Bellwether scanned the country for ideas and resources that leaders can use to address staffing challenges in their schools. This curated set of tools is intended to support school leaders who have the autonomy to manage the talent life cycle in their school community and are looking for practical ideas to strengthen their ability to recruit,…

The study aimed to address rural school principals with unique challenges and responsibilities who have the critical task of attracting and retaining skilled teachers. These schools often face challenges in hiring and keeping quality teachers due to their remote locations, low salaries, and additional workloads. The research focused on identifying…

Facing the persistent challenge of educator turnover in U.S. public school systems, the Kansas Teacher Retention Initiative (KTRI) has been relaunched to delve into the current state of the Kansas educator experience. Building on insights from the inaugural 2021 KTRI study launched in the summer of 2021 in response to a growing teacher shortage,…

All over the United States, adult ESL programs enroll students who are undocumented immigrants, often unbeknownst to the instructors who teach them. During the COVID-19 crisis, adult ESL enrollments decreased overall, but most especially for the undocumented immigrants who were most disadvantaged during the crisis. In order for program…

Many states struggle with shortages of special education teachers (SET). To address the shortage problem in the long term, policymakers, preparation providers, and state and district administrators must ensure that any short-term strategies are combined with a comprehensive plan that includes long-term systemic strategies to strengthen the supply,…

Schools everywhere are facing teacher shortages due to a shrinking pool of applicants and a growing number of teachers leaving the profession. If schools are going to attract and retain highly qualified effective teachers, they will need to be more intentional in designing systems that support a healthy workforce. Positive Behavioral Interventions…

Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. students attend rural schools. Researchers report that at least half of public schools are rural in 12 states (i.e., Montana, South Dakota, Vermont, North Dakota, Maine, Alaska, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Wyoming, New Hampshire, Iowa, and Mississippi) (Showalter et al., 2019). Providing quality education to all rural students is a…

The COVID-19 pandemic and related school closures led to unprecedented academic setbacks for all American students. In this third State of the American Student report, attention is turned to how the pandemic impacted--and continues to impact--special or unique populations of students, such as those with learning differences, English language…

The school reopening debate has reached an inflection point as districts weigh both the safety and learning implications of returning to in-person education this fall. Challenges with transitioning to distance learning during the spring made it clear that teachers, parents and students needed more and different resources to make supportive,…

Research shows that teachers of color can benefit all students, particularly students of color, yet only one in five teachers are individuals of color, compared to more than half of K-12 public school students. Increasing the diversity of educators can not only benefit students, but recruiting, preparing, and retaining more teachers of color who…

Amargosa Valley School in Nevada could be considered representative of almost any preK-8 school that serves a large proportion of socioeconomically disadvantaged students and is focused on turning around persistently low achievement. Like other schools supported by federal School Improvement Grants, Amargosa is beginning to implement a reform plan…

The experiences that beginning special education teachers encounter moving from the pre-service environment into the first year of classroom teaching put them in a uniquely tenuous position that could lead to leaving the classroom after only a few years of teaching. District- and school-level administrators can influence the retention rates of…

Project TRREE (Teacher Recruitment and Retention for Educational Excellence) is a federally funded project conducted by the Kentucky Department of Education. The purpose of the project is to develop a systemic approach to increase the number of highly qualified special education teachers with a focus on recruitment of linguistically, culturally…

Administrators in six urban districts were interviewed to understand the nature and extent of their problems with recruiting and retaining high quality mathematics teachers. Findings suggest that the math staffing challenge is quite complex, and administrators have had to make difficult compromises because of deficiencies in the quantity and…

Teacher shortages are essentially a problem of distribution (Darling-Hammond, 2001; Ingersoll, 2001; National Association of State Boards of Education, 1998; Olson, 2000; Reeves, 2003; Voke, 2002). According to recent studies, hardest to find are teachers who are both qualified and willing to teach in hard-to-staff schools, which included those in…