Lesley Lavery
Biographic Data
| ID | 278380 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lesley Lavery |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lesley |
| FAMILY NAME | Lavery |
| SIGNATURE | LAVERY L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Macalester College |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5851-1653 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 95 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Overworked & underappreciated: How uncertainty, long hours, & partisan politics undermined teachers’ morale throughout the Covid-19 pandemic
Reckoning With the “Other” Pandemic: How Teachers’ Unions Responded to Calls for Racial Justice Amidst Covid-19
After George Floyd was murdered by police, teachers, alongside the leaders of their unions and professional associations, confronted urgent calls to address racism in their communities, schools, and classrooms, just as they were concluding an academic year rendered chaotic by COVID-19. This article leverages four waves of semistructured interviews with teachers’ union and association leaders embedded in 14 states and 45 school districts to invest…
Why Charter Teachers Unionize
In this paper, we draw upon in-depth interviews with teachers and administrators in 18 unionized charter schools around the country to investigate teachers’ motivations for unionization. Our results suggest that while mismanagement and distrust are often the proximate cause of charter unionization efforts, both material and purposive goals—greater job security and pay as well as increased voice in school decision-making—power organization drives …
Should I Stay or Should I Go? Open Enrollment Decisions and Student Achievement Trajectories
Objective Analyze achievement trajectories of students who transfer out of their district of residence via Colorado's interdistrict open enrollment policy. Methods Drawing on a data set containing annual individual‐level records from the universe of students attending Colorado public schools between 2005–2006 and 2009–2010, we estimate the achievement trajectories of open enrollment participants via ordinary least squares (OLS) models containing …
Lessons learned: How Parents Respond to School Mandates and Sanctions
Over the past three decades, a reform movement bent on improving schools and educational outcomes through standards-based accountability systems and market-like competitive pressures has dominated policy debates. Many have examined reform policies’ effects on academic outcomes, but few have explored these policies’ influence on citizens’ political orientations. In this study, using data from an original survey, I examine whether and how No Child …
Inconvenient Truth? Do Collective Bargaining Agreements Help Explain the Mobility of Teachers within School Districts
We utilize detailed teacher‐level longitudinal data from Washington State to investigate patterns of teacher mobility in districts with different collective bargaining agreement (CBA) transfer provisions. Specifically, we estimate the log odds that teachers of varying experience and effectiveness levels transfer out of their schools to other schools in the district in Washington kindergarten through 12th grade (K‐12) public schools. We find littl…
What parents still do not know about No Child Left Behind and why it matters
Utilizing data from an original survey of public school parents, I examine the depth and distribution of parents’ knowledge of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). A close exploration of parents’ NCLB knowledge, policy-based experiences, and policy evaluations suggests that a superficial policy understanding may contribute to low uptake of policy-related opportunities and the lack of organized political response to perceived policy pitfalls. Though sever…
Measuring Social Capital: Accounting for Nested Data and Subnetworks Within Schools
Uneven Playing Field? Assessing the Teacher Quality Gap Between Advantaged and Disadvantaged Students
Policymakers aiming to close the well-documented achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students have increasingly turned their attention to issues of teacher quality. A number of studies have demonstrated that teachers are inequitably distributed across student subgroups by input measures, like experience and qualifications, as well as output measures, like value-added estimates of teacher performance, but these tend to focus on ei…
The Evolving Politics of the Common Core: Policy Implementation and Conflict Expansion
The Common Core State Standards Initiative was adopted by forty-five states and heralded by supporters from both sides of the political aisle. Four years later, several states have rescinded their support and dozens more have introduced legislation to reconsider or limit participation. While standard explanations for opposition have focused on Republican state legislators and conservative ideological groups and emphasized concerns about a perceiv…
Parents as Participants: Policy Design to Inform and Empower
I present the results of an original survey experiment designed to understand the complex relationship between policy information, attitudes, and evaluation. Parents of children attending schools identified for improvement under the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) are exposed to basic, context-specific, policy information on a randomized basis and then asked to complete an attitudinal survey. Treatment parents are significantly more likel…
My End of the Bargain: Are There Cross-District Effects in Teacher Contract Provisions
A large literature on teacher collective bargaining describes the potential influence of the provisions in collectively bargained teacher union contracts on teachers and student achievement, but little is known about what influences the provisions that end up in these contracts. Using a unique data set made up of every active teacher collective bargaining agreement in Washington State, the authors estimate spatial lag models to explore the relati…
Gender Bias in the Media? An Examination of Local Television News Coverage of Male and Female House Candidates
Several decades of scholarship suggest that by covering male and female candidates differently, the news media may influence the success of female candidates for higher office. I employ a content analysis to assess gender differences in the local television news coverage of 172 U . S . House candidates in the nation's top 50 media markets in 2002. The results of the study suggest that female candidates for the U . S . House were covered with the …
Teacher Collective Bargaining: Assessing the Internal Validity of Partial Independence Item Response Measures of Contract Restrictiveness
