Andrew Camp

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, and a feature article word limit is 5,000 words, then 5 figures = 1 paper.

Neat guidance for making them good looking figures ⬇️

Trust me, you will find more uses for that torch (creme brulee, lighting candles, etc.)

Lots of good stuff here!

Is there an alumni group for IES-funded PhD’s?

IES supposedly funded over 1000 PhDs, of which I am apparently one of the last. With the training grants dying, it’d be great to have a formal alumni network where we could share jobs, grant opportunities, etc.

"in this paper, we estimate returns to researcher productivity from generative AI by exploiting exogenous variation in service uptime and submission deadlines"

Love to see this type of replication and iterative process

Someone needs to build a skill that is "don't cater to economists"

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...

Check out our new paper investigating teacher retention effects of a statewide minimum salary increase. 🚨Spoiler alert 🚨: paying teachers more increased retention👇

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

I still remember a report/story from when I lived in Omaha that the city was ~50 years behind schedule on road maintenance and was reverting to gravel roads in some neighborhoods.

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.

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.

The LEARNS salary increases also had two unique features that are informative for policy: they were a highly progressive reform in that most $s went to the least affluent districts AND they almost eliminated pay differentials between districts, a long standing source of inequality in T labor markets

But there are also real reasons we might prefer flat schedules as a policy design. Front loading compensation might attract more people to teaching and many raise policies end up giving the largest increases to veteran teachers by imposing a flat percent increase.

At the time, critics warned that this compression would lead to turnover. Even though every teacher in the state got a raise of $2000-$14000, the perception from some was that it was unfair to compensate veteran and beginning teachers similarly.

We study the effects of a new minimum salary of $50,000 (up from $36,000) imposed and funded by the Arkansas LEARNS Act over 3 years.

It's hard to communicate how big a shift this bill made to teacher compensation. Many districts moved away from rigid salary schedules and towards "flat" salaries.

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

The cat has spoken. Who are you to disagree?

This is Wiley. He has never seen snow before and wants to make sure he gets a real good look at it. For science. 12/10 (IG: smileywileydog)

Looking forward to playing this game but worried I won't make it past the reviewer #2 boss battle

Pupdate

Shouldn't you be hoping nobody is? I guess it depends on the counterfactual...

Those photos are from about 7" ago.

Once the storm lets up I'm going to start shoveling a path to the airport so I don't miss the @caldercenter.bsky.social conference!

I think I'll be staying home for the next few days...

Easily one of the best things I've read on substack.