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We used longitudinal data on high school students in Washington State to assess the relationships between English Language Arts (ELA) teacher qualifications and the high school and postsecondary outcomes of their students, and whether these relationships differed for students with and without disabilities. We found that students assigned to 10th-grade ELA teachers with higher value added had better test scores, were more likely to graduate on-time, and were more likely to attend and graduate from a 4-year college than observably similar students assigned to 10th-grade ELA teachers with lower value added. We also found that many of these relationships varied for students with and without disabilities, as 10th grade ELA teacher value added was more positively predictive of on-time graduation and 4-year college attendance for students without disabilities, but more positively predictive of 2-year college attendance and employment within 2 years of graduation for students with disabilities.

We used longitudinal data from Washington State to investigate the relationships among career and technical education (CTE) enrollment, inclusion in general education, and high school and postsecondary outcomes for students with learning disabilities. We replicated earlier findings that students with learning disabilities who were enrolled in a "concentration" of CTE courses had higher rates of employment after graduation than observably similar students with learning disabilities who were enrolled in fewer CTE courses. We also found that students with learning disabilities who spent more time in general education classrooms in high school had higher rates of on-time graduation, college attendance, and employment than observably similar students with learning disabilities who spent less time in general education classrooms in these grades.

Although most public-school teachers have undergraduate degrees, only 68% to 76% possess at least a bachelor's degree in their area. Do advanced degrees enhance teacher productivity? A recent study of 8th- and 10th-graders' math and science achievement suggest that only advanced degrees specific to the subjects taught should be rewarded. (12 references) (MLH)

To evaluate whether Catholic high school attendance, relative to public high school attendance, affects the quality of four-year college that students attend.We use quantile regression, which allows the relationship between Catholic high school attendance and college quality to vary along the conditional college quality distribution.We find the relationship between Catholic high school attendance and college quality is larger and more significant at the top half of the conditional college quality distribution than at the bottom half.An understanding of the potential benefits of Catholic schooling is essential to an informed debate about school-choice programs such as educational vouchers. One potential benefit associated with Catholic schooling is matriculation at more selective colleges and universities. We find some evidence that such a benefit exists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In "Does Teacher Certification Matter? Evaluating the Evidence" (appearing in this issue of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis), Linda Darling-Hammond, Barnett Berry, and Amy Thoreson, comment on our earlier piece, "Does Teacher Certification Matter? High School Thacher Certification Status and Student Achievement" (Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Summer 2000). Unfortunately, the Darling-Hammond et at. piece does not accurately portray our original article, which is one of the first studies of the effects of teacher certification on student achievement that uses a national student level dataset in a multivariate framework. Here we discuss the portrayal of our paper, and argue that there are important policy questions about certification, and the teacher labor market in general, that ought to be addressed by researchers in a dispassionate way that focuses on rigorous, high quality empirical findings. As yet we do not believe there is enough information to draw strong conclusions about the impacts of certification on the teacher applicant pool or about the overall level of quality of the teacher workforce. Thus, it is important to ask questions about these issues so that research can be used to guide the development of sound public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We empirically test how 12th-grade students of teachers with probationary certification, emergency certification, private school certification, or no certification in their subject area compare relative to students of teachers who have standard certification in their subject area. We also determine whether specific state-by-state differences in teacher licensure requirements systematically affect student achievement. In mathematics, we find teachers who have a standard certification have a statistically significant positive impact on student test scores relative to teachers who either hold private school certification or are not certified in their subject area. Contrary to conventional wisdom mathematics and science students who have teachers with emergency credentials do no worse than students whose teachers have standard teaching credentials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]