Working from a subset of data from the TN-VPK study, Peabody researchers Walker Swain and Matthew Springer found a direct relationship between high-quality first-grade teachers and sustained positive outcomes for pre-K students.
Previous research suggests that top-performing teachers serving low-income students generate three times more academic growth per year than poorly performing teachers. Springer and Swain’s study explored this phenomenon more deeply, discovering that when students who had attended preschool were matched with a teacher who had been given a high rating from state-mandated teacher evaluations, they surpassed their nonpre-K peers in academic achievement. The results were published in AERA Open.
“The best teachers maintain the preschool effect better for the most disadvantaged students,” said Swain, an advanced doctoral student at Peabody and lead author on the study. “Another way to look at it is that the experience of preschool helps the most disadvantaged students benefit the most from the highest rated teachers. We found that effect was particularly important for students who had the lowest cognitive baseline skills and for students who were designated as English language learners, which would be consistent with the theory that preschool provides some sort of scaffolding of knowledge.”
Unfortunately, the reverse also was true. The study showed that students who had attended pre-K and were matched with poorly rated teachers in first grade experienced a flatlining of learning faster than their nonpre-K classmates.
“The best teachers maintain the preschool effect better for the most disadvantaged students.”
—Walker Swain
Perhaps, the researchers hypothesize, good teachers can adapt to individual students’ academic needs, keeping them on an upward trajectory and enthusiastic about school. On the other hand, less-adept teachers may instead focus on redundant instruction and on helping struggling students catch up to a class baseline.
Springer, assistant professor of public policy and education, is concerned that superior teachers tend to exit low-income schools. These schools often shift their best teachers into upper grades where high-stakes assessments become important and move less-competent teachers to the lower grades.
He led a research project that examined whether a retention bonus could provide an incentive for excellent teachers to return to high-poverty schools. Teachers who achieved Level 5 status (the highest rating) received a $5,000 bonus on returning to that school the following year.
“We found the bonus had a significant impact on retaining highly effective teachers,” he said. “It’s not the only way, but it’s one potential solution that should be considered.”