IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecoedu/v74y2020ics0272775718305028.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Restricting seniority as a factor in public school district layoffs: Analyzing the impact of state legislation on graduation rates

Author

Listed:
  • Dabbs, Christine M.

Abstract

Following the Great Recession, employment in the U.S. local education sector fell by about 364,000. I analyze whether state legislation that prohibits or limits the use of seniority in layoff decisions has an impact on public high school graduation rates. I find that over a ten-year time span, all else held constant, such legislation on average increases the yearly growth of district graduation rates by about 0.3 percentage points. This is economically significant, as the average yearly increase in the national graduation rate from 2010–11 to 2015–16 was 1 percentage point. When states prohibit or limit using seniority to determine a layoff order, districts must utilize other considerations such as teacher quality. In states with this legislation, teachers remaining following layoffs may be more effective than when states use seniority to determine the layoff order.

Suggested Citation

  • Dabbs, Christine M., 2020. "Restricting seniority as a factor in public school district layoffs: Analyzing the impact of state legislation on graduation rates," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:74:y:2020:i:c:s0272775718305028
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2019.101926
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775718305028
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econedurev.2019.101926?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard J. Murnane, 2013. "U.S. High School Graduation Rates: Patterns and Explanations," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 51(2), pages 370-422, June.
    2. repec:tpr:journl:edfpol:v:10:y:2015:i:4:p:467-507 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Jesse Rothstein, 2015. "Teacher Quality Policy When Supply Matters," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(1), pages 100-130, January.
    4. James J. Heckman & Paul A. LaFontaine, 2010. "The American High School Graduation Rate: Trends and Levels," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(2), pages 244-262, May.
    5. Raj Chetty & John N. Friedman & Jonah E. Rockoff, 2014. "Measuring the Impacts of Teachers II: Teacher Value-Added and Student Outcomes in Adulthood," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(9), pages 2633-2679, September.
    6. Matthew A. Kraft, 2015. "Teacher Layoffs, Teacher Quality, and Student Achievement: Evidence from a Discretionary Layoff Policy," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 10(4), pages 467-507, October.
    7. Anton Bekkerman & Gregory Gilpin, 2011. "Cost-Effective Hiring in U.S. High Schools: Estimating Optimal Teacher Quantity and Quality Decisions," Caepr Working Papers 2011-007, Center for Applied Economics and Policy Research, Economics Department, Indiana University Bloomington.
    8. Donald Boyd & Hamilton Lankford & Susanna Loeb & James Wyckoff, 2011. "Teacher Layoffs: An Empirical Illustration of Seniority versus Measures of Effectiveness," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 6(3), pages 439-454, July.
    9. Gregory A. Gilpin & Anton Bekkerman, 2012. "Cost-effective hiring in US high schools: estimating optimal teacher quantity and quality decisions," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(14), pages 1421-1424, September.
    10. Eric A. Hanushek & Steven G. Rivkin, 2012. "The Distribution of Teacher Quality and Implications for Policy," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 4(1), pages 131-157, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dabbs, Christine, 2018. "Restricting seniority as a factor in public school district layoffs: Analyzing the impact of state legislation on graduation rates," MPRA Paper 89344, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Cory Koedel & Jiaxi Li & Matthew G. Springer & Li Tan, 2016. "The Impact of Performance Ratings on Job Satisfaction for Public School Teachers," Working Papers 1617, Department of Economics, University of Missouri.
    3. Koedel, Cory & Mihaly, Kata & Rockoff, Jonah E., 2015. "Value-added modeling: A review," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 180-195.
    4. Lucia Rizzica, 2015. "The use of fixed-term contracts and the (adverse) selection of public sector workers," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1041, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    5. Murphy, Richard & Weinhardt, Felix & Wyness, Gill, 2021. "Who teaches the teachers? A RCT of peer-to-peer observation and feedback in 181 schools," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    6. Michael Bates & Michael Dinerstein & Andrew C. Johnston & Isaac Sorkin, 2022. "Teacher Labor Market Equilibrium and Student Achievement," CESifo Working Paper Series 9551, CESifo.
    7. Carneiro, Pedro & Cruz Aguayo, Yyannu & Salvati, Francesca & Schady, Norbert, 2023. "The Effect of Classroom Rank on Learning throughout Elementary School: Experimental Evidence from Ecuador," IZA Discussion Papers 16384, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Patrizio Pagano & Massimo Sbracia, 2014. "The secular stagnation hypothesis: a review of the debate and some insights," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 231, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    9. Steven Bednar & Dora Gicheva, 2019. "Workplace Support and Diversity in the Market for Public School Teachers," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 14(2), pages 272-297, Spring.
    10. Carolyn J. Heinrich & Huiping Cheng, 2022. "Does Online Credit Recovery in High School Support or Stymie Later Labor Market Success?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(4), pages 984-1011, September.
    11. Dhushyanth Raju, 2017. "Public School Teacher Management in Sri Lanka," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 18(1), pages 39-63, March.
    12. Simon Burgess, 2019. "Understanding teacher effectiveness to raise pupil attainment," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 465-465, December.
    13. Gibbons, Stephen & Scrutinio, Vincenzo & Telhaj, Shqiponja, 2021. "Teacher turnover: Effects, mechanisms and organisational responses," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    14. M. Caridad Araujo & Pedro Carneiro & Yyannú Cruz-Aguayo & Norbert Schady, 2016. "Teacher Quality and Learning Outcomes in Kindergarten," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(3), pages 1415-1453.
    15. Rita Ginja & Julie Riise & Barton Willage & Alexander L.P. Willén, 2022. "Does Your Doctor Matter? Doctor Quality and Patient Outcomes," CESifo Working Paper Series 9788, CESifo.
    16. Gregory Elacqua & Diana Hincapie & Isabel Hincapie & Veronica Montalva, 2022. "Can Financial Incentives Help Disadvantaged Schools to Attract and Retain High‐Performing Teachers? Evidence from Chile," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(2), pages 603-631, March.
    17. Arlen Guarín & Carlos Medina & Christian Posso, 2018. "Calidad, cobertura y costo ocultos de la educación secundaria pública y privada en Colombia," Revista Desarrollo y Sociedad, Universidad de los Andes,Facultad de Economía, CEDE, vol. 81(2), August.
    18. Azam, Mehtabul & Kingdon, Geeta Gandhi, 2015. "Assessing teacher quality in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 74-83.
    19. Hanushek, Eric A. & Rivkin, Steven G. & Schiman, Jeffrey C., 2016. "Dynamic effects of teacher turnover on the quality of instruction," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 132-148.
    20. Eric A. Hanushek & Marc Piopiunik & Simon Wiederhold, 2019. "The Value of Smarter Teachers: International Evidence on Teacher Cognitive Skills and Student Performance," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 54(4), pages 857-899.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Efficiency; Human capital; Layoffs; Seniority; Rate of return; State legislation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:74:y:2020:i:c:s0272775718305028. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/econedurev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.