In 2010, Strunk and Reardon introduced a potentially transformative method for analyzing teacher collective bargaining agreements (CBAs). We extend Strunk and Reardon's work by assessing whether the Partial Independence Item Response (PIIR) approach can be applied to subsets of provisions from CBAs, data that may be more feasible for researchers to collect. Utilizing a new data set derived from all provisions in all active CBAs in Washington stat…
Implementing Federal Policy: Confronting State Capacity and Will
This article identifies two key constructs likely to influence implementation of federal policy. It theorizes that states' institutional capacity and political will may constrain or facilitate application of national initiatives, and offers a way to reorganize implementation analyses. The argument is applied in the education policy arena using several years of data to examine how resources and political will influence state test rigor under N o C…
Uneven Playing Field? Assessing the Teacher Quality Gap Between Advantaged and Disadvantaged Students
Policymakers aiming to close the well-documented achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students have increasingly turned their attention to issues of teacher quality. A number of studies have demonstrated that teachers are inequitably distributed across student subgroups by input measures, like experience and qualifications, as well as output measures, like value-added estimates of teacher performance, but these tend to focus on ei…
The Evolving Politics of the Common Core: Policy Implementation and Conflict Expansion
The Common Core State Standards Initiative was adopted by forty-five states and heralded by supporters from both sides of the political aisle. Four years later, several states have rescinded their support and dozens more have introduced legislation to reconsider or limit participation. While standard explanations for opposition have focused on Republican state legislators and conservative ideological groups and emphasized concerns about a perceiv…
Inconvenient Truth? Do Collective Bargaining Agreements Help Explain the Mobility of Teachers within School Districts
We utilize detailed teacher‐level longitudinal data from Washington State to investigate patterns of teacher mobility in districts with different collective bargaining agreement (CBA) transfer provisions. Specifically, we estimate the log odds that teachers of varying experience and effectiveness levels transfer out of their schools to other schools in the district in Washington kindergarten through 12th grade (K‐12) public schools. We find littl…
Gender Bias in the Media? An Examination of Local Television News Coverage of Male and Female House Candidates
Several decades of scholarship suggest that by covering male and female candidates differently, the news media may influence the success of female candidates for higher office. I employ a content analysis to assess gender differences in the local television news coverage of 172 U . S . House candidates in the nation's top 50 media markets in 2002. The results of the study suggest that female candidates for the U . S . House were covered with the …
Teacher Collective Bargaining: Assessing the Internal Validity of Partial Independence Item Response Measures of Contract Restrictiveness
In 2010, Strunk and Reardon introduced a potentially transformative method for analyzing teacher collective bargaining agreements (CBAs). We extend Strunk and Reardon's work by assessing whether the Partial Independence Item Response (PIIR) approach can be applied to subsets of provisions from CBAs, data that may be more feasible for researchers to collect. Utilizing a new data set derived from all provisions in all active CBAs in Washington stat…
What parents still do not know about No Child Left Behind and why it matters
Utilizing data from an original survey of public school parents, I examine the depth and distribution of parents’ knowledge of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). A close exploration of parents’ NCLB knowledge, policy-based experiences, and policy evaluations suggests that a superficial policy understanding may contribute to low uptake of policy-related opportunities and the lack of organized political response to perceived policy pitfalls. Though sever…
Parents as Participants: Policy Design to Inform and Empower
I present the results of an original survey experiment designed to understand the complex relationship between policy information, attitudes, and evaluation. Parents of children attending schools identified for improvement under the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) are exposed to basic, context-specific, policy information on a randomized basis and then asked to complete an attitudinal survey. Treatment parents are significantly more likel…
My End of the Bargain: Are There Cross-District Effects in Teacher Contract Provisions
A large literature on teacher collective bargaining describes the potential influence of the provisions in collectively bargained teacher union contracts on teachers and student achievement, but little is known about what influences the provisions that end up in these contracts. Using a unique data set made up of every active teacher collective bargaining agreement in Washington State, the authors estimate spatial lag models to explore the relati…
Lessons learned: How Parents Respond to School Mandates and Sanctions
Over the past three decades, a reform movement bent on improving schools and educational outcomes through standards-based accountability systems and market-like competitive pressures has dominated policy debates. Many have examined reform policies’ effects on academic outcomes, but few have explored these policies’ influence on citizens’ political orientations. In this study, using data from an original survey, I examine whether and how No Child …
Measuring Social Capital: Accounting for Nested Data and Subnetworks Within Schools
Implementing Federal Policy: Confronting State Capacity and Will
This article identifies two key constructs likely to influence implementation of federal policy. It theorizes that states' institutional capacity and political will may constrain or facilitate application of national initiatives, and offers a way to reorganize implementation analyses. The argument is applied in the education policy arena using several years of data to examine how resources and political will influence state test rigor under N o C…
Implementing Federal Policy: Confronting State Capacity and Will
This article identifies two key constructs likely to influence implementation of federal policy. It theorizes that states' institutional capacity and political will may constrain or facilitate application of national initiatives, and offers a way to reorganize implementation analyses. The argument is applied in the education policy arena using several years of data to examine how resources and political will influence state test rigor under N o C…
Gender Bias in the Media? An Examination of Local Television News Coverage of Male and Female House Candidates
