FAYETTEVILLE — Principals hiring effective teachers and then placing those teachers in proper positions can build a developed staff.
That was the message from Susanna Loeb, a professor of education at Stanford University, during a lecture to area educators at the University of Arkansas on Friday.
Loeb presented research on teacher recruitment, development and retention data.
“Instruction is affected by who you have in the school and how they are assigned,” Loeb said.
Loeb’s project comes from collecting data on administrative files on all staff and students in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools.
Student test scores and demographics were taken into account when compiling the data. Loeb said higher-valued teachers are less likely to leave a school operating well. She also showed there is a correlation between effective schools and teacher improvement. Teachers showed an improvement in teaching math when a part of high-performing staff.
Loeb also said schools that placed novice teachers with higher-achieving students performed better than schools that place novice teachers with under-achieving students.
Gary Compton, Bentonville School District superintendent, attended the lecture and said he found the research regarding the assignment of teachers interesting.
Robert Maranto, 21st century chairman in Leadership for the University of Arkansas Department of Education Reform, said he also found Loeb’s research helpful.
“Traditionally, we have assumed that a teacher is a teacher, is a teacher, is a teacher,” Maranto said. “We have essentially assigned teachers to principals.”
Maranto said many times central offices in school districts hire teachers but the study showed principals may be better suited to hire.
“They are the ones in the game,” Maranto said. “They know more about the schools.”