It has been asserted that the test-based accountability of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) increased instruction in tested subject areas reading and math, leading to reductions in arts education. We tested this using two waves of data, before and after NCLB implementation, in a difference-in-differences design. The analyses indicated that the total…

Purpose: The objective of this study is to provide an overall national portrait of elementary and secondary teacher shortages and teacher turnover in rural schools, comparing rural schools to suburban and urban schools. This study utilizes an organizational theoretical perspective focusing on the role of school organization and leadership in the…

Using repeated cross-sectional nationally representative data, we demonstrate how the teacher labor markets for rural contexts are different from those in urban-suburban areas. We also show that teacher attrition is not uniform across various rural settings. In particular, novice teachers in rural schools in sparsely populated states are more…

This paper reviews the sources of and potential solutions to teacher shortages in the United States. It describes the sources of current and projected increases in teacher demand relative to enrollments, shifts in pupil-teacher ratios, and attrition. It places these in relation to recent declines in teacher supply and evaluates evidence of…

In this commentary, we revisit "NCLB and the Demand for Highly Qualified Teachers: Challenges and Solutions for Rural Schools," an article we published in this journal in 2005. We consider the predictions we made then about the impact of the Highly Qualified Teacher mandate on special education teacher (SET) shortages in rural states and…

In recent years, states have sought to increase accountability for public school teachers by implementing a package of reforms centered on high-stakes evaluation systems. We examine the effect of these reforms on the supply and quality of new teachers. Leveraging variation across states and time, we find that accountability reforms reduced the…

In recent years, states have sought to increase accountability for public school teachers by implementing a package of reforms centered on high-stakes evaluation systems. We examine the effect of these reforms on the supply and quality of new teachers. Leveraging variation across states and time, we find that accountability reforms reduced the…

This report uses data drawn from the 2011-12 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS:12), administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in the U.S. Department of Education, to present an in-depth look at the career and technical education (CTE) teaching profession today. The purpose of this report is to provide policymakers and…

To inform the "Leandro v. State of North Carolina" Action Plan, the Learning Policy Institute examined the within-school and out-of-school barriers to obtaining a sound basic education facing students who attend North Carolina's high-poverty schools. High-poverty schools are schools where 75% or more students are at risk because their…

The Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) is a system of related questionnaires that provide descriptive data on the context of elementary and secondary education and policymakers a variety of statistics on the condition of education in the United States. The SASS system covers a wide range of topics from teacher demand, teacher and principal…

School districts and educational leaders as well as administrators across the nation believe they are facing teacher shortages. There is a widely-held belief that they are facing a critical shortage of teachers, primarily due to recent increases in teacher retirements and student enrollments. However, others believe that this is a superficial…

This study seeks to empirically ground the debate over mathematics and science teacher shortages and evaluate the extent to which there is, or is not, sufficient supply of teachers in these fields. The authors' analyses of nationally representative data from multiple sources show that math and science are the fields most difficult to staff, but…

Attempted to estimate the size and nature of the teacher shortage of the late 1990s by using data from the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). Examination shows that the shortage was distributed unevenly, with urban schools and those in high-poverty areas bearing the brunt. (SLD)

This report presents estimates of four types of newly hired teachers: newly prepared teachers, delayed entrants, transfers, and reentrants. It describes their demographic characteristics, teaching qualifications, career paths, and former occupations from the 1987-1988, 1990-1991, and 1993-1994 Schools and Staffing Surveys. Between 1987-1988 and…

Presents national estimates from the Schools and Sampling Survey of the numbers and proportions of four types of newly hired teachers in both public and private schools. Examines each group's basic demographic characteristics, teaching qualifications, career paths, and former occupations. (Author/SLD)