After decades of growth, the number of special education teachers (SETs) has begun to decline. In 2009, U.S. schools employed 13% fewer SETs than in 2006. The number of annual new hires of SETs also dropped dramatically in some states. The onset of these declines predated the economic downturn of 2008 and resulted in part from a steady decline…

Charter schools have been in existence for 20 years in the USA and their effectiveness has been heatedly debated. Despite a growing literature on charter school administration, research on charter school teachers in comparison with their counterparts at traditional public schools is scarce. Using secondary data from the 1999-2000 Schools and…

A shortage of teachers to staff primary and secondary schools is a common occurrence internationally. The fact of, or potential for, teacher shortages is a major consideration in any nation's aspirations of attaining, or maintaining, an educational system of high quality. To study and understand the nature of teacher shortages, it is first…

The Teacher Followup Survey of 4,798 public school teachers found higher annual turnover for special education teachers than for general education teachers, in both attrition from public school teaching and transfer among public schools. General and special education teachers who left did not differ significantly in postteaching activities or…

The Teacher Followup Survey of 4,798 public school teachers found that teacher turnover decreased as the following variables increased: age, the number of dependent children, the level of certification, the number of years since the last degree was earned, teaching experience, and salary level. Strategies to maximize teacher retention are…

This paper presents 1989 National Center for Education Statistics data on public school special education and general education teacher retention, transfer, and attrition. The study examined teachers in 1987-1988 who, in the next year, either remained as teachers in the same school, transferred to a different public school, or left public school…

This research analyzed the yield of degree graduates from teacher preparation programs for the national teaching force in public schools. Estimates were obtained for the percentage of such graduates who: (1) entered public school teaching soon after graduation; (2) delayed entering public school teaching for one or more years after graduation; and…