For copy of report, and contact information on authors,
Contact: Vincent Reda (518) 442-3078

The quality of teachers in New York State is much worse in urban areas, where teachers with no prior experience and with less qualifications are an increasing proportion of new hires and where black and Latino students are more likely to have lower quality teachers than typical white or non-poor students.

These are among the findings in a study by two University at Albany faculty and one doctoral student conducted for the New York State Educational Finance Research Consortium and released today. It is titled "The Labor Market for Public School Teachers: A Descriptive Analysis of New York State�s Teacher Workforce."

The study of 30 years of state teaching records by Hamilton Lankford, associate professor of economics, James Wyckoff, associate professor of public administration and policy, and Frank Papa, a UAlbany doctoral student in public administration and policy, details how teachers in New York City and the state�s next four largest urban areas � Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Yonkers � are more likely to lack certification, to have failed certification exams, and to have attended less competitive colleges.

"This pattern is particularly true for New York City, and it has remained stable over the last 15 years," said Wyckoff. The report shows that qualification differences in smaller city regions � such as Albany-Schenectady-Troy � and their suburbs are less dramatic, with the areas of difference being in overall experience and in past failure on certification exams.

The report also states that while salaries for starting teachers in New York City are about 25 percent lower than those for teachers starting careers in the New York suburbs � representing an increasing pay gap since 1990 � salaries of public school teachers in the four other metropolitan areas of the student are equal to or higher than those paid to teachers in nearby suburbs.

Another striking finding is that first-time teachers in New York City are not only far more likely to leave the New York public school system than are teachers from other areas, but they far less likely to then become public school teachers in any other New York public school. Overall, said the report, teachers who leave the school where they began their careers are generally higher quality teachers than those who remain.

The report can be accessed on the Web at www.albany.edu/edfin.

For more University at Albany information, visit our World Wide Web site at https://www.albany.edu.

November 6, 2000