Columbia Prof: Teacher Corps Getting Stronger

JONAH ROCKOFF: A deeper, better Teacher cadre.

Data on the city's Teacher workforce shows substantial gains in experienced educators across the five boroughs, with 5-percent growth since 2004 of Teachers with more than five years of experience, according to an Assistant Professor at Columbia Business School.

Jonah Rockoff analyzed data from the Department of Education and found that the city had 3,700 more Teachers with five to 15 years of experience, and that it had reduced the number of Teachers with less than five years' experience by 1,700. Although he also found that the number of most-experienced Teachers (with 20 or more years under their belts) had decreased, he said that his findings were "good news for New York City."

Greatest Progress Early On

"Most researchers have found little evidence that Teachers improve much on average after five to eight years of experience," he said in an e-mail interview. "The fact that the rise in experience comes among 'mid-career' Teachers and not those at the end of their careers indicates that the rise in the overall average is unlikely to go away anytime soon."

Mr. Rockoff has published several reports analyzing the effect of experience on city Teachers, looking at methods of hiring and length of time served in schools and comparing them to student testing results. He said that "research has demonstrated in a fairly convincing manner that Teachers with little experience, particularly rookie Teachers, are substantially less effective on average than Teachers with five or more years of teaching experience."

Mr. Rockoff credited the rise in Teacher retention to various reforms enacted over the last few years that have made teaching in the city more desirable. Most importantly was the rise in Teacher salary, he noted—with the starting salary rising from $33,186 in 2000 to at least $45,530 in 2008. He said that the general bounce in New York's economy had helped too. "It is probably a more-attractive place for Teachers to live," he surmised.

Move Away From Uncertified

New approaches to hiring have made a significant difference as well, Mr. Rockoff explained. "The city no longer hires uncertified teachers, and now relies mostly on traditionally trained folks coming out of schools of education and the Teaching Fellows program," he said. "The traditional folks have signaled a commitment to teach long term by getting a master's degree; the big question is whether they teach in New York City or somewhere else."

He said that retention among Teaching Fellows, who usually get their master's degree during their first year as a Teacher, was even higher. "I suspect this is because the program's selection process looks for talented individuals who are committed to helping New York City kids," he said.

The final factor Mr. Rockoff noted was the change in seniority rules for hiring, which the United Federation of Teachers agreed on with the DOE and the city in contract negotiations. Some within unions have criticized the new rules, saying that they lead to Principals passing over older Teachers because their salaries are higher.

But Mr. Rockoff posited that it led to schools getting more Teachers at the peak of their career, about five years in, rather than Teachers nearer the end of their career getting priority.

The DOE hires more from the Teaching Fellows program every year. Currently, 8,300 active Teachers hail from the program, about 11 percent of the 78,000-person workforce.