For decades, states across the U.S. have dealt with the issue of recruiting and retaining teachers, and this problem appears to be worsening nationwide (Sutcher, Darling-Hammond, & Carver- Thomas, 2016). Between the 2008-2009 and the 2013-2014 school years, enrollment in college teacher preparation programs decreased by approximately 250,000…

Amid heightened concerns of teacher shortages, we document the role of principals in shaping teachers' labor market decisions. Using teacher transfer applications from a large urban school district, we find that teachers are most likely to seek transfer away from schools with less-experienced principals and weaker leadership. The qualities of…

To address the national teacher shortage, the federal government has permitted alternative route preparation programs in an attempt to increase the supply of licensed teachers. Alternative route (AR) programs vary by state, but generally aim to train teacher candidates who do not have a traditional education preparation background to fulfill…

This report is the first in a series of annual reports the Michigan legislature mandated in December 2020. The purpose of this report is to summarize available state administrative data to begin to quantify the teacher shortage, provide a baseline from which future comprehensive data analysis can begin, and most critically, to provide…

Trends across the United States, Florida and Duval County Public Schools (DCPS) indicate that over the last decade, not only are teachers leaving the profession much sooner than in previous years, but there were also fewer teachers entering the profession. The Duval Schools teacher retention rate for the district is approximately 84%. However,…

Many districts and states have begun implementing incentives to attract high-performing teachers to low-performing schools. Previous research has found that these incentives are effective. However, effects on the schools and students these teachers leave behind has not been examined. This study focuses on the general equilibrium effects of…

This report includes two studies that describe the local context for teacher employment decisions. The first examines the local labor market, and the second examines employment for teachers who left Austin Independent School District (AISD). A separate executive summary and a technical report also were published. [For the executive summary, see…

The purpose of this study was to clarify the ways that a district used its teacher staffing and professional development policies to increase the supply of effective teachers in high-poverty schools, to determine the efficacy of these policies in the view of district administrators and teachers, and to identify the facilitators and constraints to…

One way to improve struggling schools' access to effective teachers is to use selective transfer incentives. Such incentives offer bonuses for the highest-performing teachers to move into schools serving the most disadvantaged students. In this report, we provide evidence from a randomized experiment that tested whether such a policy intervention…

One way to improve struggling schools' access to effective teachers is to use selective transfer incentives. Such incentives offer bonuses for the highest-performing teachers to move into schools serving the most disadvantaged students. In this report, we provide evidence from a randomized experiment that tested whether such a policy intervention…

Of the school-level factors that have an impact on student learning, one of the most powerful appears to be the effectiveness of the individual teacher. The most effective teachers are, therefore, one of the most important tools schools and systems have at their disposal to lift the achievement of socio-economically disadvantaged students and…

Staffing each classroom with an effective teacher is the most important function of a school district. Doing so requires strategic personnel policies and smart practices. This analysis reviews the Seattle Public Schools' teacher policies linked most directly to teacher effectiveness. Ten policy goals frame the analysis. Each of these goals is…

Staffing each classroom with an effective teacher is the most important function of a school district. Doing so requires strategic personnel policies and smart practices. The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), working with its local partner, the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, undertook an analysis of the Boston Public…

Connecticut has the largest achievement gap in the country, an unacceptable disparity in achievement of children who are poor and/or minority with children who are middle class and/or white. Hartford, its capital city, is the site of some of the state's most concentrated poverty and racial isolation. All but a small percentage of the district's…

In the winter of 2006-2007, The New Teacher Project (TNTP) engaged in an extensive review of teacher staffing policies and practices in Chicago Public Schools (CPS). TNTP investigated the impact of CPS staffing rules through several avenues: (1) Review of CPS Teachers contract; (2) Analysis of Human Resources transaction data; (3) Surveys of…