Grantee: Leading Educators
Study Type: Quasi-Experiment (difference-in-differences)
Principal Investigator: Ariana Audisio, Rebecca Taylor-Perryman, & Tim Tasker – Leading Educators; Matthew P. Steinberg – George Mason University
Project Description: This is a quasi-experimental difference-in-differences study of Leading Educators, a teacher professional development program designed to improve students’ math and English language arts achievement. In the context of this study, the program provided select teacher-leaders with an intensive two-year fellowship that included approximately two weeks of summer professional development, four workshops throughout the school year, and monthly one-on-one coaching sessions. The study sample was comprised of students in grades three through eight from 1,715 schools in the greater New Orleans, LA area, Washington, DC metro area, and the greater Kansas City, MO and KS area. The researchers examined trends in student math and English language arts achievement in the years preceding and following treatment schools’ 2015-17 engagement in the Leading Educators program by comparing student achievement in schools that participated with those that did not; the total study period was from the 2009-10 through the 2018-19 school years.
Key Findings: Relying on quasi-experimental methods, the researchers found that a school’s participation in the fellowship model increased student proficiency rates in math and English language arts on state achievement exams. Further, student achievement benefitted from a more sustained duration of teacher participation in the fellowship model, and the impact on student achievement varied depending on the share of a school’s teachers who participated in the fellowship model and the extent to which teachers independently selected into the fellowship model or were appointed to participate by school leaders.
Study Citation: Audisio, Ariana, Rebecca Taylor-Perryman, Tim Tasker, and Matthew P. Steinberg. (2022). Does Teacher Professional Development Improve Student Learning? Evidence from Leading Educators’ Teacher Fellowship Model. (EdWorkingPaper: 22-597). Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: https://doi.org/10.26300/ah2f-z471.
The Key Findings above were reproduced from the published report and do not necessarily reflect interpretation of Overdeck Family Foundation staff.
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Overdeck Family Foundation focuses exclusively on education, providing funding across four focus areas that encompass the whole child from birth through high school both inside and outside the classroom.