Rockefeller College - University at Albany/Center for Policy Research

Center for Policy Research

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Research Program in Education Policy
Program Director: Jim Wyckoff
Faculty: Don Boyd, Hamp Lankford, Jim Wykoff

Jim Wyckoff

Description:

The Research Program in Education policy is currently involved in a research partnership known as Teacher Policy Research. Teacher Policy Research is collaboration between the University at Albany and Stanford University that examines the behavior of teachers and administrators with the goal of developing policies that will both attract and retain high-quality teachers and leaders, especially in low-performing schools.

Teacher Policy Research consists of researchers from several universities and organizations who share a common interest in conducting research on teaching and teacher education programs with the goal of providing education policy makers with current, useful data to inform their policy decisions. The research is funded by organizations that want to evaluate existing education policies, identify ways to improve those policies, or develop new policies as needed. We have received financial support from the Carnegie Corporation, the City University of New York, The National Science Foundation, the New York State Department of Education, The Spencer Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education.

“ The research will assess the role that pathways into teaching, both traditional and nontraditional… do and can play in both improving the quality of the teacher workforce and equalizing the distribution of highly qualified teachers across urban schools. The attributes of teacher preparation programs cannot be examined in isolation…[t]eacher salaries, teachers’ preferences about schools…and school district hiring practices all can affect teacher career paths and effectiveness. It is especially important to take these labor market characteristics into account when attempting to understand how to improve teaching in difficult-to-staff urban schools.”

Excerpt from Executive Summary, Teacher Pathways Project
www.teacherpolicyresearch.org

Recent Funded Projects

GRANTS:

“Examining Teacher Preparation: An Evaluation of the New York City Teaching Fellows Program” (J. Wyckoff, D. Boyd, H. Lankford, and S. Loeb) New York State Education Department, 2004-06, $76,010

“Symposium on School Finance in New York State,” (J. Wyckoff and David Monk) Regents Research Fund and the Wallace Foundation, 2003-04, $115,000.

“Examining Teacher Preparation: Does the Pathway Make a Difference?” (J. Wyckoff, D. Boyd, P. Grossman, H. Lankford, and S. Loeb)

City University of New York, 2003-04 , $600,000;

The Spencer Foundation, 2003-06, $648,000;

The New York State Education Department, 2003 $73,000;

The Carnegie Corporation, 2003-06, $799,000;

The National Science Foundation, 2004-07, $1,799,000.

“Education Finance Research Consortium,” (J. Wyckoff, D. Monk and L. Stiefel) New York State Education Department, 2003-04, $213,000.

“Identifying the Next Generation of School Leaders" (R. O’Connell and H. Lankford), New York State Education Department, period 2002-2003, $79,543.

“Understanding the Dynamics of Teacher Labor Markets: Attracting and Retaining High Quality Teachers in Low Performing Schools,” (J. Wyckoff, D. Boyd, H. Lankford, and S. Loeb), Office of Educational Research and Improvement, US Department of Education, 2001-2003, $595,227

“Attracting and Retaining High-Quality Teachers in Low-Performing Schools,” (W. Wyckoff , D. Boyd, H. Lankford, and S. Loeb), Smith Richardson Foundation, 2001-2003, $206,348.

“How Can Low-Performing Schools/Districts Attract and Retain High Quality Leaders?” (J. Wyckoff and H. Lankford) RAND Corporation and New York State Education Department, 2001-2002, $132,557.

“Education Finance Research Consortium,” (J. Wyckoff, D. Monk and L. Stiefel) New York State Education Department, 1999-2003, $644,000.

“Supply and Demand for Vocational Education Teachers,” (J. Wyckoff and H. Lankford) RAND Corporation, 1999, $35,000.