Within‐School Variation in Teacher Quality: The Case of Ninth Grade

Abstract

There is abundant evidence that ninth grade is a critical year for students, particularly those enrolled in large urban school districts. Despite the importance of the freshman year for subsequent academic success, the existence of teacher status systems within schools suggests that ninth graders, who are traditionally viewed by teachers as low‐status clients, will more likely be taught by low‐status teachers: specifically, teachers who are not certified to teach and those who are new to the school. Using a merged teacher‐student data set from a large urban district, we find that ninth graders are disproportionately assigned to uncertified teachers and teachers who are new to the school building and that having higher percentages of these teachers decreases predicted attendance, controlling for other factors. The article concludes with a discussion of strategies for staffing the ninth grade with strong teachers.