I am an assistant professor of educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Missouri – St. Louis. Previously, I served as the Director of Education Policy at the Show-Me Institute. I earned my Ph.D. in education policy from the University of Arkansas. I also hold a bachelor’s degree from Missouri Southern State University and a master’s degree from Missouri State University, both in elementary education. Prior to pursuing my doctorate, I taught first grade and fifth grade in southwest Missouri. My primary research interests are in the areas of school choice and teacher quality. My work has been featured in numerous media outlets, including: Phi Delta Kappan, Social Science Quarterly, Education Economics, Educational Policy, Education Week, The Rural Educator, and The Journal of School Choice.
Milton Friedman is widely considered the intellectual father of
the school choice movement. While... more Milton Friedman is widely considered the intellectual father of the school choice movement. While Friedman deserves much credit, Father Virgil Blum stands out as an influential figure in the nascent school choice movement. Using archival research, this paper examines Blum’s contributions to the movement. From his 1954 doctoral dissertation, which made the legal case for funding religious schools, to his 1958 book, Freedom of Choice in Education, and his decades-long career as a professor, Blum was a tireless advocate for educational freedom. While Friedman made the market argument, Blum made the legal, moral, and religious freedom arguments for school choice.
Journal of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies, 2024
Prior research has identified five in-school factors that impact teacher retention: positive scho... more Prior research has identified five in-school factors that impact teacher retention: positive school culture, supportive administration, strong professional development, mentoring programs, and classroom autonomy. While much of the national attention is focused on state or district-level policies to address the teacher retention crisis, this study focuses on how school leaders can improve teacher retention by addressing the five factors. Semi-structured interviews with school leaders were used to provide examples of how principles can improve school culture and increase teacher retention.
Missouri's current school funding formula was instituted in 2005. The foundation formula determin... more Missouri's current school funding formula was instituted in 2005. The foundation formula determines how much aid a school district will receive from the state by first determining how much aid the district should have to provide an adequate education, as determined by a formula, and then subtracting how much can be raised locally.
The current policy debate about teacher preparation tends to pit two ideas against each other: tr... more The current policy debate about teacher preparation tends to pit two ideas against each other: traditional, college-bound preparation vs. alternative routes. It seems that those of us interested in education policy must choose which strategy we prefer for all K-12 teacher preparation. In our view, however, the whole heated debate isn't particularly productive because teachers and the students they teach are too diverse for a single prescription. In this ongoing argument, some say it is silly that we send teachers into classrooms without the training and certification offered in traditional education schools. Others promote alternative preparation programs, such as Teach For America, in the hopes of attracting a more talented and diverse set of prospective teachers. The fiery rhetoric in this debate can be unproductive, with its actors characterized as either cranky public school critics attempting to deprofessionalize teaching and undermine its institutions, or staunch defenders of the status quo trying to maintain their monopoly on teacher training. We propose that we start with some simple and positive assumptions: Both sides want to recruit and prepare an excellent teaching workforce to serve students well, and both sides have the right strategies to achieve this goal. Traditional teacher preparation is the right strategy, and alternative teacher preparation is the right strategy. Instead of arguing about the superiority of one strategy over the other, consider the following compromise: Continue to support traditional programs as the primary strategy for preparing teachers of elementary students, and encourage alternative programs to develop more teachers of secondary school students. Two camps If possible, we'd do a rigorous study of teacher preparation programs, using random assignment and multiple measures of effectiveness, with the hope of identifying the best practices for training future teachers. Then we'd implement those practices nationwide, mandating that every preparation program do what's been identified as most effective. And, voila, we'd have an improved teacher labor force. That may be a very well-intentioned goal, but let's not hold our breath that it will happen. The recently concluded Measures of Effective Teaching Project (MET), a rigorous study that used random assignment and multiple measures of effectiveness, has taught us at least one thing: Identifying exactly what makes a teacher effective is difficult (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2013). Identifying exactly how to train the best teachers is equally opaque. Broadly speaking, policy makers and education leaders fall into two camps when debating and developing the best policies to attract and train our future teaching workforce. The first camp supports traditional teacher preparation in approved degree programs within colleges of education. In their course of study, teacher candidates learn educational theory, receive pedagogical training, and have practical classroom experience. Those in the traditional camp include other traditionally trained teachers, teacher unions, and professors in colleges of education, among others. The logic is that teaching is a craft that must be developed over time through practice, observation, and induction into the profession. Again speaking very generally, the other camp advocates for a more direct path to the classroom, with a focus on content knowledge. According to this strategy, teachers would typically have a degree in the subject they teach, but they have much less classroom experience. This group prefers alternative programs, such as Teach For America, which seeks highly talented individuals with strong content knowledge, provides a shortened training period, usually six weeks, and then places teachers in classrooms. Programs similar to TFA include the New York City Teaching Fellows Program and The New Teacher Project. …