Several decades of scholarship suggest that by covering male and female candidates differently, the news media may influence the success of female candidates for higher office. I employ a content analysis to assess gender differences in the local television news coverage of 172 U . S . House candidates in the nation's top 50 media markets in 2002. The results of the study suggest that female candidates for the U . S . House were covered with the …
Teacher Collective Bargaining: Assessing the Internal Validity of Partial Independence Item Response Measures of Contract Restrictiveness
In 2010, Strunk and Reardon introduced a potentially transformative method for analyzing teacher collective bargaining agreements (CBAs). We extend Strunk and Reardon's work by assessing whether the Partial Independence Item Response (PIIR) approach can be applied to subsets of provisions from CBAs, data that may be more feasible for researchers to collect. Utilizing a new data set derived from all provisions in all active CBAs in Washington stat…
Parents as Participants: Policy Design to Inform and Empower
I present the results of an original survey experiment designed to understand the complex relationship between policy information, attitudes, and evaluation. Parents of children attending schools identified for improvement under the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) are exposed to basic, context-specific, policy information on a randomized basis and then asked to complete an attitudinal survey. Treatment parents are significantly more likel…
My End of the Bargain: Are There Cross-District Effects in Teacher Contract Provisions
A large literature on teacher collective bargaining describes the potential influence of the provisions in collectively bargained teacher union contracts on teachers and student achievement, but little is known about what influences the provisions that end up in these contracts. Using a unique data set made up of every active teacher collective bargaining agreement in Washington State, the authors estimate spatial lag models to explore the relati…
Uneven Playing Field? Assessing the Teacher Quality Gap Between Advantaged and Disadvantaged Students
Policymakers aiming to close the well-documented achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students have increasingly turned their attention to issues of teacher quality. A number of studies have demonstrated that teachers are inequitably distributed across student subgroups by input measures, like experience and qualifications, as well as output measures, like value-added estimates of teacher performance, but these tend to focus on ei…
The Evolving Politics of the Common Core: Policy Implementation and Conflict Expansion
The Common Core State Standards Initiative was adopted by forty-five states and heralded by supporters from both sides of the political aisle. Four years later, several states have rescinded their support and dozens more have introduced legislation to reconsider or limit participation. While standard explanations for opposition have focused on Republican state legislators and conservative ideological groups and emphasized concerns about a perceiv…
Inconvenient Truth? Do Collective Bargaining Agreements Help Explain the Mobility of Teachers within School Districts
We utilize detailed teacher‐level longitudinal data from Washington State to investigate patterns of teacher mobility in districts with different collective bargaining agreement (CBA) transfer provisions. Specifically, we estimate the log odds that teachers of varying experience and effectiveness levels transfer out of their schools to other schools in the district in Washington kindergarten through 12th grade (K‐12) public schools. We find littl…
What parents still do not know about No Child Left Behind and why it matters
Utilizing data from an original survey of public school parents, I examine the depth and distribution of parents’ knowledge of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). A close exploration of parents’ NCLB knowledge, policy-based experiences, and policy evaluations suggests that a superficial policy understanding may contribute to low uptake of policy-related opportunities and the lack of organized political response to perceived policy pitfalls. Though sever…
Measuring Social Capital: Accounting for Nested Data and Subnetworks Within Schools
Lessons learned: How Parents Respond to School Mandates and Sanctions
Over the past three decades, a reform movement bent on improving schools and educational outcomes through standards-based accountability systems and market-like competitive pressures has dominated policy debates. Many have examined reform policies’ effects on academic outcomes, but few have explored these policies’ influence on citizens’ political orientations. In this study, using data from an original survey, I examine whether and how No Child …
Should I Stay or Should I Go? Open Enrollment Decisions and Student Achievement Trajectories
Objective Analyze achievement trajectories of students who transfer out of their district of residence via Colorado's interdistrict open enrollment policy. Methods Drawing on a data set containing annual individual‐level records from the universe of students attending Colorado public schools between 2005–2006 and 2009–2010, we estimate the achievement trajectories of open enrollment participants via ordinary least squares (OLS) models containing …
Why Charter Teachers Unionize
In this paper, we draw upon in-depth interviews with teachers and administrators in 18 unionized charter schools around the country to investigate teachers’ motivations for unionization. Our results suggest that while mismanagement and distrust are often the proximate cause of charter unionization efforts, both material and purposive goals—greater job security and pay as well as increased voice in school decision-making—power organization drives …
Overworked & underappreciated: How uncertainty, long hours, & partisan politics undermined teachers’ morale throughout the Covid-19 pandemic
Reckoning With the “Other” Pandemic: How Teachers’ Unions Responded to Calls for Racial Justice Amidst Covid-19
After George Floyd was murdered by police, teachers, alongside the leaders of their unions and professional associations, confronted urgent calls to address racism in their communities, schools, and classrooms, just as they were concluding an academic year rendered chaotic by COVID-19. This article leverages four waves of semistructured interviews with teachers’ union and association leaders embedded in 14 states and 45 school districts to invest…
Political science (13 works) · Law (9 works) · School Choice and Performance (9 works) · Economics (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Politics (7 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Parental Involvement in Education (6 works) · Public Administration (6 works)