Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

We examine the impact of a mid-career teacher leadership program on student achievement and teacher retention.  Our data includes application information on candidates to a teacher leader program that is linked to information about the teachers they mentor and administrative data on students and teachers in two states where the program operated from 2010-2014. Our methods include both a comparison of performance between comparable samples of potential teacher leaders, and a comparison of performance across a sample of schools with active teacher leaders prior and subsequent to their participation in the program. Because leader development efforts may influence teacher leaders, mentee teachers, and school-wide peers, we examine achievement outcomes across students taught by all three populations.  The preliminary evidence indicates a positive and statistically significant effect of the program on student achievement for teacher leaders and mentee teachers, and suggestive evidence that the program is associated with increased same-school and high poverty school retention.