Most public organizations use both materialistic and idealistic appeals to attract valued employe... more Most public organizations use both materialistic and idealistic appeals to attract valued employees, with the latter being particularly important for difficult jobs. Teaching in high poverty communities is one such job, though none have studied whether successful high poverty schools such as the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) schools make relatively greater use of public service appeals in teacher recruitment. In education, we identify these materialistic and idealistic appeals as teacher‐centered and student‐centered incentives. Teacher‐centered incentives are those that appeal to a teacher's desire for higher compensation or advancement opportunities, whereas student‐centered appeals attempt to attract teachers with a public service mission. Method: We compare the use of teacher‐centered and student‐centered appeals in teacher recruitment by the universe of KIPP networks (n = 33) and neighboring traditional public school districts (n = 34), each serving disadvantaged populations. Coders record personnel website use of four teacher‐centered appeals (including salary and benefits) and four student‐centered appeals. Results: Chi‐square tests show that KIPP schools make less use of teacher‐centered appeals, especially monetary compensation, and more use of student‐centered appeals in teacher recruitment. Conclusion: Supplemented by fieldwork, findings suggest that appeals to mission may work better than merit pay in recruiting effective teachers for high poverty schools.
Sixty-four percent (64%) of respondents indicated they preferred the five-day school week, while ... more Sixty-four percent (64%) of respondents indicated they preferred the five-day school week, while just 24% preferred the four-day school week. • Thirty percent (30%) of respondents indicated they could not provide reliable childcare if their school used a four-day week. These individuals voiced the strongest support for the five-day model, with 84% saying they preferred five days and just 6% choosing four days. • A majority of respondents indicated that they supported expanding educational options for students in four-day school districts. Sixty-nine percent (69%) supported interdistrict choice for students in four-day school districts. Meanwhile, 59% supported offering private school vouchers to students in four-day school districts.
This policy primer explains how state education finance policies provide funding protections for ... more This policy primer explains how state education finance policies provide funding protections for school districts. These are generally thought of as "hold harmless" and "declining enrollment" provisions. The primer provides an assessment of the relative trade-offs of these policies.
Following the Great Recession, public schools in the United States experienced significant financ... more Following the Great Recession, public schools in the United States experienced significant financial pressures. Due to budgetary pressures, school districts had to make difficult decisions in regards to teaching positions and wages. In this paper, we use individual teacher data from Missouri to assess the impact of the great recession on teacher salaries. Adjusting for inflation, we compare two cohorts of teachers over a period of nine years before and after the recession. Our results indicate wages for teachers post-recession are lower than they were for teachers working pre-recession. The difference is greatest when we examine total teacher salary which includes extra duty pay, such as stipends.
Critics of school choice claim support for educational options was an outgrowth of racist, segreg... more Critics of school choice claim support for educational options was an outgrowth of racist, segregationist views following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. In this paper, I examine these claims by analyzing the development of the public school system in the United States and the historical records from Citizens for Educational Freedom. Founded in 1959 in St. Louis, Missouri by Martin and Mae Duggan, CEF was a grassroots school choice organization. The records contain newsletters, text from speeches and national conventions, and personal correspondence, among other relevant materials. The records help us understand the motives and mind-set of the early school choice movement.
In this brief, we examine an important but obscure form of state spending on K–12 education—state... more In this brief, we examine an important but obscure form of state spending on K–12 education—state subsidies of school district pension costs. In 2018, this exceeded $19 billion across 23 states. To put that amount into perspective, 2018 federal spending on Title I programs was $15.8 billion. This revenue stream is often ignored in analyses of state aid for K–12 and its distribution across districts. Until recently, accounting standards did not require pension plans to report these implicit subsidies to the school districts, so they did not typically know the size of their subsidy. In some important cases, it was missing from state totals for education aid. In the first comprehensive tabulation of these data, we show that this subsidy can be as much as $2,400 per pupil, as it is in Connecticut. In Illinois, it comprises an additional 56% of state spending on K–12 on top of all formula and categorical aid.
