Gema Zamarro

Good morning from the #naturalstate 😍

Sunday plans ❤️ 📚

“Here’s to strong women. May we know them. May we be them. May we raise them.” #internationalwomensday

Not sure how, but this is happening. Almost 15 years ago I became a mom. Let the birthday celebrations begin! 🥳

❤️

Thank you! 😊

Great evening celebrating our outstanding alumni 👏👏👏

Raise the Floor on Teacher Salaries It could boost recruitment, retention, and academic performance

Thank you @chadaldeman.bsky.social fir the interesting post featuring our work evaluating the salary changes under the LEARNS Act nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

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Data Visualization A Practical Introduction

Here’s a full draft of the upcoming second edition of my “Data Visualization: A Practical Introduction”: socviz.co

Here is the link to our report last year on Teacher Wellbeing and job satisfaction in Arkansas. Stay tuned because we are about to release this year's report: edre.uark.edu/_resources/p...

A State-by-State Breakdown of Teacher Job Satisfaction in 2026 See the states that have the highest and lowest morale—and factors that might be shaping those numbers.

Interesting @edweek.org article on teacher job satisfaction across states. "Teacher morale varies widely from state to state, with educators in Arkansas having the highest level of job satisfaction." Results align well with our Teacher Wellbeing Survey results in AR! www.edweek.org/the-state-of...

What the fadeout effect means for testing, accountability, and school choice | Episode 1008 of The Education Gadfly Show

Loved this convo about the potential reasons for fade out and how to reconcile test fade out, e.g., of teacher effects, with better later life outcomes associated with interventions/having better teachers.

I think it's got to be some combo of ...

1/n

fordhaminstitute.org/national/res...

Thank you @caldercenter.bsky.social for a great day of insightful presentations and discussion at #CALDER2026. If you missed it you can check some of the papers presented and follow the work at the CALDER Recruitment and Retention Center web 👇

@aefpweb.bsky.social is in great hands 👏👏👏

Yup

Looking forward to presenting and discussing these results at #CALDER2026 next Monday 3/2. Hope to see many of you there!
Register:🔗 bit.ly/3ZSd5Qw

Our results underscore both the promise and the limitations of minimum salary policies as a tool for strengthening the teacher workforce. Only larger raises produced meaningful retention effects, and even those effects may diminish without continued investment.

Notably retention effects are the result of lower rates of teacher exit from the workforce, retirements, and moves outside district. Importantly, results are more concentrated on those receiving larger salary raises, of more than $6,000.

Using a triple-DiD identification strategy, we find a 2pp increase in retention overall in the first three years of LEARNS implementation

The AR LEARNS Act established a new teacher minimum salary of $50,000 (up from $36,000) with new funding from the state, representing a massive shift in teacher compensation

Check out our new @caldercenter.bsky.social working paper studying the effects of AR LEARNS teacher base salary raises on retention caldercenter.org/publications...

Small acts of kindness that can make someone’s day ❤️

So what?

We show that raises targeted at higher poverty districts that increase wages for beg teachers can have real impacts on tchr retention. Teacher pay reforms need not occur within salary schedules.

States should look to the AR example in crafting policies aimed at boosting teacher retention.

Can’t wait to present and discuss our new results 👇

Event study figure showing large increase in teacher retention concentrated in the first year of LEARNS

Primary results of paper, described in body of post

What do we find?

Using a clever triple-DiD identification strategy, we estimate a 2pp increase in retention with the greatest increases among teachers receiving the largest raises.

This occurs because teachers receiving raises are less likely to move districts, exit the workforce, or retire.

Title page for "Raising the Floor: Teacher Retention Effects of a Statewide Minimum Salary Increase"

Histograms showing the increase in teacher salaries for beginning teachers and teachers with 5 years of experience. These figures show a large increase in salaries while also showing substantial compression, indicating that pay differentials between districts shrunk.

What happens when you shrink salary differences between districts, increase beginning teacher pay by over $10,000, and compress salary schedules?

@gzamarro.bsky.social, @jbmcgee.bsky.social, @taylornwilson.bsky.social, Miranda Vernon, and I find out in our new CALDER working paper: bit.ly/4l4b5hO

Schools are hiring as enrollment falls. Is that a problem — or a choice? Enrollment is down, staffing is up — and some call it “unsustainable.” The real story is messier: Budgets may be able to hold, but the trade-offs are real.

Schools are adding adults even as they lose students. Is that a problem www.chalkbeat.org/2026/02/24/p...

To put it a little more bluntly: I think some people are *hoping* it's unsustainable because they, like me, are worried it might be a problem.

@jbmcgee.bsky.social

So glad to be part of these efforts 👇