. (1996). Parent involvement and teacher decision making in urban high schools of choice. Urban Education, 31(4), Betts, J. R., Hill, P. T., & The Charter School Achievement Consensus Panel. (2006). Key Issues in Studying Charter Schools and Achievement: A Review and Suggestions for National Guidelines (No. NCSRP White Paper Series, No. 2). Seattle, WA: National Charter School Research Project, Center on Reinventing Public Education. Bomotti, S., Ginsberg, R., & Cobb, B. (1999). Teachers in charter schools and traditional schools: A comparative study. Education policy analysis archives, 7(22), html://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v7n22.html Retrieved October Boyd, D., Lankford, H., Loeb, S., & Wyckoff, J. (2006). Analyzing the determinants of the matching of public school teachers to jobs: Estimating compensating differentials in imperfect labor markets. Unpublished manuscript. Brewer, D. J. (1996). Career paths and quit decisions: Evidence from teaching. Journal of Labor Economics, 14(2), Buddin, R., & Zimmer, R. (2005). Student achievement in charter schools: A complex picture. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 24(2), Burian-Fitzgerald, M., Luekens, M. T., & Strizek, G. A. (2004). Less red tape or more green teachers: Charter school autonomy and teacher qualifications. In K. E. Bulkley & P.