Milton Friedman is widely considered the intellectual father of
the school choice movement. While... more Milton Friedman is widely considered the intellectual father of the school choice movement. While Friedman deserves much credit, Father Virgil Blum stands out as an influential figure in the nascent school choice movement. Using archival research, this paper examines Blum’s contributions to the movement. From his 1954 doctoral dissertation, which made the legal case for funding religious schools, to his 1958 book, Freedom of Choice in Education, and his decades-long career as a professor, Blum was a tireless advocate for educational freedom. While Friedman made the market argument, Blum made the legal, moral, and religious freedom arguments for school choice.
Journal of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies, 2024
Prior research has identified five in-school factors that impact teacher retention: positive scho... more Prior research has identified five in-school factors that impact teacher retention: positive school culture, supportive administration, strong professional development, mentoring programs, and classroom autonomy. While much of the national attention is focused on state or district-level policies to address the teacher retention crisis, this study focuses on how school leaders can improve teacher retention by addressing the five factors. Semi-structured interviews with school leaders were used to provide examples of how principles can improve school culture and increase teacher retention.
Missouri's current school funding formula was instituted in 2005. The foundation formula determin... more Missouri's current school funding formula was instituted in 2005. The foundation formula determines how much aid a school district will receive from the state by first determining how much aid the district should have to provide an adequate education, as determined by a formula, and then subtracting how much can be raised locally.
The current policy debate about teacher preparation tends to pit two ideas against each other: tr... more The current policy debate about teacher preparation tends to pit two ideas against each other: traditional, college-bound preparation vs. alternative routes. It seems that those of us interested in education policy must choose which strategy we prefer for all K-12 teacher preparation. In our view, however, the whole heated debate isn't particularly productive because teachers and the students they teach are too diverse for a single prescription. In this ongoing argument, some say it is silly that we send teachers into classrooms without the training and certification offered in traditional education schools. Others promote alternative preparation programs, such as Teach For America, in the hopes of attracting a more talented and diverse set of prospective teachers. The fiery rhetoric in this debate can be unproductive, with its actors characterized as either cranky public school critics attempting to deprofessionalize teaching and undermine its institutions, or staunch defenders of the status quo trying to maintain their monopoly on teacher training. We propose that we start with some simple and positive assumptions: Both sides want to recruit and prepare an excellent teaching workforce to serve students well, and both sides have the right strategies to achieve this goal. Traditional teacher preparation is the right strategy, and alternative teacher preparation is the right strategy. Instead of arguing about the superiority of one strategy over the other, consider the following compromise: Continue to support traditional programs as the primary strategy for preparing teachers of elementary students, and encourage alternative programs to develop more teachers of secondary school students. Two camps If possible, we'd do a rigorous study of teacher preparation programs, using random assignment and multiple measures of effectiveness, with the hope of identifying the best practices for training future teachers. Then we'd implement those practices nationwide, mandating that every preparation program do what's been identified as most effective. And, voila, we'd have an improved teacher labor force. That may be a very well-intentioned goal, but let's not hold our breath that it will happen. The recently concluded Measures of Effective Teaching Project (MET), a rigorous study that used random assignment and multiple measures of effectiveness, has taught us at least one thing: Identifying exactly what makes a teacher effective is difficult (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2013). Identifying exactly how to train the best teachers is equally opaque. Broadly speaking, policy makers and education leaders fall into two camps when debating and developing the best policies to attract and train our future teaching workforce. The first camp supports traditional teacher preparation in approved degree programs within colleges of education. In their course of study, teacher candidates learn educational theory, receive pedagogical training, and have practical classroom experience. Those in the traditional camp include other traditionally trained teachers, teacher unions, and professors in colleges of education, among others. The logic is that teaching is a craft that must be developed over time through practice, observation, and induction into the profession. Again speaking very generally, the other camp advocates for a more direct path to the classroom, with a focus on content knowledge. According to this strategy, teachers would typically have a degree in the subject they teach, but they have much less classroom experience. This group prefers alternative programs, such as Teach For America, which seeks highly talented individuals with strong content knowledge, provides a shortened training period, usually six weeks, and then places teachers in classrooms. Programs similar to TFA include the New York City Teaching Fellows Program and The New Teacher Project. …
Most public organizations use both materialistic and idealistic appeals to attract valued employe... more Most public organizations use both materialistic and idealistic appeals to attract valued employees, with the latter being particularly important for difficult jobs. Teaching in high poverty communities is one such job, though none have studied whether successful high poverty schools such as the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) schools make relatively greater use of public service appeals in teacher recruitment. In education, we identify these materialistic and idealistic appeals as teacher‐centered and student‐centered incentives. Teacher‐centered incentives are those that appeal to a teacher's desire for higher compensation or advancement opportunities, whereas student‐centered appeals attempt to attract teachers with a public service mission. Method: We compare the use of teacher‐centered and student‐centered appeals in teacher recruitment by the universe of KIPP networks (n = 33) and neighboring traditional public school districts (n = 34), each serving disadvantaged populations. Coders record personnel website use of four teacher‐centered appeals (including salary and benefits) and four student‐centered appeals. Results: Chi‐square tests show that KIPP schools make less use of teacher‐centered appeals, especially monetary compensation, and more use of student‐centered appeals in teacher recruitment. Conclusion: Supplemented by fieldwork, findings suggest that appeals to mission may work better than merit pay in recruiting effective teachers for high poverty schools.
