How Do Teachers From Alternative Pathways Contribute to the Teaching Workforce in Urban Areas? Evidence From Kansas City

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Adam

Examines how teachers from two alternative preparation programs—Teach for America (TFA) and Kansas City Teacher Residency (KCTR)—affect the urban teacher labor market in and around Kansas City, Missouri. Compares staffing patterns and student demographics across programs versus other teachers, noting higher likelihood of charter and high-need school placements and greater racial/ethnic diversity, particularly for KCTR. Estimates teacher value added to achievement, finding large positive math test-score growth impacts for both programs and smaller positive effects in English language arts.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages20

Reading Time50 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Urban staffing challenges

Alternative teacher preparation programs

Accelerated pathways and labor supply

Teacher residency models

Study design and setting

Kansas City Public Schools and surrounding districts

Findings

School placement patterns and diversity

Value-added impacts on achievement

AERA Open January-December 2021, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 1–20 DOI: 10. 1177/23328584211026952 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)© The Author(s) 2021. [https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero](https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero) How Do Teachers From Alternative Pathways Contribute to the Teaching Workforce in Urban Areas? Evidence From Kansas City Yang An Cory Koedel University of Missouri-Columbia We examine how teachers from two alternative preparation programs—Teach for America (TFA) and Kansas City Teacher Residency (KCTR)—contribute to the teacher labor market in and around Kansas City, Missouri. TFA and KCTR teachers are more likely than other teachers to work in charter schools and, more broadly, in schools with more low-income, low-performing, and underrepresented minority (Black and Hispanic) students. Teachers from both programs are more racially/ethnically diverse than the larger local-area teaching workforce, but only KCTR teachers are more diverse than other teachers in the same districts where they work. We estimate value added to achievement for teachers in both programs compared with nonprogram teachers, with the caveat that our KCTR samplefor this analysis is small. In math, we find large positive impacts of TFA and KCTR teachers on test score growth; in English language arts also, we estimate positive impacts, but they are smaller. Keywords: Teach for America, Kansas City Teacher Residency, urban teacher labor markets, urban schools, urban schools staffing It is well documented that urban school districts have difficulty recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers (Boyd et al., 2005; Boyd et al., 2006; Lankford et al., 2002; Papayet al., 2017). Moreover, accountability policies and improved measures of teaching effectiveness have exacerbated staffing challenges in high-need schools (Bates, 2020; Cullen et al., 2021). Although policy efforts in some states designed to combat these challenges have had some success, teacher recruitment in urban areas remains difficult (Glazermanet al., 2013; Springer et al., 2016; Swain et al., 2019) . Alternative teacher preparation programs (ATPPs) can bea source of labor supply in localized labor markets that face supply-side challenges. Indeed, many ATPPs explicitly build this idea into their mission statements. A well-known example is the national Teach for America (TFA) program, which we study here. Regional programs with similar goals include the New York City Teaching Fellows, Mississippi Teaching Corps, Boston Teacher Residency, and Kansas City Teacher Residency (KCTR; which we also study), among others. Compared with traditional, university-based preparation programs, which remain the predominant pipeline into the teaching profession nationally, some ATPPs provide an accelerated pathway into the classroom. A rationale for these programs is that rigid licensing requirements create barriers to entry that keep qualified teachers out of the classroom. By reducing these barriers, ATPPs can increase the appeal and accessibility of the profession for a broader population of teachers. There are also economic reasons to expect the expanded pool to include more effective teachers. Sass (2015) explores this possibility by studying a variety of ATTPs in Florida, and he finds that programs that require the least education-specific training yield the most effective teachers, as measured by value added to student achievement. From this, he concludes that “any benefits from preservice training are overwhelmed by the adverse selection into programs that require [more training specific to the field of education]”(p. 1) . Other ATPPs are not designed to reduce preparation time relative to traditional programs but rather shift the aspects of training that are emphasized during the preparation period. Teacher residency programs fall into this category. For example, Sol

FAQs

Which alternative teacher preparation programs are analyzed in the study?

The study focuses on Teach for America (TFA) and Kansas City Teacher Residency (KCTR), examining their contributions to the teacher labor market in and around Kansas City, Missouri.

How do TFA and KCTR teachers differ in where they work compared with other teachers?

TFA and KCTR teachers are more likely than other teachers to work in charter schools and in schools with more low-income, low-performing, and underrepresented minority students.

What are the estimated effects of program teachers on student achievement?

The study reports large positive impacts on math test score growth for both TFA and KCTR teachers. In English language arts, it estimates positive impacts as well, but smaller than those in math.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Adam