Do Teacher-Coaches Make the Cut? The Effectiveness of Athletic Coaches as Math and Reading Teachers

Abstract

Math and reading teachers who also coach athletics in the public school system are challenged to balance the responsibilities that come with fulfilling dual occupational roles. While many studies have examined teacher-coaches' stress levels and job perception in the context of role strain, there is no evidence of how student achievement in tested subjects is affected by assignment to these teacher-coaches. A large administrative panel data set provided by the Florida Department of Education allows us to match students to teachers and use a student fixed effects approach to track changes in math and reading test scores over a seven-year time period, from 2002 through 2009. Despite the challenges associated with holding dual occupational roles, we find that students assigned to teacher-coaches perform at the same level epaa aape

The social studies teacher-coach: A quantitative analysis comparing coaches and non-coaches across how/what they teach

“…Social studies teachers frequently coach and "are often perceived to be ineffectual teachers" (Conner & Bohan, 2018, p. 55; see also Brown, 2012b;Egalite et al, 2015;Rodgers, 2013). With the exception of PE/Health, social studies is the subject taught most often by coaches in the United States (Burden, Burdette, Zwald, Czech, & Buckley, 2010;Hansen & Quintero, 2017).…”

“…Additional scholarship has failed to show a decrease in academic performance among teacher-coach's students. For example, Egalite, Bowen, and Trivitt (2015) found no significant difference in math and reading student achievement test scores when a student was assigned to a teacher-coach versus a non-coaching teacher. Yet, the stigma of incompetent teacher-coaches remains, as shown by high school dropouts who cited, among other reasons, their lack of success in math to “being taught math by athletic coaches or by teachers whom they considered not ‘smart’” (Viadero, 2005, para.…”

Coaching to Teach: Preservice Social Studies Teachers’ Experiences with a Hiring Contingency

“…In an empirical study, Bowen and Greene (2012) found that a schools' commitment to athletics was positively correlated to students' academic success. Moreover, Egalite, Bowen, and Trivitt (2015) found that math and reading achievement scores between students who had a teacher-coach and a non-coach were not statistically different.…”