Involuntary Teacher Transfers Places Better Teachers Into Needy Schools: Increases School Equity

From "Involuntary teacher transfers put better teachers with neediest students" on ScienceBlog:

Allowing principals to involuntarily transfer teachers within a district resulted in more productive teachers replacing lower performing teachers in mostly disadvantaged schools, according to a study in Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.

Moving better teachers into needy schools was a positive step toward increasing equity among schools in the district, the researchers concluded. "We want to have good teachers in front of low achieving kids,” said lead author Jason A. Grissom, assistant professor of Leadership, Policy and Organizations at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of education and human development. “Getting effective teachers into those classrooms is one of the best means we have for increasing how much students learn."

The study was conducted in Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the fourth-largest district in the United States. Grissom’s co-authors for the article, "Strategic Involuntary Teacher Transfers and Teacher Performance: Examining Equity and Efficiency," were Susanna Loeb and Nathaniel Nakashima of Stanford University.