Sixty-four percent (64%) of respondents indicated they preferred the five-day school week, while ... more Sixty-four percent (64%) of respondents indicated they preferred the five-day school week, while just 24% preferred the four-day school week. • Thirty percent (30%) of respondents indicated they could not provide reliable childcare if their school used a four-day week. These individuals voiced the strongest support for the five-day model, with 84% saying they preferred five days and just 6% choosing four days. • A majority of respondents indicated that they supported expanding educational options for students in four-day school districts. Sixty-nine percent (69%) supported interdistrict choice for students in four-day school districts. Meanwhile, 59% supported offering private school vouchers to students in four-day school districts.
This policy primer explains how state education finance policies provide funding protections for ... more This policy primer explains how state education finance policies provide funding protections for school districts. These are generally thought of as "hold harmless" and "declining enrollment" provisions. The primer provides an assessment of the relative trade-offs of these policies.
Following the Great Recession, public schools in the United States experienced significant financ... more Following the Great Recession, public schools in the United States experienced significant financial pressures. Due to budgetary pressures, school districts had to make difficult decisions in regards to teaching positions and wages. In this paper, we use individual teacher data from Missouri to assess the impact of the great recession on teacher salaries. Adjusting for inflation, we compare two cohorts of teachers over a period of nine years before and after the recession. Our results indicate wages for teachers post-recession are lower than they were for teachers working pre-recession. The difference is greatest when we examine total teacher salary which includes extra duty pay, such as stipends.
Critics of school choice claim support for educational options was an outgrowth of racist, segreg... more Critics of school choice claim support for educational options was an outgrowth of racist, segregationist views following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. In this paper, I examine these claims by analyzing the development of the public school system in the United States and the historical records from Citizens for Educational Freedom. Founded in 1959 in St. Louis, Missouri by Martin and Mae Duggan, CEF was a grassroots school choice organization. The records contain newsletters, text from speeches and national conventions, and personal correspondence, among other relevant materials. The records help us understand the motives and mind-set of the early school choice movement.
In this brief, we examine an important but obscure form of state spending on K–12 education—state... more In this brief, we examine an important but obscure form of state spending on K–12 education—state subsidies of school district pension costs. In 2018, this exceeded $19 billion across 23 states. To put that amount into perspective, 2018 federal spending on Title I programs was $15.8 billion. This revenue stream is often ignored in analyses of state aid for K–12 and its distribution across districts. Until recently, accounting standards did not require pension plans to report these implicit subsidies to the school districts, so they did not typically know the size of their subsidy. In some important cases, it was missing from state totals for education aid. In the first comprehensive tabulation of these data, we show that this subsidy can be as much as $2,400 per pupil, as it is in Connecticut. In Illinois, it comprises an additional 56% of state spending on K–12 on top of all formula and categorical aid.
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Papers by James Shuls
the school choice movement. While Friedman deserves much
credit, Father Virgil Blum stands out as an influential figure in
the nascent school choice movement. Using archival research,
this paper examines Blum’s contributions to the movement. From
his 1954 doctoral dissertation, which made the legal case for
funding religious schools, to his 1958 book, Freedom of Choice
in Education, and his decades-long career as a professor, Blum
was a tireless advocate for educational freedom. While Friedman
made the market argument, Blum made the legal, moral, and
religious freedom arguments for school choice.
the school choice movement. While Friedman deserves much
credit, Father Virgil Blum stands out as an influential figure in
the nascent school choice movement. Using archival research,
this paper examines Blum’s contributions to the movement. From
his 1954 doctoral dissertation, which made the legal case for
funding religious schools, to his 1958 book, Freedom of Choice
in Education, and his decades-long career as a professor, Blum
was a tireless advocate for educational freedom. While Friedman
made the market argument, Blum made the legal, moral, and
religious freedom arguments for school choice.