Research

Selected Peer-Reviewed Publications

Moyer, A. (2022). Has “who comes back” changed? Teacher reentry 2000-2019. Educational Researcher, 51(8), 544-546.

Studies of early-career teachers in the 1970s-1990s find that one-quarter to one-half of teachers who left the classroom eventually returned and that returning was associated with teachers’ gender and child-rearing responsibilities. However, much has changed in the last forty years. Women are more likely to continue to participate in the labor force after having children, and the teacher labor market has been impacted by federal education policy and the Great Recession. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), I find that only one-fifth of teachers who exited the profession from 2000-2019 returned. This is a substantially lower rate of return compared to similar work using a previous cohort of teachers from NLSY79. Furthermore, I do not find evidence that teacher reentry is associated with gender or child-rearing status. These findings have implications for teacher labor markets, as reentering teachers can expand the pool of experienced teachers.

Moyer, A., & Goldring, E. (2023). Match or mismatch? Assistant principals’ roles and their perceptions of the evaluation system. Educational Administration Quarterly, 59(1), 40-71.

Assistant principals (APs) and principals are often assessed using the same evaluation tools. These evaluation systems tend to stress instructional leadership roles because these roles relate to school improvement and are valued in the principalship. However, assistant principals take on a variety of roles that are assigned by their principals, and research suggests that they spend more time on student discipline and less time on instructional leadership. As a result, assistant principals’ roles and responsibilities may not align with their evaluation standards or systems. The possible mismatch between assistant principals’ roles and how they are evaluated could impact the usefulness of evaluation processes for assistant principals and stymie their career advancement along the pathway to the principalship

We examine the extent to which assistant principals’ time spent in different leadership roles (instructional leadership, student affairs, and school management) is associated with their perceptions of the evaluation system. Using survey data from assistant principals in Tennessee, we find that assistant principals who spend more time on instructional leadership have more positive perceptions of the evaluation system. Perceptions of the evaluation system are also related to previous evaluation scores, the principal–assistant principal relationship, and novice assistant principal status. Our work raises important questions about the potential misalignment between assistant principals’ roles and their evaluations, which has potential implications for assistant principals’ development and career advancement. States and districts might consider if assistant principals’ evaluation systems are well-aligned with assistant principals’ roles and developmental needs

Selected Research Reports

Goldring, E., Rubin, M., Rogers, L., Neumerski, C., Moyer, A., & Cox, A. (2023). Planning and developing leadership pipelines: Approaches, opportunities, and challenges. The Wallace Foundation.