Background/Context: Although academic departments have more tools to advance faculty diversity than ever before, many still downplay their own responsibility throughout the hiring process. This results in a cycle of apathy that activates once searches are already under way, and structural change is out of reach. Yet few studies empirically outline…

Background/Context: Education scholars have recommended steps for college and university leaders to take toward creating a more racially diverse professoriate. However, the majority of the scholarship is neither empirical nor focused on faculty actively negotiating barriers during search committee meetings to create equitable practices.…

Background/Context: Charter schools are commonly discussed as being more effective at matching student and family interests with school mission, ensuring family choice of educational products and improving education quality and the efficiency of resource use as a result of the competitive dynamics they are assumed to generate between themselves…

Background/Context: The stakes are getting higher for teachers daily as more and more states adopt hiring, firing, and tenure-granting policies based on teacher evaluations. Even more concerning is the limited discussion about whether or not high-stakes teacher evaluation can meet the intended outcome of improved student achievement, and at what…

Background/Context: Although substantial evidence from the United States indicates that more qualified teachers are disproportionately concentrated among academically and economically advantaged children, little cross-national research has examined the distribution of teacher qualifications across schools and students. As a result, we know little…

Background: Case studies suggest that late hiring timelines are common in large urban school districts and result in the loss of qualified teachers to surrounding suburbs. To date, however, there has been no large-scale quantitative investigation of the relationship between the timing of teacher hires and teacher qualifications. Purpose: This…

Purpose: School superintendents are charged with maintaining the safety and security of the schools in their district. One major recognized threat to the security and safety of students and staff is the use of illegal drugs. Superintendents are responding to the constitutionality of student drug-testing policies by implementing drug-testing…

Background/Context: There is an extensive body of research on school and student characteristics associated with teacher career decisions that has contributed greatly to our knowledge of teacher preferences. Yet this research also has a number of limitations, including a lack of attention to the sociocultural influences on teacher careers and the…

This article describes the history of the failed New York City Teacher Selection Project (TSP; 1947-1953), a collaborative effort to replace the city's teacher licensing tests, which emphasized subject matter knowledge with personality tests. The TSP was a partnership between the Board of Examiners and the Citizens Committee for Children, and its…

Recent research indicates that large numbers of U.S. classrooms are staffed with unqualified teachers. This is not due to teacher shortages, but rather to shortages of qualified teachers for specific positions. Hiring practices result in out-of-field teaching. The research indicates that qualified teacher shortages stem from teachers leaving or…

Discusses (1) characteristics distinguishing independent schools from public and other private schools (self-governance, self-support, self-defined curriculum, self-selected students and faculty, and small size); (2) self-imposed and environmental challenges confronting independent schools (demographic change, commitment to diversity, and public…